The Voina art group, known for its daring actions against the police and security forces, left Russia in 2012. In Europe they were offered asylum, work, exhibitions. But after seven years of wandering and after dozens of quarrels with curators and human rights activists, forgotten by many, “War” ended up on a boat in Berlin without electricity and water. In January, its founder, Oleg Vorotnikov, disappeared. Who are they - modern holy fools or provocative artists?

January night, five minutes past twelve. Moscow celebrates the Old New Year. In Berlin, on a playground in the semi-darkness, 38-year-old Natalya Sokol, also known as Koza, pushes her daughters, six-year-old Mama and two-year-old Trinity, in a supermarket cart. They squeal quite a bit.

With her left foot she manages to hit the ball, which is sent to her from the corner of the field by her son, eight-year-old Kasper - her mother promised to play football with him this afternoon. Curly, high cheekbones, thin bones - only the belly is slightly noticeable under the down jacket: Falcon is pregnant with her fourth.

Standing next to her in a hat is her husband, the father of the family, the heavyset, stately Oleg Vorotnikov, the founder and leader of one of the most successful art groups of the 2000s. “We’re even pleased that you came. We are completely isolated here. We don’t communicate with anyone. Everyone is afraid of us, no one talks,” they say.

“War” are famous actionists from Russia, winners of the state award “Innovation”, in whose favor the British artist Banksy organized a sale of his works. By the time we met, they had already been wandering around Europe for six years and were leading, in the opinion of the majority, a reprehensible and unacceptable life. They did not ask for political asylum, did not register their three children, did not have a permanent place of residence, they stole food, and they despised Europeans. In the winter of 2018, their epic existence turned into a drama.

"Arranging your life like art"

A graduate of the Faculty of Philosophy of Moscow State University, Vorotnikov, and a teacher of the Faculty of Physics, candidate of physical and mathematical sciences, Sokol, created the art group “War” in 2005. In 2007, they were joined by activist Pyotr Verzilov and his wife Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, a future member of Pussy Riot. Voina had many promotions, all bright, extravagant and media successful.

They celebrated “Prigov’s Wake” - they set up tables with stolen delicacies in Moscow subway cars. In December 2007, at the largest literary fair, speaking out against the authoritarianism of Vladimir Putin, girls were lowered down a tarpaulin canopy with live, tranquilized sheep in their hands. Below, the rams stood up and looked around.

Before the election of Putin's successor, Dmitry Medvedev, "Voina" staged a politically motivated group sex in the Biological Museum under the banner "Fuck [intercourse] for the heir of Little Bear."

There was an action against the “Soviet official” called “Humiliation of a cop in his own home.” A few days before the presidential inauguration, Voina organized a tour of the darkest police stations near Moscow with cake, tea and a hidden camera. Activists entered the offices, lined up in a human pyramid and begged to hang a portrait of Medvedev on the wall.

They blocked the streets shouting “the cop is sucking the prosecutor”, at night they jumped over the fence of the White House, broke video cameras and ran around the adjacent territory, and at that time they projected a skull and crossbones onto the building itself with a projector from the roof of the Ukraine Hotel.

On City Day, two homosexuals and three migrant workers* were ritually “executed” in “Auchan” - as follows from the group’s explanations, “as a gift to Mayor Yuri Luzhkov.” Heroes were hanged from climbing belays.

In May 2010, one of the group members, Leonid Nikolaev, ran through a car with a blue bucket on his head. Federal service security with a flashing light. He was charged with hooliganism, for which he could have received 15 days of arrest. Nikolaev did not appear at the trial, and the case was closed.

Their former comrade-in-arms Pyotr Verzilov recalls that the Thief (this nickname stuck with Vorotnikov) proudly spoke about the way of life of “War”: “We are worse than the gypsies.” Activist Artem Chapaev, a Moscow friend with whom they lived for a long time, also calls them typical nomads.

They could steal delicacies according to the list compiled by the owners of the "entries", stocked the refrigerator, and themselves ate whatever they found. Porridge with leftover fish and vegetables, a mattress in the corner, overnight stays in the garage where the owner turned off the heating - these are things that are important for the image of "War". “To organize your life as an art, according to your own principles, but all these left-wing, right-wing, fascist, anti-fascist, opposition or pro-Putin ideas are not important at all,” Chapaev describes their approach.

Activists planned many protests against patriarchy - Tolokonnikova’s punk band Pussy Riot later became famous on this idea. For example, we thought about the projection of a huge vagina, which is mounted on the dome of a church. And Vorotnikov, according to friends, accumulated 700 liters of pig feces on a farm near Moscow and was toying with the idea of ​​renting a sewer truck to flood the Cathedral of Christ the Savior with it. They wanted to rent a sprinkler from the Mosfilm film studio.

This was one of Vorotnikov’s initiatives, which was sabotaged by Verzilov and Tolokonnikova. After several conflicts, the artists quarreled, and in the spring of 2010, Vorotnikov and his wife left to create in St. Petersburg. A month later, a 65-meter image of a male genital organ appeared on the Liteiny Bridge in St. Petersburg. At night, when the bridge was raised, the drawing rose in front of the FSB building.

Action "X**** in captivity of the FSB" on Liteiny Bridge, June 14, 2010, St. Petersburg

In September 2010, “War” staged a “Palace Coup” in St. Petersburg, overturning several police cars. For this action, Nikolaev and Vorotnikov were charged with hooliganism and sent to a pre-trial detention center, but in February 2011 they were released on bail. The thief calls the months behind bars one of the three main impressions in life. The other two are sex and snow, which began to fall in April when, after 36 hours of labor, their first child, Casper, was born.

"Everyone else is a dud"

Acquaintances describe the Thief as the leader of a cult he created himself, a charismatic, manipulator and demagogue. "He is for any movement that did not exist before. He doesn’t care with whom. His idols are Lenin and Limonov. All the rest are imperfections. In the artistic community, he considered himself cooler than everyone else, and he had reasons for this - he was the most brave, with the most striking actions,” recalls activist Artem Chapaev.

Vorotnikov more than once simply left the police after being detained, without waiting for interrogations and arrest: he behaved so confidently and simply that it never occurred to anyone to ask where he was going. “In conflicts, he himself does not run into a fight, he does not yell, but he can quietly say: “Don’t you f***** [calm down], please.” And you will immediately shut up,” friends say.

He himself is rarely silent. During our meetings, when Vor is not talking about himself, the history of art or children, he recites Brodsky, Akhmatova or Blok, then begins to sing Vysotsky, hits of the Mumiy Troll group, chanson, and the charter, switches to artistic whistling. The only person he listens to and who can pull him back is Koza, Chapaev believes: “Koza always had the role of a “scientist from Moscow State University,” the only reasonable person in this whole get-together. There were no arguments, all she had to do was whisper.”

Vorotnikov and Nikolaev emerged from the St. Petersburg pre-trial detention center on their own recognizance as stars. “We thought that after leaving prison, we would increase the number of supporters, but it turned out that everyone, on the contrary, fled, and even it became difficult to steal - you go into a mushnik (that’s the name of the store in Voina slang), and they recognize you there,” - says Vor.

Then “War” made a tactical mistake, he believes. Instead of making several “average quality actions, but with high media expectations,” they “locked themselves in some kind of monastery of the spirit and were preparing an incredibly complex thing.”

They spent the whole of 2011 organizing one campaign, gradually realizing that they couldn’t pull it off together. The pregnant Goat could no longer go with Vorotnikov and Nikolaev to rehearsals on the roof of one of the elite residential buildings in St. Petersburg. There are guards below, statues on the roof.

“I won’t tell you the details, the project can still be done. To prepare it, you had to climb high. Walk at a height through other people’s balconies, people could wake up in apartments,” says Vorotnikov. “And then walk for 2.5 hours along the roof itself, pulling with you 40-kilogram gas cylinders and a welding machine. We also filmed all this. It was just an approach. Having reached the point, we had to train or prepare the equipment. Night after night, three times a week, we did this," says Vorotnikov.

