Pyotr Pavlensky – a Russian Performing artist known for his different methods of protesting, outdid himself this time when he sat down naked outside Lenin’s Mausoleum in Moscow, Russia, and nailed his testicles to the Red Cobblestone. Pavlensky was protesting the the Kremlin’s crackdown on political rights.
Police eventually covered the protester with a blanket and after freeing him from the Cobblestone, Pavlensky received medical treatment and then was taken into custody.
The Saint Petersburg-based artist said in a statement posted on the Grani.ru website that he was trying to draw attention to Russian society’s development into a ‘police state’.
Russia marked its annual Police Day holiday on Sunday.
It is not the first time the 29-year-old has resorted to dramatic methods of protest.
He has previously sewn his lips together to demonstrate against the jailing of two female members of the Pussy Riot punk band who staged an anti-Kremlin performance inside Moscow’s main cathedral in 2011.
He was also arrested after wrapping his naked body in barbed wire outside a Saint Petersburg government building in May.
