A Russian artist is in an English prison after petrol-bombing Tate Modern at the end of 2017.

Alexander Art, who came to the UK from Russia in July 2017, regarded the Tate at the turn of the millennium as the best modern art gallery in the world. “But it became a theme park,” he told A Void magazine before the events that led to his arrest. “Now the paintings of Picasso and Matisse are posters so that people can more actively visit the restaurant.”

Read the full interview with the Tate Modern bomber Alexander Art in A Void issue 2

Initially the artist, who has been part of solo and group exhibitions at galleries in Moscow, tried to work with the British institution to make it better. He posted the curators his manifestoes for the movement he leads, Abstract Idealism, and this summer began making one of the world’s biggest abstract artworks in the huge empty space outside the gallery. But the Tate icily dismissed his offer of installing art in the vacant Turbine Hall — which he points out is available for corporate parties — and the museum’s security guards destroyed the artwork without explanation.

Every day for the next five months Alexander Art stood inches away from the Tate’s land on the South Bank, waving a white flag, with a sign scrawled on the front of the paint-splattered smock he wore, declaring, “Tate Modern destroys works of art!” The human statue called his new work “Resistance to Tatecide.”

Most days when stood on the Bankside promenade in an area specially designated by Southwark council for performers — but usually occupied by human Yoda statues — Tate security staff would instruct Southwark Council wardens to intimidate the stern-looking 38-year-old (who does not speak English). On one occasion I witnessed the warden trying to shut down his performance because he did not regard it as art.

Tate security confront Alexander Art

At around 2am on November 23rd, Alexander Art reloaded his assault against the gallery that has a wing dedicated to protest art. His new work was called “Moment of Despair,” and he decided to install it on Tate Modern’s walls with five glass bottles, petrol, cloth strips and a lighter — Molotov cocktails. He lit the fuse, smashed them against the wall, which went up in flames, and left two more unlit petrol bombs as evidence. He stayed on the scene for several hours blowing a horn.

First the fire brigade arrived to put out the flames on the side of London’s most popular tourist attraction, then the police. “I did it,” he told the cops.

Tate staff look on as a Southwark Council warden confronts Alexander Art on public land

Police interview reports seen by A Void show that when asked if he obtained permission from the gallery’s owners before installing his new work, he replied that the Tate is owned by the British people.

Read the police interview with the Tate Modern bomber Alexander Art in A Void issue 2

If the police and the Tate were not impressed, some of his fellow radical artists have been quick to back him. “We fully support the explosive, courageous direct action of Alexander Art in drastically exposing the utter bankruptcy of what still passes for modern art venerably displayed in London’s Tate Modern’s kleptocratic citadel,” said David and Stuart Wise, whose works were bought by the Tate in 2008.

During his detention at Thameside prison, which is run by private security contractor Serco, Alexander Art went on hunger strike for over 20 days to be allowed a phone call to his wife in Russia. He says the guards threw food in his face and put him in solitary confinement. He claims they left the light on for days to deprive him of sleep — a form of “torture” his wife points out is similar to that used by the NKVD in the Soviet Union.

After two failed attempts by Serco to produce the defendant in court, meaning he was imprisoned without trial over Christmas, Alexander Art finally appeared in the dock at Inner London Crown Court on Friday, looking bewildered and agitated after six weeks of captivity. He pleaded guilty to arson, but remains in detention in an unknown location.

The full interview with Alexander Art appears in issue 2 of A Void magazine.

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