“One night we are walking on an icy roof. And then I see that one of the statues is smoking. They found our warehouse. I turn around and say: “Lenya, run.” Somehow we sped away. The point burned down,” he says. “Even and it was impossible to appear nearby. We spent the whole of 2011 on this, for an artist this is a huge pause. During this time, primitive actions and attempts at actions, actions-defeats began to be valued." This is what Vorotnikov calls the works of the artist Pyotr Pavlensky and the performances of Pussy Riot.

A month later, “War” burned a paddy wagon right in the yard of the police department. So they congratulated all political prisoners on the upcoming 2012. After the idea with the roof, it was a piece of cake, recalls Vor. The police opened a criminal case under the article of hooliganism, but no culprits were found.

"Do we exist?"

In 2012, the famous Polish action artist Artur Żmijewski invited Vorotnikov and Sokol to curate the Biennale of Contemporary Art in Berlin. “Voina” demanded that a contract be concluded for 11-month-old Kasper, and offered to consider illegal entry into the European Union with a baby in her arms as her contribution to the event - shortly before the trip, Koza gave birth to a daughter, Mama.

“We wanted it seriously: illegally crossing with documentation, and then posting these recordings at the Biennale with the words: “Here you go, they wanted to catch us, but that didn’t happen!” explains Vor. He doesn’t say exactly how they wanted to do it. But at the negotiations in Minsk, Zhmievsky was not satisfied with their proposal and, after consulting with lawyers, he refused to participate in the action.

As a result, after five months, “War” in a truncated composition (Leonid Nikolaev returned to Russia) came to Berlin on its own. They were able to cross the borders of the European Union with two children, being wanted in Russia, without passports or visas. According to Vorotnikov, certain Ukrainian “authorities”, fans of the work of “War,” helped them organize the “corridor.”

Having reached the Biennale, they proposed new actions to the organizers. Among them is the “Free Supermarket”: 20 activists go to the store every day of the exhibition, as if they were working, from 8:00 to 17:00 and steal expensive alcohol, caviar, and other “elite food”, and then lay it out in the pavilion, where Anyone can take it.

“Zhmievsky liked the idea at first. But again they decided to consult with lawyers. I then told them: “Why did you call us? Well, continue with your decorative antics." Zhmievsky said that he was a law-abiding citizen. We had a fight and left," says Vorotnikov. The Polish artist did not respond to the BBC's invitation to describe his version of events.

Poster for the exhibition "Wars" in Milan

They began to prepare the trip back. “But the “corridor” along which we were leaving was closed,” says Vor. “The delay was a tactical mistake. We did not use the departure as a new springboard, but hid our existence. As a result, we are now being asked the question of whether we exist.”

“In general, Vor was determined to transfer the actions of “War” to European soil, making them even more radical, to engage in direct action,” says their friend, artist and LGBT activist Maria Stern, an agender who calls herself Gray Violet and speaks of herself in the neuter gender "But I didn't find like-minded people there. European artists are fighting injustice by hanging a picture of a child from Africa in their brand new gallery."

“There is something Leninist in the annexation of Crimea”

From Germany, the family was invited to Austria. “Back then they made a big bet on us. They expected us to break down and talk shit about Russia,” says Koza. Human rights activists found them a two-story apartment in the center of Vienna. “We lived in an apartment like Vasilyeva’s (convicted in a high-profile case of financial fraud in the Russian Ministry of Defense - BBC). P**** [horror] is simple,” Vorotnikov laughs. “We didn’t know what to do.” with a five-room apartment with a jacuzzi, so we had a bicycle room and a dressing room - but not like Ksenia Sobchak, but just f***ing [all] piled up to the ceiling with f***ing [stolen] clothes."

“We are no more noisy than any family with three children,” Voina marvels in response to accusations from squat neighbors

In the spring of 2014 they were invited to Amsterdam to participate in the huge OpenBorder festival catholic church. In a letter to Vorotnikov and Sokol, the organizers said that this exhibition is about iron curtain, which is about to fall in Russia, an event criticizing the annexation of Crimea and the pressure on liberal media. The artists responded with a categorical refusal.

“The Voina group’s position in Crimea is fundamentally different, opposite position, - said Vorotnikov, an old national Bolshevik and a fan of Eduard Limonov, in a response letter. - We are happy that Crimea joined Russia, and we are happy for the Crimeans. I'm just so proud of the country for the first time in a long time. That's not all. For years I have been talking about the unprofessionalism of the liberal media - Lenta.ru and Dozhd in particular. And I finally welcomed their belated squeezing."

The festival organizers refused to comment to the BBC about their communication with Voina, calling them “very unpleasant people.”

Their neighbor and friend Chapaev recalls one of the “War” actions - an attempt to carry a chicken carcass from a store into the activist’s vagina. “It was made to cool the ardor of the liberal crowd, which was too fond of them. It’s a big fig in the face, they say, we have our own agenda, we don’t need to be included in your program. The same thing - Crimea,” says Chapaev. “Well, and the Thief, of course ", should have assessed the referendum. There is something Leninist for him in the annexation of Crimea, this is his motto: any movement is better than order."

Why “Crimea is ours”? - I ask Vorotnikov himself.

We woke up in Vienna. It was a sunny morning. I read in the news about the results of the referendum. I was in such a joyful mood. I started reading the reaction of liberals. And he imagined: I wake up and start moaning: “How? Has Crimea become Russian?” What? Well, fuck [nightmare]! I realized that I don't have such feelings. I liked it.

Announcement of the lecture "Wars" in Venice

On April 30, the organizers of the Dutch festival, according to Sokol, sent correspondence about Crimea to European art curators. When asked by the BBC to confirm or deny these words by Sokol, the festival organizers responded: “No comment.” The apartment in Vienna was asked to be vacated for renovation. A week later, the actionists were already traveling on the Vienna-Venice train.

"Everyone wants to steal"

Two years earlier, an exhibition entirely dedicated to “The War” was held in Venice, and a photograph of the Thief still hangs in the permanent exhibition in the Salt Warehouses. Their local supporters told the activists that there was a vacant apartment for them.

After giving a lecture, the artists settled in a squat - a nursing home in an old palazzo seized by anarchists. After a couple of months it became clear that life in a commune was not the best strong point art groups. The stumbling block, as in all subsequent cases, was the three pillars of the “War”: theft, liberty and children.

According to legend, the Thief began to steal when, as a student, he scattered a pack of rice, bought with his last money. Later this became the ideology of "War". For them, stealing from chain hypermarkets is a way of fighting capitalism, in which food prices are supposedly deliberately inflated, making food unaffordable for many. But in Europe such anarchist ideas are sharply condemned. Artists face threats for shoplifting prison sentences: from a week to eight years.

However, in the entire history of Voina, activists have never been convicted of theft. In St. Petersburg, in cases of failure, they fought with the guards; in Europe this did not happen. Stony faces, expensive clothes, a baby stroller, the hood of which is convenient for stuffing food into - it’s hard to suspect them.

Products stolen by "War". In the comments, Koza writes that she is tired of “stealing from such a crowd.” Berlin, 2018

On a winter evening in Berlin in 2018, in response to my questions, they enter an expensive wine boutique with the words “Come with us.” Thank you, I say, I’d rather stand here with the stroller. A minute later the parents return with a bottle of Italian red.

“The secret of the elusiveness of “War” is speed. 23 seconds for a dick on a bridge, nine seconds for a paddy wagon,” the Thief answers my surprised look. “The first two minutes the guard doesn’t notice you and you can do whatever you want. This works at protests too , and in mushniki." According to him, the family "takes out about 400 euros each time, and that's without wine."

The children want to ride a double-decker bus, and we drive along route number 100, looking to see if the controller will stop at any stop.

A typical "War" report about a trip to the store

“I don’t understand what everyone is so afraid of. And shares, and theft,” says Vorotnikov. “It’s all just being done, it’s not playing chess games. Everyone says that we are **** screwed up. But we steal every day, we physically cannot allow ourselves to be f***ed [going] - this business requires a cold mind, concentration, attentiveness. In fact, everyone wants to steal, but everyone is f***ed [afraid]."

