Tried for having recorded and broadcast videos of a sexual nature which led to the downfall of politician Benjamin Griveaux in February 2020, Russian artist Piotr Pavlenski was sentenced this Wednesday, October 11 to six months in prison under an electronic bracelet, his partner Alexandra de Taddeo receiving a six-month suspended prison sentence. During a heated trial on June 28, the prosecution requested these sentences, considering that “any action cannot be committed in the name of freedom of expression”.
Then LREM candidate (today Renaissance) for mayor of Paris, Benjamin Griveaux abandoned the campaign on February 14, 2020, castigatings “vile attacks calling into question (his) private life”. Less than 48 hours earlier, videos of a man masturbating had been published on a site called “Pornopolitics”, the link to which was relayed on social networks. These videos were sent by Benjamin Griveaux to Alexandra de Taddeo during a brief relationship between May and August 2018. They were edited with screenshots of messages exchanged between them. This resignation of the former Secretary of State, government spokesperson and deputy, caused a political scandal: left and right unanimously criticized a “voyeuristic shipwreck” and an “threat to democracy”.
A “subject-object art event” for Pavlenski
Piotr Pavlenski immediately took responsibility for this action of“political art” aimed at denouncing the“disgusting hypocrisy” by Benjamin Griveaux, who “used his family by presenting himself as an icon for all the fathers and husbands of Paris”. The 39-year-old artist, known for extreme performances in Russia and a refugee in France since 2017, defended this broadcast as being his “eighth subject-object art event”invoking the “artistic freedom”. He then used his right to silence during the hearing.
Alexandra de Taddeo, 32, argued at the bar that she did not “at no time wanted to trap” Benjamin Griveaux. If the prosecution believes that she is directly involved, the art history student maintained that Piotr Pavlenski had published the images without her knowledge, while specifying “sustain” his companion and his artistic approach.
The trial was held in the absence of Benjamin Griveaux, 45, who abandoned politics. His lawyer, Mr. Richard Malka, called for “protect” private life. “In reality, the model they are calling for is terror 2.0 in the hands of the most violent”he said. “Art has never been an instrument of denunciation to destroy lives, a totalitarian instrument of puritanism.”