Echoes of Resistance: Pussy Riot Siberia Closes Out ‘POLICE STATE’ at MOCA Geffen
This Saturday, June 15, Pussy Riot Siberia brings Nadya Tolokonnikova’s powerful POLICE STATE exhibition to a close with a live performance and panel discussion from 3-6PM as part of the museum’s Wonmi’s WAREHOUSE Programs. Led by Tolokonnikova, the group uses noise music, performance art, and visual storytelling to confront war, identity, exile, and state violence head-on. The event is ticketed and expected to sell out quickly, given the lineup and the political temperature just outside MOCA’s doors.
The group’s frontwoman is best known as a founding member of Pussy Riot and became internationally recognized after serving two years in prison for Punk Prayer, a protest performance aimed at Vladimir Putin’s regime. Now based in exile, she continues to use art as a political weapon. Pussy Riot Siberia —made up of Tolokonnikova, Max Lawton, Riley Bray, and John Caldwell — builds on Pussy Riot’s legacy.
The timing couldn’t be more charged. Just blocks from MOCA Geffen, activists are currently protesting against ICE and the escalating campaign targeting undocumented people in Los Angeles. The POLICE STATE exhibit — centered around surveillance, incarceration, and authoritarian control — feels especially urgent in this moment. Pussy Riot Siberia’s performance makes that urgency impossible to ignore.
This new project follows Tolokonnikova’s 2023 Los Angeles installation Putin’s Ashes at Jeffrey Deitch Gallery, which led to a new criminal case against her and landed her on Russia’s most wanted list. Since then, the group has performed at major museums like the American Folk Art Museum and Berlin’s Neue Nationalgalerie. On June 15, they bring their visceral energy to LA for a closing that’s less a finale and more a flashpoint.
The program also features Compton-based artist Mr. Wash, who taught himself to paint while serving a life sentence for nonviolent drug charges. After receiving clemency from President Obama, he’s continued to tell powerful stories through his art and is now building a community arts center to support creative healing in Compton.
Rounding out the lineup is Aleksandra “Sasha” Skochilenko, a Russian artist and former political prisoner. She was arrested in 2022 for replacing grocery store price tags with antiwar messages and spent over two years behind bars before being released in a prisoner swap. Her work explores the emotional cost of resistance and the power of visibility.
Together, these artists make it clear that the struggle for freedom is far from over. Through raw sound, personal testimony, and radical imagination, the closing event at POLICE STATE serves as both resistance and release.
Photo — MOCA Geffen