They filled the freezer in the squat with kilogram packs of expensive Movenpick ice cream. The youngest, Trinity, is so used to seafood in Switzerland that now she eats dumplings like mussels: she tears the dough, puts it on an empty plate, and eats the filling. Kids can ride their skateboards into an Adidas store, put on trendy hats and leave without breaking the price tags.

Products and toys from another eco-market

“Voina” lays out everything stolen, takes photographs and posts it on Facebook and Instagram with detailed description, what region the apples are from, how much sheep cheese costs, and what the mysterious berries are in that box. Some people read carefully to the end, others are breathless with indignation, but few remain indifferent.

“This is modern art,” says artist Alexey Knedlyakovsky. “The inaccessibility of most of these eco-products is played on. And there is a free person who frees them from the cost. And they put them right on the asphalt, children jump around, take straightforward photos with a flash ", advertising slogans are included in the description - and all the sacredness of this meal disappears. From these photos you can put together an exhibition."

"Incompatible with our principles"

But in the summer of 2014, anarchists in Venice, unfamiliar with these art historical displays, were angry that guests were stealing delicacies from neighboring shops. The Thief and Koza responded by calling their palazzo a drug den, and the Italian anarchists themselves as drug dealers.

In addition, the owners of the squat in Venice were infuriated by the forced documentation of their life. And “War” has been constantly filming, recording and taking photographs throughout its entire life, as an artistic action. The archive is a sacred thing for them, and when they move, it is its loss that they lament most of all.

As a result, the forced eviction of “War” ended in a fight with anarchists on the Incurable Embankment, glorified by Brodsky, and in the palazzo itself. The tourists called the police. Vorotnikov was first taken to the hospital, where his broken head was stitched up, and from there he was taken to arrest at the request of Interpol: he was then wanted for spraying urine on police officers at the “March of Dissent” on March 31, 2011 in St. Petersburg.

The thief was taken to court along the Venetian canals in a gondola, his hands and feet were handcuffed, there were bruises, his head was bandaged, and medical wire was sticking out from somewhere. Gondolas carrying travelers from Japan floated towards us.

Vorotnikov in the hospital after a fight with Italian anarchists, June 2014, Venice

Due to the attention of the Italian media to the "War", the anarchists were forced to issue an explanatory press release: "It has become obvious that their lifestyle is incompatible with our principles of trust, respect and mutual assistance in relation to those with whom we live." The squatters refused to communicate with the BBC.

While the Thief was sitting in a Venetian pre-trial detention center, a palazzo with a mosaic floor, a pregnant Goat with two children slept under a tree near the church. This is how “War” found itself on the street for the first time, which was then repeated more than once.

Oleg Vorotnikov's card in the Interpol database

On New Year's Eve 2015, they found themselves in Rome, with a cold, they broke into the first barn they came across and lay there on rags with a temperature of 40 degrees. Every morning at 8:00 am, its owner, a retiree, drove up to the barn in an old Buick.

“She took all four of us to hostels and shelters in the hope of getting rid of it, but at the sight of the heavily pregnant Goat, no one would take us,” recalls Vor. “At that time we wrote letters to everyone in search of registration. We signed up for the Cabaret Voltaire (the legendary club -cafe in Switzerland, considered the birthplace of Dadaism - BBC) in Zurich and our Swiss history began."

“They are real practitioners of laziness and abandonment.”

The existence of the art group "War" is reminiscent of Dadaism - a provocative and defiant movement in the history of art during the First World War. His followers - artists, writers, performance artists - denied the laws of combining colors, sounds, coordinated actions, and in general everything that was customarily aesthetic. Dadaism is a style that openly protested against the bourgeoisie, striving for anarchy and communism.

Connoisseurs of modern art, speaking about "War", mention the first Dadaists like the artist Marcel Duchamp and the first radical actionist of Europe, Arthur Cravan.

Duchamp is famous for his concept of "ready-made things". He believed that any object can be made into an artistic object by adding only a signature and the context of an exhibition or museum. One of his most famous works is "Fountain": a urinal with an autograph and date.

“I threw a urinal in their faces, and now they admire its aesthetic perfection,” Duchamp wrote to his friend.

Cravan, a famous writer, boxer, tramp and thief throughout Europe, elevated hooliganism to a genre of art. He staged boxing matches, gave scandalous interviews, ran from country to country to avoid conscription, spent the night with prostitutes, and at his lectures. last words scolded fellow avant-garde artists, and at the end he undressed, threw bottles at the audience and fired a pistol.

He lived on rare donations from various connoisseurs of his extravagant life, stage and poetic style. He is called “an artist without a work” and “a master of hoaxes” - definitions that are well suited to the Thief and the Goat. Gray Violet says that he has discussed these artists with Vorotnikov more than once.

Explaining artistic method"Wars", Gray Violet mentions Kazimir Malevich's 1921 treatise "Laziness as the Real Truth of Humanity" and the 1882 essay "On the Right to Laziness" by Karl Marx's son-in-law Paul Lafargue, where he glorifies the "noble savage" in contrast to the exhausting labor of workers.

According to Gray Violet, Russian actionists, including those from “War,” once again brought open and untamed modern art to the vastness of Europe - artistic laziness of direct action. “This is laziness and refusal, not reducible to peaceful coexistence with capitalism, subject to the prosperity and well-being of the art scene or the marginal anonymity of anarchist communities - but open, suggesting a readiness for direct confrontation,” he writes in his article about artists in the online publication "Knife".

It puts the life of “War” on a par with the performances at Western exhibitions of Oleg Kulik and Alexander Brener, who furiously argued with the organizers. But they are more radical, says the art critic: “The group has renounced refugee status, ignores state borders and bureaucracy, and steals only the most valuable things. They are real practitioners of laziness and refusal, consistently turning their entire way of life into an artistic act.”

"I can't grow a crystal"

In April 2015, Trinity was born in Basel - the third child of “War”. The goat always gave birth without doctors, and the artists turned the whole process into an action: they filmed, photographed, and posted it on the Internet. And the placenta that Kasper fed on was stored in Chapaev’s freezer for five years.

He only threw it out when he rented out the apartment before leaving for Asia. “They were so busy with Casper, I’ve never seen such parents before. They babysat him all the time, teach him something, tell him something. So even if they keep them all home-schooled, the children will grow up really well.” , says Chapaev.

Birth of Trinity, May 2015, Basel

Sokol and Vorotnikov, despite their distilled anarchism, are caring parents. One of the conditions for meeting with me was a visit to the Museum of Natural History - they say that it is difficult to get there without a ticket, and the children need to be shown a real museum.

“Mom, become an artist, come up with an action, then journalists will take you everywhere and pay for you,” Vorotnikov teaches eldest daughter while she looks at dinosaur skeletons. Casper goes to the hall of stones: Goat says that they can’t grow a crystal at home, the fragile particles need peace, and they move around all the time.

Children of "War" at the Natural History Museum, January 2018, Berlin

“For many media outlets, our children are such extras, but they are full-fledged members of our group,” says Vorotnikov. "We are "War"! We are "War"!" - children chant at the exit from the museum and sing a song about Russia of their own composition. According to Koza, Kasper, Mama and Trinity consider the Russians their best friends.

Russia for children "Wars" is like the country of Oz from fairy tales. When Kasper first saw snow in Germany, he brought it home and stored it in the freezer. Their common dream is a house on wheels and for Lenya to return (a participant in “War” and the closest friend of the Nikolaev family, who remained in Russia, died in 2015 while working on sawdust in the Moscow region - BBC).

We want seven. Nothing in life makes me happy anymore. Children are my only joy.

And I? - clarifies the Thief.

And I’m exploiting you,” Koza smiles.

"A squat within a squat"

In May 2015, three days after Trinity was born, the family found housing. Through the mediation of Adrian Notz, director of Cabaret Voltaire in Zurich, "War" was accommodated in the attic of a house on Wasserstrasse, a squat occupied by local anarchists and leftists. Here, in addition to the usual sidelong glances from neighbors because of a freezer full of Movenpick, problems with children began.

“When we were seen in Switzerland after 20:00 with a stroller on the street, passers-by stopped and asked what happened to us, twisting their finger at our temple,” says Koza.

