Landmark Pussy Riot exhibition at The Polygon extended
The Polygon’s landmark Velvet Terrorism: Pussy Riot’s Russia exhibition, the very first museum survey of the Russian feminist art collective, has been extended for another week.
Initially penned to close June 2, the exhibit will now run until June 9.
Michael Mann, The Polygon’s marketing manager, said Velvet Terrorism has been one of the gallery’s most visited exhibitions in history, with over 50,000 people attending since it opened in March.
“The response to Pussy Riot’s exhibition has almost been overwhelming, “ he said.
“We’ve heard from hundreds of visitors directly about how moved they are by this exhibition, and how inspired they are by the courageous actions of Pussy Riot.”
A collaboration between Maria Alyokhina, one of the group’s members, and Icelandic artist collective Kling and Bang, the travelling exhibition first debuted in Reykjavic in 2022.
Via photographs, film, artwork and hand-written scrawled notes, it documents the past ten years of protests, political stunts and musical performances.
With around 50 video monitors, 400 photos, and 20,000 words of handwritten text on the walls, the exhibition was a lot of work for the gallery’s “small but mighty” team, Mann said.
“There is a lot to take in, so we hope everyone makes time to come to the gallery to see the exhibition before it ends,” he said.
Through donations from visitors and through sales of Pussy Riot books, Mann said the gallery has been able to raise close to $10,000 for the Ohmatdyt Children’s Hospital in Kyiv, Ukraine.
With such a heroic response from gallery visitors and from those involved in putting it together - Pussy Riot and the team from Kling & Bang have been “a dream” to work alongside - the exhibition will go down as one of the greatest in Polygon’s history, said Mann.
“We’re honoured to have been able to bring this show to North Vancouver.”
To ensure the exhibit goes out with a bang, the gallery will host a closing celebration June 6 from 6 p.m. - 8 p.m with drinks and a live set from Sḵwx̱wú7mesh Úxwumixw (Squamish Nation) DJ Paisley Eva.
The exhibition catalogue, alongside a selection of books about Pussy Riot, are available at the gallery’s The Diane Evans Bookstore.
Mina Kerr-Lazenby is the North Shore News’ Indigenous and civic affairs reporter. This reporting beat is made possible by the Local Journalism Initiative.
MKerrLazenby@nsnews.com
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Mina Kerr-Lazenby, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, North Shore News
