The OK Linz Museum will hold the first ever solo museum exhibit of the works of Nadya Tolokonnikova, artist and founder of the feminist collective Pussy Riot. In Russia, she is persecuted for her conceptual performances and artistic protests against the Putin regime. Her performance “Punk Prayer” in the Christ the Savior Cathedral in Moscow, hailed by The Guardian as one of the most important artworks of the 21st century, led to her and her colleagues being imprisoned for “hooliganism motivated by religious hatred.” Despite ongoing persecution by the Russian government, she continues to create art and fight against dominant structures. Her exhibition “RAGE” once again focuses on resistance and repression, rebellion against authoritarian regimes, and patriarchal structures.

With irony, subversion, and provocation, the artist undermines the prevailing control and defense mechanisms of the authoritarian state she grew up in. While studying philosophy at Moscow University, Tolokonnikova…