“Children here are so terribly marginalized as anywhere else in Russia. Having a child in the West is an aggravating circumstance,” Vorotnikov is sure for some reason. “We make no more noise than any family with three children. But you must keep your child in check , so that it would be convenient for the fat neighbor to watch TV. I don't give a damn. The gay couple living below us complained because the children were running around the apartment during the day. If a child pressed the wrong button in the elevator, they can grab him by the hand and start yelling at him. But we won’t tolerate this. They integrate their children into the system from birth. And then Europeans always ask why your children are so cheerful, because your life is such a difficult one.

Apartment "Wars" in a squat on Wasserstrasse

The residents of the house thought that refugees from Russia would live there for a couple of days and go to a migrant camp to ask for asylum. Which was still not part of the “War” plans. As follows from police reports, a year later the Swiss realized that Russian artists did not intend to “fit into the system,” and scandals began. The children of “War” were accused of stealing toilet paper; the neighbors did not like the noise at night and dirty dishes in the shared kitchen.

Vorotnikov can be a very unpleasant neighbor, his Moscow acquaintances admit. The creator of “War” knows how and loves to humiliate people, one of his favorite phrases is “oh, well, this is low-quality human material.” “But I don’t be rude to people, I give them the price they are worth,” he explains. The owners who “inscribed” the “War” in Russia speak more calmly than Europeans about everyday devastation. “Well, they can, of course, mess [mess up] everything, the potatoes, I remember, were so rotten, the floor was also rotten. The thief also walks around the apartment in shorts and dries his socks in the kitchen. S***t [relieves himself] ] from the balcony. I screamed. And they very politely, poetically ignored me. We lived normally," Chapaev recalls.

In Switzerland, "War" again turned out to be too anarchist. The Russians, for their part, considered the Baselians to be conformists. “The war” has brought the situation to the point of absurdity, wrote the local newspaper Schweiz am Wochenende. - They occupied an already occupied house. We created our own squat within a squat. The neighbors, who had recently actively fought the police, more than once threatened them with calling the same police." At a general house meeting, they decided to evict the migrants by force. And they announced this to their guests in advance, advising them to leave for a deportation camp.

Children of "War" in the attic of a squat on Wasserstrasse after an eviction notice, March 2016, Basel

In fact, by this time “War” was already thinking about asking for asylum. But the Thief and the Goat did not want to end up in the camp with the children. According to Gray Violet, who then lived nearby and often communicated with Voina, in March Vorotnikov’s mother came to visit them in Basel from the Tula region. The actionists asked her to live in Switzerland with her grandchildren while they themselves sat in the camp and waited for the authorities’ decision. But the grandmother of Casper, Mom and Trinity refused. The thief caused a scandal.

“Our parents have not met each other for 19 years of our marriage. I cannot understand such people. They saw their grandchildren only a few times in their lives, when we ourselves came. There is a special frying pan prepared for such grandparents in hell,” the thief seems to continue interrupted dialogue with mother: “You’re 62 years old, you’re going to die soon, don’t you really want to sit with your grandchildren?” The BBC was unable to contact Vorotnikov's mother. The artists and their acquaintances did not provide a phone number or address, and she could not be found on social networks.

The thief comes from the city of Novomoskovsk, Tula region. My father was a miner, the head of a rescue team.

"I remember how he came home from work. We were riding rafts there, burning fires, and suddenly the men returned to their houses. They walked dirty, covered in black dust, not because there was no shower, but because it was cool. He was used to to feel like a hero, - it seems that the Thief is already talking about himself. - The Soviet government gave him this opportunity. And when after that his son studies philosophy, fucks [has sex] in a museum, it is difficult for him to understand this ".

After the collapse of the USSR, the Vorotnikov family opened a hardware store. The son traveled around villages selling shampoos and washing powders. Then he entered Moscow State University.

Kozy’s mother lives in Balakovo, Saratov region, and does not believe that her daughter is wanted. Sokol left home at the age of 16 at the insistence of her mathematics teacher and entered the prestigious metropolitan mathematics school named after Kolmogorov. Then - to the physics department of Moscow State University.

The Thief and the Goat celebrate their 19th wedding anniversary, January 2018, Berlin

When Sokol brought Vorotnikov to meet her parents, they, according to her, began to say that he was not a match for her and was terrible. The students fled to the dacha.

“My parents tried to storm this dacha,” recalls Koza. “My father chased me in a car across the steppe. My father was a desperate guy, he worked at a nuclear power plant.”

Then they went to Vor’s parents in the Tula region, but they were kicked out from there too: the parents no longer favored their eldest son. The goat spent the night in the attic of a neighboring house. This is how their first vacation together went. None of the relatives came to the wedding, the artists say. It was not possible to find out the version of this story from Sokol’s parents: her father died, she did not share her mother’s contact information.

“The main task of a person is not to make a career, not to be successful in business, not to succeed as a person - well, because what kind of person are you, Lord - but to maintain relationships with your children. This did not work out for mine,” concludes Vor.

Vorotnikov's loud night-time quarrel with his mother in Basel was the last straw in the patience of their neighbors.

The co-founder of the notorious art group “War” Natalia Sokol appealed to the Commissioner for Children’s Rights Anna Kuznetsova with a request to evacuate her to Russia from Berlin. After six years of wandering around Europe, Sokol and her husband Oleg Vorotnikov found themselves in a desperate situation: Oleg ended up in prison, and Natalya herself was pregnant and with three small children was freezing on the street.

Vorotnikov disappeared in Berlin after a police raid and, according to some sources, is being held in Moabit prison. Natalya has children aged from 2 to 8 years old, they have to live on captured boats with canvas tops in Rummelsburg Bay.

At the same time, the founders of Voina are prevented from asking for political asylum in the EU by their convictions. For the same reason, they have practically no documents in their hands either for themselves or for their children, and they are all illegal.

“Whether he is arrested, whether he is alive or not, I have no information. I tried to drive the dacha into Moabit prison, but they didn’t accept it: does that mean he’s not there? I contacted lawyers and they refused to help. But the local press cannot be penetrated; it is propaganda reinforced concrete. I live with three children on a boat with canvas walls, so as not to sit in a transit prison, waiting for a convoy to a Swiss concentration camp, where people are kept for two years in storage rooms underground. I don’t have any friends or even any sane acquaintances in Berlin,” writes Natalya Sokol on Facebook.

Kuznetsova’s office has already responded to Sokol’s request, contacted her and sent a request to the Consular Section of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the radio station “Moscow Speaks” reports. As negotiators told Natalya, Anna Kuznetsova plans to send a request for a pardon to the President of Russia.

Let us recall that the left-radical actionist group “War” claims achievements in the field of conceptual protest street art. It was formed in 2007 by Oleg Vorotnikov, nicknamed Thief, his wife Natalya Sokol, nicknamed Koza, Pyotr Verzilov with an obscene nickname, and Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, a member of the punk group Pussy Riot.

Among the most resonant actions of the “War” are the “Palace Coup” with a police car, a sex performance in the Timiryazev Biological Museum, an action with jumping on a FSO car, as well as an action with an image of a phallus on the Liteiny Bridge in St. Petersburg and others. The public was especially outraged by the antics of Voina group member Elena Kostyleva in the St. Petersburg Nakhodka supermarket, where she shoved a frozen chicken into her crotch.

A criminal case was opened against Vorotnikov for insulting police officers and using violence against law enforcement officials after he poured urine on police officers on March 31, 2011 during the St. Petersburg “March of Dissent.” In addition, there are questions about past promotions. After this, Vorotnikov and Sokol with their children went on the run to Europe. In Russia, they are both on the wanted list and arrested in absentia.

However, in Europe unusual family Quite quickly, troubles began on such a scale that it was time to write an adventure drama. “Reedus” talked about some of them in this publication. Sponsors from among lovers of contemporary art abandoned Vorotnikov and Sokol with their young children to the mercy of fate and they actually turned into homeless people: they live anywhere, steal food and clothes from stores, wander from country to country, regularly dealing with the police, migration services and aggressive natives.

