Pyotr Pavlensky

Otdelenie (Separation), Moscow (2014)

"From where she’s sitting in the St Petersburg cafe, the elderly woman can’t see Pyotr Pavlensky’s self-mutilated right ear. But her eyes widen in horror as Russia’s most notorious political artist — gaunt, shaven-headed, dressed entirely in black — describes how he sliced off his earlobe while perched on the roof of a Moscow psychiatric centre. “I’ve no idea what happened to my earlobe after I severed it,” Pavlensky laughs, when I ask. He warms to the absurdity of the question. “The birds probably ate it,” he deadpans, before taking a sip of his strong, black coffee. “I didn’t get the knife back, either. Not that I asked the police for it.” The woman quickly finishes off her meal and hurries out the door. (...)"

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