Oleg Kulik, an artist who often performs naked, mostly as a dog, is explaining why there is a photograph on display in a London gallery of his genitals gently resting on the backs of kittens. “It was, you know ... so nice, so comfortable.”

Kulik, who has also shared his bed with a goat, preached to fish, and been arrested for biting people watching his mad dog performances – all for the sake of art – is taking part in a new exhibition opening on Thursday at the Saatchi gallery.

Work from some of the most deliberately provocative and wonderfully troublesome artists working in Russia has been gathered for a show dedicated to post-Soviet protest art.

Aside from Kulik, regarded as something of an actionist art father figure, there are works by Pussy Riot, the Blue Noses Art Group, Arsen Savadov and Pyotr Pavlensky, best known for nailing his scrotum to the stone of Red Square.

Oleg Kulik, who has shared his bed with a goat. Photograph: Christian Sinibaldi/The Guardian

Much of the work pokes fun at Soviet communism and the current Putin regime. It is not a show which could be staged in Russia, according to the banker and prolific art collector Igor Tsukanov, who is producing the show and has commissioned new work from the artists.

“In Russia you have to be either brave, or be silent. There is no middle,” he said. He said the current furore over the extent of Russian influence in British politics was a sign of the Putin regime employing the same disruptive tactics used by Soviet communist leaders for a new generation.

The show’s curator, Marat Guelman, said the artists, who continued to produce work despite threats to their safety, were heroes.



“The main idea is to show not only the art but the artists, their personal stories,” he said. “In Russia people say a poet in Russia is more than a poet and today, when we have no political freedom, we have no free media, artists become the last important people. The government is afraid of artists. Artists are not afraid.”

He said the artists in exhibition were determined, brave and heroic – but also very funny. “This is very Russian,” he said. “Self-irony is an important part of the Russian mentality.”

Whether the art of Pavlensky is funny or horrifying is open to question. Examples of his extreme art “parables” are included in the show including the time he sewed up his mouth with red cotton, him having his naked body wrapped in barbed wire before being carried to the entrance of the state legislature in St Petersburg, nailing his scrotum to Red Square in 2013 and cutting off his earlobe with a chef’s knife in 2014.

Maria Alyokhina of Pussy Riot. Photograph: Christian Sinibaldi/The Guardian

The sewing of his lips in 2012 was a political protest against the jailing of the punk art collective Pussy Riot. They fell foul of the authorities after performing their song Virgin Mary, Mother of God, Expel Putin! in Moscow’s Cathedral of Christ the Saviour.

Their art work features in the London show and Pussy Riot member Maria Alyokhina, who spent time in prison, said she was pleased to be part of the exhibition.

“It is a chance to show alongside artists who were supporting us during our court trial and prison term,” she said. “A lot of the works here were made by our friends and I’m happy that people will come and see their works.”



Alyokhina said it was important to continue protesting and she was not someone who dwelt on whether she was safe or not. “I believe that we should do what we can to make a change and show the possibility of change.”

Work by the Blue Noses Art Group. Photograph: Christian Sinibaldi/The Guardian

The fact that many of the problems and fears of artists in Russia today chime with those from previous generations is a major theme of the exhibition.

Kulik said the Soviet Union and then Russia was a dehumanising place, which is why he took the decision to stop being a person and become an animal – in the hope he would become a person again. “I will become the first Russian person. Or maybe the second. The first is Pavlensky.



“Everything that was there under Stalin is there now,” he said. “The experiment with Lenin is not over. Lenin sits there and watches everything, he is alive.”



• Art Riot: Post-Soviet Actionism is at the Saatchi gallery from 16 November to 31 December.