“I fought with fascists in the Prague metro, with human rights activists in Basel, with NO TAV-loving dealers in Venice. Now I always carry a hammer with me,” Vorotnikov told reporters.

While checking documents, the police hit Natalya in the face several times.

“Even a Russian cop, he wouldn’t do this to a woman who has a child,” she complained to the Czech media.

Sokol's Facebook page, where she talks about her misadventures, can only be described as shocking.

Dissidents and oppositionists from Russia are not eager to help the family due to the fact that Vorotnikov, having wandered around Europe, came out with positive reviews about the activities of President Vladimir Putin, as well as about the reunification of Crimea with Russia.

From his adventures, the actionist came away with the firm conviction that Europe “is experiencing an epidemic of psychosis caused by fear for its high level life."

In 2010, when activists of the art group “War” Oleg Vorotnikov and Leonid Nikolaev were detained after the “Palace Coup” action, a group of Russian intellectuals came out in their defense: music critic Artemy Troitsky, art critic Andrei Erofeev, publisher Alexander Ivanov, journalist Andrei Loshak, co-owner of the Falanster bookstore Boris Kupriyanov, artists Alexander Kosolapov and Oleg Kulik.

Andrei Erofeev told Reedus that he was at the dacha and had not yet seen Natalya Sokol’s appeal to Russian authorities, and therefore cannot comment. Andrei Loshak said that he “doesn’t have time” for this, Kupriyanov said that he “doesn’t know about this situation at all and cannot comment on it,” and Troitsky, Ivanov, Kosolapov and Kulik were unavailable for comment.

“Apparently, in Europe it’s even worse to live outside the system, especially with children. Therefore, having become disillusioned with everything, the family asks for help from the Motherland. Our own system turned out to be better in comparison, apparently. The liberals who once defended “War” are now keeping silent. But the “vatniks” began to comment on the situation with the pregnant Sokol and children. They are calling to return these anarchists who have already come to Russia and somehow help them. Let them steal houses, or something,” concludes journalist Natalya Radulova.

“The antisocial behavior of the professed “artists” of the Utyrks is supported by the EU solely as an “export” colonial practice. This is an obvious banality - just as the hypocrisy of the European media and the “public” is also banal, feeding the mentioned pricks to wage information warfare - and immediately forgetting about them, as soon as the puppets go beyond the prescribed role,” says a researcher at the Institute Russian history RAS Alexander Dyukov. In his opinion, it is high time to remove children from irresponsible parents.

The last action of the art group "War" took place on December 31, 2011 - in New Year's Eve A police paddy wagon was cleverly burned in St. Petersburg. For "Mento-Auto-Da-Fe" "War" received the "Russian Activist Art" award from fans, and from the state - a criminal case under Article 213 ("Hooliganism"). As you know, everything changes in Russia in five years, but nothing changes in 200. “War” announced that the burned paddy wagon was just the beginning, but there was no continuation, and the illegal actionists disappeared into the global underground. The founder of the group, Oleg Vorotnikov (Vor) and his wife Natalya Sokol (Koza) crossed the border and ended up in Europe, where their life did not work out in the best possible way: Tiring information about scandals, arrests, beatings and other incidents can be found on the group’s website.

A campaign in support of actionists, organized by philologist Alexei Plutser-Sarno, who calls himself a “media artist of Voina,” took place in Europe, America and even the Philippines. I myself participated in one of the actions when a huge portrait of Oleg Vorotnikov with the inscription Voina Wanted was hung on Karlovo bridge in Prague. It was spectacular and safe, the action was approved by the mayor's office. When the same poster was hung on Tower Bridge, the London police intervened, and in Bucharest, Oleg Vorotnikov's defenders were completely beaten and detained.

In 2014, reports emerged that Vorotnikov supported the seizure of Crimea and became a supporter of Putin. It was hard for me to believe this: how could such a delusional metamorphosis happen to an urban partisan who came up with actions that ridiculed Putinism - in the role of Mentopop, he went to the supermarket, drew a huge penis on drawbridge in front of the FSB building in St. Petersburg, overturned police cars, projected a skull and crossbones onto the building Russian government and went to jail for it?

And in one of the European cities I meet Oleg and his wife. They have three children, the youngest are sleeping, the eldest, Casper, whom I remember as a baby, has grown up and should have gone to school. But where will they take him? Parents are illegal, they have no documents, and even more so health insurance, and a daughter named Mama, born in St. Petersburg when her parents were hiding from arrest, is not registered at all. When Koza went to the antenatal clinic for an examination, the doctors identified her and wanted to call the police, as if repeating the story from the series about Stirlitz. The goat ran away and wisely gave birth at home without the involvement of midwives in uniform. The third child was born in Switzerland.

Oleg immediately warns that he will not give me an interview because he does not want to deal with the “liberal” media. Yes, everything turned out to be true: he is now a Putinist. And not just a supporter of the seizure of Crimea: Oleg believes that Putin “amazingly completed the work of saving Russian statehood,” Vyacheslav Volodin is a “brilliant leader,” Sergei Lavrov is an outstanding diplomat who knows how to win in an enemy environment, “Dima Yakovlev’s law” is fair, and In general, “there is nothing more beautiful than national unity.”

I’m trying to argue and have to say platitudes that the myth of national unity is a product of propaganda, thanks to Lavrov’s “diplomacy” Russia has no allies left except the DPRK, and because of the anti-orphan law, sick children are dying in terrible orphanages. But Oleg doesn’t want to listen to anything: he is sure that Western propaganda is worse than Russian, since a taxi driver in Europe can say that he likes Putin, but an intellectual is afraid.

What to answer to this? Probably the only thing is that an intellectual is responsible for his words, but a taxi driver is not.

"Good Russian propaganda is a ray of sunshine on last page“Pionerskaya Pravda” on a July day,” Oleg says, and I suspect that this is a quote from Prokhanov’s article.

I have never seen anything worse than Switzerland

After spending several years in Europe (and he visited many cities - Venice, Rome, Zurich, Basel, Vienna and even Cesky Krumlov, where Egon Schiele vegetated a hundred years ago), Oleg was unconditionally disillusioned with the West. "I wasted years of my life and found nothing interesting." People here are intimidated by the system, they make a “positive bet on hypocrisy,” the left movement is helpless and there is no art. Most of all he dislikes Switzerland: “I have never seen anything worse than this country.” Oleg and his family came to Basel at the invitation of the director of the Zurich Cabaret Voltaire, Adrian Notz. Oleg believes that Notz acted shamelessly, abandoned them in a squat and didn’t even ask how the birth went. It all ended in a conflict with squatters, which Oleg described in an interview with the Furfur website:

“We managed to capture the massacre, but when we reported it to the police, they snatched the camera from our hands and hid it. Then we visited a human rights organization that helps victims of violence. They provided us with a lawyer for four hours - they are so willing to pay for a lawyer, and they are expensive here. At the migration office In prison, I had a conversation with the police, they drew two possibilities: either to a camp and ask for political asylum, or we would be separated from our children and separately deported to our homeland as illegal immigrants. Plus, in my case, at the request of Interpol. The usual police manipulation of children began, and we gave in to asylum. We are not emigrants, not refugees, it was not a gesture like our friends. We arrived for a while, and then the return channel slammed shut. Traditionally, the Swiss authorities call for leaving the country to specific date. If not, then repressive mechanisms are activated. We were taken to the camp, filled with paperwork and literally left lying on the floor in the passage. We were told that this is the best camp for families with children."

Oleg describes the refugee camp as an underground hell, the scared to death inhabitants of which are released for walks according to a schedule, like prisoners. This may be true, I won’t argue, but the idea of ​​the Swiss as pompous monsters who consider all foreigners to be second-class citizens is hardly true. According to Oleg, only the lawyer who became famous for defending Roman Polanski agreed to help them, but he also failed to do anything due to bureaucratic resistance.

