“In our history, every private decision is political.” This sentence could be read on a video wall behind the four Russian musicians during the Pussy Riot concert in the garden of the Max Mannheimer House in Dachau. And he made it clear why the managing director of the Dachau district youth association, Ludwig Gasteiger, invited the feminist political punk band to the anniversary celebration “40 years international youth encounter” invited.
Because even if this sentence is aimed at the history of the activist group founded in Moscow in 2011, one quickly thinks of National Socialism. Remembering this and learning from it for the future: That is ultimately one of the central ideas of the international youth meeting.
The quoted sentence could be one of the possible lessons. Or that it is up to each individual to become politically active. That’s what the singer Maria Alyokhina said at the end of the one-hour performance, which was rewarded with loud applause and was more of a music-theatrical performance. The performance was also a challenge, with the motto “Everyone can be Pussy Riot”, which is also on the T-shirts.
Because it was loud, impulsive and accompanied by drums, synthesizer, flute and videos in an almost breathless staccato, you got the story of Pussy Riot pounded in your ears. In Russian with German surtitles.
Spectacular escape from house arrest
The story is not new. Because after members of Pussy Riot stormed into the Savior Cathedral in Moscow in 2012 with balaclavas and there sentences like “Mother of God, virgin, chase away Putin!” screamed, they became known worldwide. There were press reports, a documentary and, since 2017, the book “Pussy Riot. Days of the Uprising” by Maria Alyokhina, on which the performances of the current “Riot Days” tour based.
What’s missing is the spectacular escape from house arrest that the Russian managed to disguise as a food delivery man before the tour. This information was given in the tour manager’s introduction.
The “punk prayer” in the church. The arrest of Maria Alyokhina, Nadezhda Tolokonnikova and Yekaterina Samutsevich. The court hearing, the transport, the prison camp, the hunger strike and finally the release. All of this is told to techno-punk rhythms.
There is biting criticism of Putin and the Orthodox Church, as well as political slogans. There is dancing, shouting and water splashed into the audience. The central narrator is Alyokhina, who stands on the stage in a white dress and at times with a knitted mask. Diana Burkat, who was there in 2012 but was not arrested, operates drums and electronics.
Pussy Riot’s trademark: the knitted masks
(Photo: Toni Heigl)
Olga Borisova supports Alyokhina on the microphone. And for a few days Taso Pletner has been there as a new comrade-in-arms on the flute, replacing the previous saxophonist. As a bonus there is a song about the Ukraine war. From the point of view of Russian soldiers who ask their mothers: “Mom, why is there a war?”
Similar to the concert in May in the Munich Kammerspiele, it all turns out to be very haunting. The afternoon was preceded by a panel discussion with Pussy Riot, and the day after a visit to the concentration camp memorial with the band was planned. The fact that Gasteiger was able to win over the Russians is said to have been achieved because the “Dachau Memorial Work” has such a “good international reputation”.
But it was probably also because Pussy Riot used every stage that was available to them. And so the concert wasn’t the last one before the summer break, as announced. Instead, we went straight to Stuttgart on Sunday. In August they will play in Austria and Switzerland and on August 31st and September 1st in Bergen in Upper Bavaria.