Tourists and locals, you and I alike were in for a delightful surprise when we all awoke today to find noted Russian performance artist Pyotr Pavlensky had driven a nail through his scrotum and into the glistening cobblestones of the Red Square near Lenin’s Mausoleum in Moscow.
“A naked artist, looking at his balls nailed to the Kremlin pavement, is a metaphor for the apathy, political indifference, and fatalism of contemporary Russian society,” Pavlensky wrote in a statement explaining the elaborate metaphor, which you can find here if you’re well-versed in Russian. According to the Moscow Times, the naval-gazing act coincided with the Day of the Ministry of Internal Affairs – a Police Day national holiday.
Policemen patrolling the Red Square responded promptly by covering Pavlensky with a blanket before taking him into custody. He was then hospitalized after being removed from the pavement and is expected to undergo further questioning. Here’s video of the performance, should you want to start your day in a most enlivening way.