Best years our children went through hell

Before this, a similar conflict occurred with neighbors in a squat in Venice. Oleg’s version (a brutal, unmotivated beating, “I accidentally remained alive - I understood that one more blow and I would be crushed”) is at odds with the version of his opponents set out in this letter. Surely, as always happens, the truth is in the middle: even the most asocial Venetian anarchists could not withstand the Russian chaos, and an ordinary everyday conflict, slowly flaring up, led to a massacre. Oleg colorfully describes how, in front of stunned Japanese tourists clicking cameras, he was handcuffed and with his head bandaged by the police on a boat along the Grand Canal. He spent only a few days in prison, and from Venice - “this is not a city, but a cemetery, what to do there?” - moved to Rome. “The best years of our children were spent in hell,” he complains. “I am a Russian person, why do I need their values?” Through the fate of this not very banal family, one can study the essence of the centuries-old ideological conflict between Russia and Europe.

What about the Voina group? “I refuse on principle to organize actions here, to participate in artistic life. You can only criticize Russia from within, and not from sitting in the West,” says Oleg. He doesn’t like everything that happens in European art. I remember Banksy, who in 2010, when “War” was arrested, helped her financially, but Oleg brushes it off: “This is not an artist, but a stupid team of designers, painters, they do everything for money.”

we don't give up, we need to be caught

Disappointment in the West led to the fact that what was happening in Russia began to seem wonderful to Oleg and his wife. Most of all, they dream of returning to their homeland. “If they told me that we were getting into a taxi and going to the airport, I wouldn’t even bother to pack my things.” But it’s impossible to return: Oleg is on the international wanted list, Koza is on the federal wanted list. And where to go with three small children? Their relatives are not interested in their fate, a significant part of their friends have turned away, and there is nowhere to live. One could give up and ask for forgiveness from the magnificent Volodin, but Oleg says: “This is against the ideology of “War”: we do not give up, we need to be caught.” And it’s clear that the Kremlin doesn’t need allies like Vor and Koza. How do you use them? They'll probably say something wrong. If Surkov were still in charge of ideology, he would probably find it funny to take the Vorotnikov family under his protection, but today’s club-headed fans of nooscopes and telegony are not capable of such sophistication.

Here we should remember the third member of the Voina group - the wonderful Leonid Nikolaev. Many thought that he also fled abroad, but in September 2015 it became known that Lenya died in the Moscow region. If you believe the story of his friend, published on the website "Nihilist", he lived illegally and was preparing a complex performance called "The Pathopticons Defeated": he was going to use construction winches mounted on the roofs of two high-rise buildings to lift an employee's car into the air Investigative Committee into the air and set it on fire. “At the level of the 12th floor, the wheelbarrow froze and continued to hang, flaming and swaying, in the middle between two high-rise buildings.”

I have several times, he was a man in highest degree charming and reasonable, so I was not surprised when I read the following passage in the same memoirs: “He was absolutely horrified by Oleg’s statements in support of the annexation of Crimea... He perceived the action with the burning car as a symbolic cleansing through which the history of the Voina group passed.”

Leni's death was a big blow for Oleg and Koza. “We were like a stool with three legs that stood very well. And now one leg is missing, and it will end in a fall, despite our vast experience of illegal life.”

Oleg and Koza categorically do not want to socialize in any way, work, or lead a banal burgher life. “We are not going to apply for political asylum, and no one needs us, no one is offering anything... The human rights community considers us hooligans.” I’ll say right away that I don’t see anything reprehensible in this reluctance; there are already enough bourgeois and office slackers, and refusal to follow the rules of their existence is a completely natural position for an artist. Van Gogh or Schiele, in the opinion of the average person, also behaved outrageously. But the transformation of anarchists who poured urine on cops into admirers of Vyacheslav Volodin cannot but be puzzling.

I’m trying to understand how this change happened, and I think about the Russian emigrants who, in 1937 or 1945 in Paris, were sure that Russia was being reborn, dropped everything and rushed to Stalin to be shot.

I have three or four radiant memories, and one of them is prison

Hoping to shock me, Oleg praises the wisdom of Putin, who “perfectly beat” the liberals in 2013. In his opinion, Putin acted gently with his enemies, “there was so much fatherly care in these decisions!” The reminder of the fate of Udaltsov (who also supported the annexation of Crimea), Oleg Navalny and Boris Nemtsov does not impress him - all this is Western propaganda. Oleg remembers his time in prison with delight. "This is one of the best events in my life. I have three or four radiant memories, and one of them is prison." Over the years spent in European hell, his homeland began to seem like a promised land to him. “In Russia you can kill a cop and either go to jail or not to jail. Normal situation!” He is convinced that there is no such freedom as in Russia anywhere. “When I was wanted, every day I rode my bicycle past the main entrance to the prosecutor’s office, where they were waiting for us, and nothing happened.”

I am ready to agree with the conclusion about the vastness of Russian freedom, although I hope that the Lord will deliver me from it.

Out of inertia, I’m trying to argue with Oleg: what good did Putin do when he distributed billions to his friends from the Ozero cooperative? But Oleg retorts: “He did the right thing. And who should he have given it to? You and Fanailova? I, too, would have given everything to Koza, and not to some Czech artist.”

Everything that happens in the current Russian art, Oleg doesn’t like it, especially Pavlensky: “Secondary, shameful, unplastic.” I ask what is the difference between a penis drawn on a bridge and the FSB setting fire to the door, but Oleg is convinced that the “War” action in St. Petersburg was poetic and long-lasting (the bridge rose, fell, it took a long time to clean it), and Pavlensky did everything in a minute for the photographers, and the best the performance was the decision of the KGB officers to close the scorched door with metal sheets (“they beat Pavlensky”). Although Political Views Oleg has changed so seriously, the actions of “War” still seem wonderful to him: “Everything we did was cool.”

I agree with this: “War” was an outstanding phenomenon in contemporary Russian art, and both the simplest and most popular of their actions were good, as well as complex ones, like the famous “chicken”, which outraged even some fans: unfortunately, this one is very intricate , witty and complete hidden meanings The performance-labyrinth in the mass consciousness was reduced to a philistine cry: “They’re stuffing themselves with chickens!”

I would call the most witty and beautiful action of “War” the wonderful trick of Leonid Nikolaev, who jumped onto the roof of an FSO car with two buckets on his head. This video can be watched endlessly, like the films of Chaplin and Buster Keaton.

I’m trying to find out from Oleg whether there is at least something interesting in modern Russian art, but he brushes it off: “Everything is shameful, and you have been lowering this bar for a long time and persistently” (that is, liberals). Finally, he remembers: “Enjoykin! How don’t you all notice?! This is the number one artist since 2014! What a Pavlensky!”

Do the artist's political views matter? There is a good saying: “Opinions are like assholes: everyone has one.” Louis-Ferdinand Celine ran to the German commandant's office in occupied Paris and asked why not all the Jews had been arrested yet, but at the same time he remained a great writer. Chekhov wrote: “As long as you play cards with an ordinary person or have a snack with him, then he is a peaceful, good-natured and even intelligent person, but as soon as you talk to him about something inedible, for example, about politics or science, he becomes confused or starts such a philosophy, stupid and evil, that all you can do is wave your hand and walk away.” Replace the average person with an artist, and the quote will fit today’s plot.

Oleg Vorotnikov says that Putin did the right thing by betting on cops and priests, and not on Lev Rubinstein. But his image of a “cop in a priest’s cassock,” a mockery of the state that he so passionately loved in 2014, will remain in the history of art, and all this talk about Volodin and communal squabbles will be forgotten. The Voina group is as important for Russian culture as Viennese actionism is for Austrian or the Beat movement for America. Someday the documentation of their shares will be in best museums Russia, there is no doubt about it.

But what to do now? The Vorotnikovs are truly in a desperate situation. “If they give us a blow again, we won’t get up,” says Koza. Such words are not simply spoken.

How to help people without documents who are wanted? In Europe, no one needs them; nothing good awaits them in their harsh homeland. There is no clear way out of this situation. Perhaps some generous philanthropist will read my article and want to do something - at least send a child to school? In the hope of such a miracle, I decided to tell this sad story about radical art and political delusions.

The co-founder of the notorious art group “War” Natalia Sokol appealed to the Commissioner for Children’s Rights Anna Kuznetsova with a request to evacuate her to Russia from Berlin. After six years of wandering around Europe, Sokol and her husband Oleg Vorotnikov found themselves in a desperate situation: Oleg ended up in prison, and Natalya herself was pregnant and with three small children was freezing on the street.

