Pussy Riot’s Venice protest becomes the opening move of its first full-length album
A protest staged at the 61st Venice Biennale has been repurposed as the music video for “DISOBEY,” the lead single from Pussy Riot’s debut album, CYKA, which is set to stream on June 12. The collective, long known for collapsing the line between performance art and political action, is using the new release to extend that strategy into a more conventional music format without softening its edge.
The video draws on footage from the group’s action in Venice, where Pussy Riot once again treated public space as both stage and battleground. That approach has defined the project since its earliest interventions in Moscow, including the 2012 performances “Putin Wet Himself” in Red Square and “Virgin Mary, Drive Putin Away” at Moscow’s oldest Orthodox cathedral, the latter still the group’s most notorious act.
Nadya Tolokonnikova, the artist and activist who spearheaded Pussy Riot in 2011, said the album has been a long time coming. She described the group’s first attempt at a full-length record, KILL THE SEXIST (2011–12), as unfinished after several members, including herself, were jailed for two years. After that, she said, the project lost momentum. Tolokonnikova also recalled nearly releasing an album in 2016 before backing away from what she saw as a move toward the mainstream.
CYKA began taking shape after Tolokonnikova completed “Police State,” her durational performance at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles last summer. She said she returned to music almost immediately, driven by the same restless work ethic that has long fueled her art practice. In her telling, the record’s roughness is part of its force: competing with artificial intelligence, she said, made her realize that imperfection can be an advantage.
The album was written, produced, and recorded in a small home studio beside her daughter’s bedroom before Gold Glove helped finalize the tracks. Its guest list includes B Real, Avenged Sevenfold, and Salem Ilese, while Vladimir Putin’s own remarks about Pussy Riot are sampled on the title track. Tolokonnikova has also said she is challenging Putin to fight her at UFC Freedom 250 at the White House, with Russia’s withdrawal from Ukraine as the condition if he loses.
Pussy Riot is scheduled to perform the new material on June 20 at a miniature music festival presented by Beyond the Streets in Paris, with additional dates to follow.
