Bad politics breeds good reactionary art. Throw in some pornography, profanity, and hard-headed art-activists, and - as the director of the Central Art House learned last weekend - there'll be a public shit storm. The lesson: next time, don't invite the Moscow art-group War to participate unless you're down with conceptual art orgies... or willing to call the cops.

Members of War (Voina) are seasoned experts in stirring their willing and unwilling audience. The art-group's early actions like throwing live street-cats into high-class Moscow restaurants or wielding shut said restaurants in the middle of the night, have matured over the years. They have become more directly involved in politics, disrupting both nationalist and dissenter demonstrations. When famed Russian curator Andrei Erofeev invited Viona to take part in his "Lettrism" exhibition, he was already familiar with their antics and political provocations. Erofeyev granted the group's request for a whole room and complete freedom.

Erofeev, however, was not expecting a 115 square-foot banner photograph of group sex with the slogan "Fuck for Your Heir the Bear Cub!" (the bear cub - medvejonok - being Medvedev, naturally.)

This and other photographic and video transcripts of their x-rated February 2008 action at the Timiriazev Biological Museum comprised just a portion of Voina's incendiary exhibition. When the director of the Central Art House, Bichkov, arrived at the scene, he became hilariously infuriated (his last name does, after all, mean "little bull"). He raged ferociously at curator Erofeyev to dismantle Voina's display.

A series of compromises were attempted, like the paraphrasing of signage "I Fuck the Bear Cub" (for some reason "cock" is less offensive than "fuck" in Russian). Bichkov still called the cops, urging for Voina's arrest and permanent blacklisting. At first, Erofeev discouraged the cops by pretending to angrily scold the art group, but several Bichkov's threats later, a second, heavier-armed police wave arrived and the destruction of Voina's entire exhibit began.

Voina and the Russian police have a history (the take-over of a police station in a May 2008 action "Humiliation of Copper in His Own House" plus numerous previous arrests). This history continued at the "Lettism" exhibition with a huge fight erupting in the art house with Voina's Peter dragged out and away to be arrested and Voina's Nadya and Kat (the disrobed two-some from the banner) sent to the hospital.

We can't decide which is more epic - Voina's attempts at verbal defense of their art ("What don't you understand? This is iron logic right here!"), a beet-red Bichkov joining in on the police brutality, or the toddler wailing under the pornographic banner in which he appears as the pregnant belly of one of the art-activists. In any case, thanks to the indomitable, DIY media-body that is LiveJournal, things couldn't have worked out better for Voina. The Russian cyber-channels have been gloriously flooded with pages and pages of image-filled coverage. Let's take a gander, shall we?

NSFW. You've been warned (and titillated).

The banner in question.

Attempts at compromise.

Exhibition.

Trouble begins.

Trouble continues.

Trouble escalates.

Big trouble!

Details and images via LiveJournal