Vorotnikov disappeared in Berlin after a police raid and, according to some sources, is being held in Moabit prison. Natalya has children aged from 2 to 8 years old, they have to live on captured boats with canvas tops in Rummelsburg Bay.

At the same time, the founders of Voina are prevented from asking for political asylum in the EU by their convictions. For the same reason, they have practically no documents in their hands either for themselves or for their children. All of them are outside the law, have no housing and no means of subsistence, and make their living as theft.

“Whether he is arrested, whether he is alive or not, I have no information. I tried to drive the dacha into Moabit prison, but they didn’t accept it: does that mean he’s not there? I contacted lawyers and they refused to help. But the local press cannot be penetrated; it is propaganda reinforced concrete. I live with three children on a boat with canvas walls, so as not to sit in a transit prison, waiting for a convoy to a Swiss concentration camp, where people are kept for two years in storage rooms underground. I don’t have any friends or even any sane acquaintances in Berlin,” writes Natalya Sokol in Facebook.

Kuznetsova’s office has already responded to Sokol’s request, contacted her and sent a request to the Consular Section of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the radio station “Moscow Speaks” reports. As the negotiators told Natalya.

Let us remind you that the left-wing radical actionist group “War” claims to achieve achievements in the field of conceptual protest street art. It was formed in 2007 by Oleg Vorotnikov, nicknamed Thief, his wife Natalya Sokol, nicknamed Koza, Pyotr Verzilov with an obscene nickname, and Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, a member of the punk group Pussy Riot.

Among the most resonant actions of the “War” are the “Palace Coup” with a police car, a sex performance in the Timiryazev Biological Museum, an action with jumping on a FSO car, as well as an action with an image of a phallus on the Liteiny Bridge in St. Petersburg and others. The public was especially outraged by the antics of Voina group member Elena Kostyleva in the St. Petersburg Nakhodka supermarket, where she shoved a frozen chicken into her crotch.

A criminal case was opened against Vorotnikov for insulting police officers and using violence against law enforcement officials after he poured urine on police officers on March 31, 2011 during the St. Petersburg “March of Dissent.” In addition, there are questions about past promotions. After this, Vorotnikov and Sokol with their children went on the run to Europe. In Russia, they are both on the wanted list and arrested in absentia.

However, in Europe, an unusual family quickly began to have troubles on such a scale that it was time to write an adventure drama. “Reedus” talked about some of them in. Sponsors from among lovers of contemporary art abandoned Vorotnikov and Sokol with their young children to the mercy of fate and they actually turned into homeless people: they live anywhere, steal food and clothes from stores, wander from country to country like gypsies, regularly dealing with the police, immigration services and aggressive natives.

“I fought with fascists in the Prague metro, with human rights activists in Basel, with dealers who are fans of NO TAV in Venice. Now I always carry a hammer with me,” Vorotnikov told reporters. While checking documents, the police hit Natalya in the face several times. “Even a Russian cop, he wouldn’t do this to a woman who has a child,” she complained to the Czech media. Falcon's page Facebook, where she talks about her misadventures, can only be described as shocking.

Dissidents and oppositionists from Russia are not eager to help the family due to the fact that Vorotnikov, having wandered around Europe, made positive comments about the activities of President Vladimir Putin, as well as about the reunification of Crimea with Russia.

From his adventures, the actionist came away with the firm conviction that Europe is “experiencing an epidemic of psychosis caused by fear for its high standard of living.”

In 2010, when activists of the art group “War” Oleg Vorotnikov and Leonid Nikolaev were detained after the “Palace Coup” action, a group of Russian intellectuals came out in their defense: music critic Artemy Troitsky, art critic Andrei Erofeev, publisher Alexander Ivanov, journalist Andrei Loshak, co-owner of the Falanster bookstore Boris Kupriyanov, artists Alexander Kosolapov and Oleg Kulik.

“Reedus” decided to ask intellectuals whether they continue to support “War” in 2018. Andrei Erofeev told “” that he is at the dacha and has not yet seen Natalya Sokol’s appeal to the Russian authorities, and therefore cannot comment. Andrei Loshak said that he “doesn’t have time” for this, Kupriyanov said that he “doesn’t know about this situation at all and cannot comment on it,” and Troitsky, Ivanov, Kosolapov and Kulik were unavailable for comment.

“Apparently, in Europe it’s even worse to live outside the system, especially with children. Therefore, having become disillusioned with everything, the family asks for help from the Motherland. Our own system turned out to be better in comparison, apparently. The liberals who once defended “War” are now keeping silent. But the “vatniks” began to comment on the situation with the pregnant Sokol and the children. They are calling to return these anarchists who have already come to Russia and somehow help them. Let them steal houses, or something,” concludes journalist Natalya Radulova.

“The antisocial behavior of the self-proclaimed “artists” is supported by the EU exclusively as an “export” colonial practice. This is an obvious banality - just as the hypocrisy of the European media and the “public” is a banality, feeding the mentioned pricks to wage information warfare - and immediately forgetting about them, as soon as the puppets go beyond the prescribed role,” says a researcher at the Institute of Russian History of the Russian Academy of Sciences Alexander Dyukov. In his opinion, it is high time to remove children from irresponsible parents.

On December 31, 2011, members of the Voina group burned a police paddy wagon in St. Petersburg - this was the last documented action of the artists. Behind were the storming of the White House, the hanging of migrants in a supermarket, public sex in the Zoological Museum and the phallus on the Liteiny Bridge. “Understand, this is not an artistic event, this is a super-artistic event! This will be our bonfire of vanity,” Radio Liberty quotes a statement following the arson. The group announced that by January 1, 2012, a total of seven police vehicles had allegedly been burned. In January 2012, an arson case was opened.

In March 2013, Komsomolskaya Pravda reported that Voina participants Oleg Vorotnikov, who was previously in jail for hooliganism, and his wife Natalya Sokol left for Italy. Sokol was also charged under Articles 318 and 319 of the Criminal Code for attacking and insulting police officers in 2011 during the “Strategy-31” protest. Since then, the activists have been in Europe, moving from one acquaintance to another.

Now the leaders of the art group, Vorotnikov and Sokol, along with their three children, are on the run again. After being attacked by squat neighbors Russian artists arrested by Swiss police. They were sent to a migrant camp from where they escaped. In an interview with FURFUR, Oleg Vorotnikov spoke about the conflict with neighbors, the migration policy of Switzerland and longing for Russia.

“War” is on the run again, what happened in the place where you last lived?

On March 20, an armed crowd in motorcycle helmets, with bats and shields burst into our room, breaking down the door - pure Maidan. At this time we were bathing the children in the bath. First they poured pepper gas into our eyes, then they threw me to the floor and tied my hands and feet with tape, sat on top of me, and began to choke me. The goat (Natalya Sokol - editor's note) was beaten, torn away from the children and thrown down the stairs. We have three children - a six-year-old boy, Casper, had his arm injured. The attackers stole two of our laptops and two iPads from the children.

The people who did this call themselves Swiss human rights activists, fighters for the rights of refugees. The police arrived and arrested us; the attackers did not harm anyone. The case is similar to the Venetian one - then, too, only us were arrested. What the Russian trash would have done: they would have arrested everyone and then sorted it out. Here only those without rights are arrested.

What kind of place is this where you lived?

In Basel there is a street called Wasserstrasse - these are houses for the poor, which the city leadership rents out at meager prices for Switzerland. Some of the apartments have been taken over by squatters and, although old people and other unfortunate people continue to live there, they are gradually being eliminated. The house where we lived belongs to a Basel cooperative, yet the attackers identified themselves as the owners. We know some by sight, some by name. We got there thanks to the Zurich art institution Cabaret Voltaire, its director Adrian Notz found us a spacious room in the attic. Since last summer, squatters began to harass us, throwing out strollers, attacking children on the stairs - there was an episode with toilet paper, filmed by Koza.

You are talking about bullying, what started it?

