France Charges Dissident Artist Pyotr Pavlensky With Invasion of Privacy for Leaking a Paris Politician’s Sex Tape

Dissident Russian artist Pyotr Pavlensky, 35, is back in
international headlines—and back in trouble with the law. He is
facing charges of invasion of privacy for leaking a sex tape of
Parisian mayoral candidate Benjamin Griveaux. The politician,
a member of French President Emmanuel Macron’s centrist party La
République En Marche, has since dropped out of the race.

“[Griveaux] is someone who constantly brings up family values,
who says he wants to be the mayor of families and always cites his
wife and children as an example. But he is doing the
opposite,” Pavlensky told French paper
Libération.

Pavlensky and his girlfriend, Alexandra de Taddeo, have been
released by French authorities after being charged with invasion of
privacy and publishing images of a sexual nature without consent,
according to Radio Free Europe.
Pavlensky, who is also reportedly under
investigation in connection with a New Year’s Eve knife fight,
is currently under judicial supervision. His lawyer did not
immediately respond to a request for comment from Artnet News.

The artist uploaded the incriminating video to a new website he
created for “political porn” last week. Griveaux allegedly sent the
video to de Taddeo, with whom he had a relationship before she
began dating Pavlensky, in May 2018; she denies being involved
with disseminating the footage online.

“My family does not deserve this. No one should ever be
subjected to such abuse,” Griveaux told AFP. Agnes Buzyn,
the country’s former health minister, is now taking his place on
the ballot.

Pavlensky first rose to prominence in 2012, when he protested
the incarceration of Pussy Riot by sewing his lips shut outside St.
Petersburg’s Kazan Cathedral. Other acts of self-mutilation include
famously nailing his scrotum to the cobblestones of Red Square in
Moscow in 2013, and cutting off his own
earlobe in 2014.

The artist sought political
asylum in France in 2017, after a Russian actress accused him
of sexual assault. Pavlensky claimed that the complaint against him
was politically motivated. France granted asylum to the artist and
his then-partner, Oksana Shalygina, and their two children in
May 2017. That October, the couple was arrested for setting fire to
the Banque de France building in Paris as a performance art
piece.

This wasn’t the first time Pavlensky got into trouble for
setting a building aflame. He previously ignited the door of
Russia’s Federal Security Service in
Moscow in a controversial
piece that got him
arrested, beaten by prison
guards, placed in a mental health facility,
and convicted of vandalism.
In France, Pavlensky received
a two-year suspended
sentence and one year’s jail sentence, as well as an
approximately $25,000 fine, but was released for time
served. 

Some French lawmakers are now calling for the country to revoke
his asylum, reports Artforum. If
that were to happen, Pavlensky has said he plans to move to
another country in Europe.

The post France Charges Dissident Artist Pyotr Pavlensky
With Invasion of Privacy for Leaking a Paris Politician’s Sex
Tape appeared first on artnet News.