Friday, June 18, 2010

Giant penis protest rises to greet Russian economic forum

Radical Russian artists painted a giant protest penis on a drawbridge in central St. Petersburg ahead of a meeting that is the Russian answer to the World Economic Forum. Measuring 65 metres (220 ft) long and 27 metres across, the light-coloured phallus rises and glistens against the imperial-era capital's elegant skyline when the bridge is drawn up to let ships pass in the twilit northern summer nights.

Politically minded art collective Voina, or War, said they drew the graffiti on Monday to protest the heightened security measures expected at the International Economic Forum, held from June 17 in Saint Petersburg, the hometown of both Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. Unsanctioned political art or public messages in the form of graffiti and painting are extremely rare in Russia.


Click for bigger.

"We have painted a giant phallus to show what the FSB and Interior Ministry are doing in terms of security for the forum," Voina said in a statement. The FSB is Russia's main internal security agency. When the bridge is opened, the erect-looking penis stands beside the local headquarters of the FSB, successor to the KGB.

The forum will draw international business leaders and will be attended by Russian President Dmitry Medvedev. St. Petersburg is the hometown of both Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, a former KGB officer and FSB chief. The phallus was still visible on Wednesday, when one of the artists was fined by police, a spokesman said.

2 comments:

cath said...

Someone needs to do the same for the upcoming G20 meeting in Toronto. Security measures are ruining everything: They're fencing off a big chunk of downtown; businesses, theatres, and even the university are closing; trees are being uprooted lest they by used as "weapons;" they've built a fake indoor lake next to the real lake; and -- in a time of fiscal restraint -- $2 billion is being spent on security, accomodation, and transport. The event is not even one of the scheduled G20 summits, but was tacked on as a follow-up to the (scheduled) nearby G8 summit by our oh-so-brilliant prime minister.  A giant phallus would be the perfect emblem for this fiasco.

2ldmoe said...

do not be afraid.... this idea will soon be to be found everywhere i think, like throwing shoes at "important" wank*rs
still : one of the most funny ideas i've seen in a long long time