The Russian artist Piotr Pavlenski, tried for having recorded and distributed videos of a sexual nature which led to the fall of Benjamin Griveaux in February 2020, was sentenced, Wednesday October 11 in Paris, to a six-month prison sentence convertible into placement under electronic bracelet. His partner, Alexandra de Taddeo, was given a six-month suspended prison sentence for having kept the videos but also for having participated in their dissemination, which she contested.
During a turbulent trial on June 28, the prosecution requested similar sentences against Mr. Pavlenski, 39, and Mr.me Taddeo, 32 years old, believing that “any action cannot be committed in the name of freedom of expression”.
The two defendants were also ordered to pay 15,000 euros in damages to Mr. Griveaux, as well as 5,000 euros for legal fees.
Mr. Pavlenski said as he left the courtroom that he would not appeal. The Russian artist, known for extreme performances in Russia and a refugee in France since 2017, defended, upon arriving in court in June, the broadcast of these videos as being his “eighth subject-object art event” and invoked the “artistic freedom”. He then used his right to silence during the hearing.
“Voyeuristic Shipwreck”
Then a candidate for La République en Marche (LRM) – today Renaissance – for Paris town hall, Mr. Griveaux abandoned the campaign on February 14, 2020, castigating “despicable attacks involving [sa] private life “.
Less than forty-eight 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 Mr. Griveaux to Mr.me Taddeo as part of a brief relationship between May and August 2018. These images were edited with screenshots of messages exchanged between them.
The 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”.
Mr. Pavlenski immediately took responsibility for this action of“political art” aimed at denouncing the“disgusting hypocrisy” of Mr. Griveaux, who “used his family by presenting himself as an icon for all the fathers and husbands of Paris”.
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The trial was held in the absence of Mr. Griveaux, 45, who abandoned politics. His lawyer, Me Richard Malka, had 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, adding: “Art has never been an instrument of denunciation to destroy lives, a totalitarian instrument. »
Mme Taddeo had argued at the bar that he did not “at no time wanted to trap” Mr. Griveaux. If the prosecution considers that she is directly involved, the art history student maintained that Mr. Pavlenski had published the images without her knowledge, specifying however ” sustain ” his companion and his artistic approach.