The girlfriend of a Russian performance artist and activist who released a video of a sexual nature that prompted a Paris mayoral candidate to stand down is being questioned by police over her role in the scandal.

The woman, named by French media as Alexandra de Taddeo, was taken into custody along with the artist, Petr Pavlensky, on Saturday afternoon as they left a Paris hotel. They are being questioned over accusations of invasion of privacy and “broadcasting images of a sexual nature without the permission of the person involved”.

Detectives arrested the pair after Benjamin Griveaux, a former government minister and Macron ally, lodged a legal complaint following the release of videos of him performing a sex act on himself.

Q&A Who is Pyotr Pavlensky? Show Hide The 36-year-old Russian conceptual artist fled to France in 2017 after being detained and questioned over sexual assault allegations made by a female actor. He denies the allegations, claiming they were politically motivated.

A St Petersburg native and art school graduate, he gained fame after the 2012 trial of the punk protest group Pussy Riot, which he said convinced him of the need for a radical turn in art. He encased himself naked in barbed wire and cut off his earlobe while perched on top of a psychiatric hospital. When he was arrested for setting fire to the doors of the headquarters of the FSB security service, he incorporated his arrest and trial into his art. In 2012 he sewed his mouth shut to protest against censorship and a year later he nailed his scrotum to the cobblestones of Red Square. In his adopted country, he set fire to a Bank of France office and has supported the gilets jaunes protest movement. But the release of a sexual video of a Paris mayoral candidate may be his most explosive stunt to date. In a 2014 interview, he bragged of not fleeing punishment for his art: “Whenever I do a performance like this, I never leave the place. It’s important for me that I stay there." Yet Pavlensky did leave Russia after the sexual assault allegations. Andrew Roth

Russian-born Pavlensky, 36, who was granted political asylum in France in 2017, has admitted publishing the videos on a pornographic political website last week, saying he did so to highlight Griveaux’s “hypocrisy”. Police have been searching for Pavelensky since December after being called to a knife fight and also want to question him over this incident.

On Friday, Griveaux, a former minister and spokesman for Emmanuel Macron’s centrist La République en Marche (LREM) party, announced he was standing down as a candidate for Paris mayor to protect his family from what he described as a “vile” campaign.

Griveaux, a married father of three, had made family values a major part of his election campaign. The videos were made in May 2018 and sent to a woman, reported by French media to be 29-year-old lawyer De Taddeo, along with a series of text messages.

Richard Malka, Griveaux’s lawyer, dismissed as “preposterous” Pavlensky’s defence that he was exposing political hypocrisy.

“I have rarely come across anyone so cynical. This is an absolute sham, with pseudo artists who think they’re in a dictatorship and need to give moral lessons,” Malka told LCI television. “Of course, I do not believe he acted alone at all.”

Juan Branco, a lawyer for Pavlensky and De Taddeo, accused police of using the scandal to “deprive my clients of their freedom”, adding: “I would like the government to take responsibility for its acts.”

The Paris prosecutor’s office confirmed it was holding the pair. Police are trying to establish whether the woman was Pavlensky’s accomplice in the broadcasting of the films or whether her phone was hacked.

In France, so-called revenge porn is a crime punishable by up to two years in prison and a fine of up to €60,000.

French health minister Agnes Buzyn said on Sunday that she had been chosen as new candidate for Macron and his LREM party to challenge the current mayor, Anne Hidalgo, who is seeking a second six-year mandate in next month’s local elections.

Another candidate , Cédric Villani, now standing as an independent, was expelled from LREM for refusing to make way for Griveaux.

• This article was amended on 18 February 2020 to correct details about the candidature of Villani and to note that he was expelled from LREM.