Bridge Phallus Wins Russian Art Award
United Press International
Apr 11, 2011
A Russian art collection famous for staging controversial stunts won a state prize for contemporary art for painting a phallus on a St. Petersburg drawbridge.
Voina, which translates to "War," won the Innovation All-Russian Contemporary Art Competition, which is run by the Russian Culture Ministry and the National Center for Contemporary Arts, for the giant phallus painting completed last summer, RIA Novosti reported Friday.
The location of the painting caused the phallus image to rise up in front of the Federal Security Service headquarters in St. Petersburg when the drawbridge was raised.
"This action by Voina is one of the brightest and most colorful works of 2010 in the field of contemporary art," architect Yury Avvakumov said in announcing the group's nomination. "It was done extremely professionally from the point of view of the strategy and tactics of actionism. It is clear that this work will be part of the history of contemporary art."
Members of Voina were not present at the Moscow awards ceremony.
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Copyright 2011 by United Press International