The Swiss don't treat strangers well, and they needed a place to live. The squatters wanted to turn the room into a cinema hall. We contacted “Cabaret” - they don’t answer, apparently they are afraid that they will be drawn into a showdown with the police for harboring illegal immigrants. The criminal case is in limbo, because we are illegal immigrants - it is considered hopeless.

What did the police say in response to your complaints?

We managed to capture the carnage, but when we reported it to the police, they snatched the camera from our hands and hid it. We then visited a human rights organization that helps victims of violence. They provided a lawyer for four hours - that’s how much they are willing to pay for a lawyer, and they are expensive here. In the migration prison, I had a conversation with the police, they drew two possibilities: either to the camp and ask for political asylum, or we will be separated from the children and separately deported to our homeland as illegal immigrants. Plus, in my case, at the request of Interpol. The usual manipulation of children by the police began, and we succumbed to the shelter. We are not emigrants, not refugees, it was not a gesture like our friends. We arrived for a while, and then the return channel slammed shut. Traditionally, Swiss authorities call for leaving the country by a certain date. If not, then repressive mechanisms are activated. We were taken to the camp, filled with paperwork and literally left lying on the floor in the passage. We were told that this is the best camp for families with children.

What is a camp?

Switzerland is perhaps the worst country in terms of seeking asylum. First, they avoid policy-related language. Secondly, Swiss conditions for refugees are the worst. After all, we lived for years in the most difficult circumstances. They lock you in a closet - only *** [eccentric] can offer to live like this and only *** [eccentric] will agree to such conditions. Probably, if you are a Syrian who no longer has not only a home, but also hometown, then maybe you'll be happy. The employees search every time: I saw a Caucasian-looking family return, and they searched everyone, including the crying baby. And the proud Caucasians, who could not be broken, smiled when the child fell into hysterics.

The families are then driven to a camp in the town of Ash. People are housed in the basement in tiny windowless closets, stacked like coffins. It's a little better in a Russian prison. At the same time, they take away any means of communication, laptops, and lock them indefinitely for an indefinite period. There are peepholes built into the walls for observation. The migration police guaranteed that we would be accommodated together. As a result, in the storeroom where we were taken, there were two rows of bunks and ten people were already lying there. Total 18 people for 15 square meters. Refugees walk around the camp like shadows, men, dressed in light green vests, are periodically taken out to collect garbage - our Tajiks are resting.

We stayed for about 20 minutes - everyone literally lives in windowless closets, stuffed to capacity, we laughed homerically and left the camp, which is gross violation. According to the police, you are put on the national wanted list and removed from the database of applicants - you are no longer an asylum seeker, but an illegally staying person. In general, the decision on asylum rests with the judge. But I am retelling what the migration police told me.

“Since last summer, squatters started harassing us, throwing out strollers, attacking children on the stairs - there was an episode with toilet paper, filmed by Koza.”

What are your next steps after escaping?

If it weren’t for the need to return the camera with the video and the computers with the archive, we would have been called in for questioning on April 6, where they could have been arrested. Now the details - before or during the interrogation, with or without a camera - will be sent. The lawyer is now under pressure to return the camera, but the authorities are simply going to catch him and deport him. We are ready to continue our underground life, and it is almost impossible to catch us. We went to Basel and tried to interrogate him, but without success, we just lost time. Plus, lawyer Anton Drel outlined the situation for us in more detail: if we don’t find a way to testify, then the trash have the right to ultimately destroy the evidence as not useful. That is, they will stupidly throw away the camera. There is no talk of her return yet. I try not to believe it.

If we recall the Venetian case, the site “The Day After Tomorrow” once published the point of view of the Italians themselves. Don't you think that after seeing a similar episode, people will clearly not be on your side?

This opinion really exists - it is the main one among European anarchists. But, Lord, European anarchists are an empty place. In Venice it was much more dramatic, then we were beaten half to death - I had surgery on my head. I was sure that the attackers could not escape responsibility, but, despite lawyers in Italy, there was no responsibility.

No one stands on ceremony with illegal immigrants, but the situation in Basel is not just our words against their words. Now there is video documentation - we don’t have it, but the police have it. But even if they destroy it, this will not be the only problem - they stole laptops with the entire archive, where our entire life and work over the past years.

The last action of “War” and Pyotr Pavlensky is a fire, in one case the arson of a paddy wagon, in the other - a door. Only the lazy did not compare you with Pavlensky, for example, the same Marat Gelman: “Pavlensky is certainly a strong artist, stronger, for example, than the Voina group, whose statements are not always intelligible.” What do you think about such comparisons?

I don’t think it’s appropriate for us to engage in art criticism and have intellectual conversations right now. Our situation is almost fantastic - I wake up in the morning and am surprised. It’s good to notice some nuances in artists when everything is in order for you. What Gelman thinks, what Gelman doesn’t think - this is a completely different life, but we, of course, are aware of all the events.

But of all the “War” actions, which one do you consider the most important for yourself personally?

Then I’ll have to answer about Pavlensky and the bald devil, but I’d like to avoid this art-critical mess. There is nothing worse than an artist ******** [talking] about art, especially from distant Switzerland. The artist, as you can probably guess, is talking about camps and arrests, and unexpected ones at that.

Previously, you were given awards and interviewed. Now you are illegal immigrants, you are haunted by fights - a sufficient demotivating thing for your sympathizers.

For them, this is exactly what it looks like. Already when we got here, we were faced with the fact that no one needed us. Even before any fights, they were thrown to themselves. Illegal immigrants, without documents, money, wanted and with children in their arms. Here, from the very beginning, visitors are treated as a second-class citizen, and if there are children, then this is entirely your problem. While you are a cheerful hipster, that’s one thing; when you are a person without documents, no one is interested in you.

The image of the West that intellectuals in Russia paint is a fiction. People here do not violate anything - not without reason in the European contemporary art stagnation is more powerful than under Brezhnev. Art is crammed into an entertainment ghetto for rich people. You can be a clown - and only then will you be interesting. They sit and wait for the third world to come up with an idea. This is how I explain the success of Russian actionism, when the most elementary actions are well read.

Did your background as famous artists help you in any way in Europe?

This is an amazing situation. When we meet the artists, they start writing with delight: “Oh, “War,” “*** in captivity,” “Punk in court,” that’s all you!” They feel like just lucky people who managed to communicate with the legends they read about. But when the conversation turns to a practical level - is it possible to find housing or a lawyer - then almost everyone loses interest. We are good somewhere out there - when we are in a Russian prison, then we are good.

Would you like to organize “War” in European realities?

When they arrived, they did not plan to carry out activities; they considered the circumstances uninteresting, and the European public was unworthy of being presented with works of art. During our wanderings, we worked with archives, but then we realized that there was no point in throwing beads. We tried to adapt several actions to the European context, but it turned out to be impossible to find activists who were ready to fight and violate, as in Russia. The human material is much lower - we were not able to find a single person with whom we could even discuss the plans. People are completely cowardly and uptight in every sense. If we do something, it should be in Russia. The Europeans don’t need this - and neither do we now. It's just a well-fed pigsty here. Even if the persecution in Russia does not stop, I want to return. Europe is a remote place without living ideas. Living in Russia means living in culture, but here it’s like animals on a farm.

IN late XIX century, wanting to avoid arrest, Narodnaya Volya member Lev Tikhomirov went to Switzerland, but as time passed he became disillusioned with his old ideas, and then he was allowed to return to Russia. Do you find any parallels in this historical example?

We did not consider ourselves emigrants and had not interacted with such parties before. Only now I began to communicate, and many Russians who left for political reasons have similar sentiments. They say there is complete cultural isolation here, and there is so much in Russia. Someone recalls the level of Moscow students, which one cannot even dream of here. It would be interesting to create a movement of “sad Russians of Europe”. Many Russian communities in Germany enjoy watching Dmitry Kiselyov - for the soul, as they say.

Are you watching it yourself too?

I don’t watch Kiselyov myself - I just don’t have a TV, but I’d also be happy to watch it that way. This is a symbol of its time, pop-patriotism, which alone brings liberals to a boil with just one gesture.

Images: personal archive of Oleg Vorotnikov