More than three years after the events, the hour of the verdict is approaching. Russian artist Piotr Pavlenski and his partner Alexandra de Taddeo are on trial in Paris this Wednesday for invasion of privacy. On the morning of February 14, 2020, the LREM candidate (now Renaissance) for mayor of Paris Benjamin Griveaux announced to AFP the sudden abandonment of his campaign, the day after the presentation of his program, castigating “despicable attacks jeopardizing (his) private life”. On the evening of February 12, two intimate videos were published on a site called “Pornopolitique”, the link of which is relayed on social networks, accompanied by a text by Piotr Pavlenski.
The Russian artist, known for extreme “performances” in Russia and a refugee in France since 2017, claims this action of “political art”, aimed at denouncing the “disgusting hypocrisy” of a man who “makes the propaganda of the traditional family values”.
Griveaux will not be present at the trial
The ex-minister filed a complaint, an investigation was opened and, on February 18, the artist and his companion were indicted. On Wednesday, the two defendants, aged 39 and 32 respectively, will be at the helm, suspected of having recorded and broadcast these images. Benjamin Griveaux, 45, who has gradually given up his political career for entrepreneurship, will not be present. The footage showing an unidentified man masturbating was edited with screenshots of messages. They had been received by Alexandra de Taddeo during a brief relationship with Benjamin Griveaux between May and August 2018.
She claims that Piotr Pavlenski, whom she met at the end of 2018, broadcast them without her knowledge. The investigating judges, on the contrary, retained her “direct involvement”, in particular with regard to the financial support of an association, which she chaired, at the “Pornopolitique” site. In Russia, Pavlensky performed several “political art events”: he sewed his lips together in support of the Pussy Riot protest group, nailed his testicles in Red Square and set fire to one of the gates of the historic headquarters of the Russian security services.