Sasha Skochilenko: The Price of Freedom
Last week, I went to the opening of an exhibition at the Koppel Project Station in Hampstead, London. It is a remarkable venue in its own right — a disused police station with prison cell interiors and metal doors, now repurposed as an art space. The exhibition is free and will be open until the end of this month. It has been organised by the Russian expat art community and the Russian Democratic Society UK and features the work of the Russian artist and musician Sasha (Aleksandra) Skochilenko.
A year ago, hardly anyone outside of the St Petersburg art circles had heard of Skochilenko. But her supermarket stunt — where she replaced price tags with facts about the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the Russian army’s massacres in Mauripol — has both landed her in jail and unexpectedly catapulted her to international fame.
As a result of that so-called ‘crime’, she has now been held in remand prison for ten months. The first stage of her trial has just completed (the rest has been postponed until July).
All the drawings exhibited at the Koppel Project Station have been created by Skochilenko while in detention.
Here is Skochilenko’s story as I know it.
The Protagonist
Sasha is bravely and openly queer — in a country where all forms of public LGBTQ expression have been banned. She is also bipolar, clinically depressed, and has celiac disease. Given the current climate in Russia, it is evident that some of these factors have contributed to her struggle in prison and to her treatment in court.
She has been unable even to call her girlfriend Sonya from prison because the orders from above specifically permit only “close family members” to contact her (read: blood family or spouse). Limited access to an appropriate diet has kept her sick for months, while being bipolar and depressed in a Russian prison is… well, you can imagine.
Before her arrest, Sasha was known for her work advocating for people with depression and bipolar disorder. She is the author of several illustrated books on this topic.
The Snitch
Enter the snitch* — an elderly woman who saw Skochilenko replacing price tags in a supermarket. She immediately reported the artist to the authorities for “discrediting the Russian armed forces”.
Here, in an excerpt translated from her interview with the investigatory committee, the snitch is referring to the text on one of Sasha’s replacement ‘price tags’ that describes the infamous Mauripol art school bombing (footage of which has been broadcast all over the world**):
“I was extremely outraged by reading this slander, because I am very worried about the Russian soldiers in Ukraine; I do watch all the news about it.*** Additionally, my son has attended an art school and therefore I have an idea of what that space would be like: its area is unlikely to be larger than 100 sq. m., therefore it would be quite difficult for 400 people to hide there… And anyway, our soldiers would not allow the bombing of peaceful civilian buildings such as a school.”
The Trap
The investigatory committee used a fabricated threat of pedophilia to coerce a friend of Skochilenko to cooperate with them and to be used as bait. They broke into his computer to get Skochilenko’s contact details and forced him to ‘invite’ her into his flat. She was then arrested on the spot.
Later, at the trial, the young man was so ashamed of what he had done that he initially refused to testify. He was not an activist and had no training on how to behave if threatened by the authorities. He was intimidated by the investigators in ways that in another country would have been deemed barbaric and illegal, but in Russia are part and parcel of the judicial system.
The Vandalistic Police
During a Moscow art exhibition organised to help fund Skochilenko’s legal fees, a brutal police raid took place where visitors were forced onto the floor, several were detained, and one of them beaten.
Most nauseatingly of all, the police tore down some of the exhibits and doodled ‘Z’ symbols all over them. (For an explanation of what ‘Z’ or ‘Zedik’ means, please read my Glossary.)
If you can stomach watching footage of police brutality, here is a video of the raid that one of the exhibition organisers has managed to capture.
The Kangaroo Court
Friends and supporters of Skochilenko have been regularly updating her social media channels during the trial, so I have been able to follow it in detail.
As was customary of trials of this kind in Russia, the young woman was kept in a cage during the hearings. The contrast between her frail figure and the metal cage surrounded by the ‘men in grey’ (the enforcers), was stark.
Limited members of the public were allowed into the courtroom. During the trial, the defence highlighted a number of violations of the basic justice process by the prosecution; however the judge chose to ignore them. Among these violations were the prosecutor’s attempts to extend the hearing, contrary to the defence’s request to shorten it in order to ease the defendant’s mental and physical health symptoms.
Here is a translated excerpt from one of the updates made by Skochilenko’s supporters on her social media page:
“When questioning Sasha, the defence barrister Novolodsky asked many clarifying questions about her mental illness and her emotional state at the time of the so-called ‘crime’.
“When writing to a friend, you mentioned that you cried every day because of what was happening. Do you think all people behave like this?” Novolodsky asked. “I find it difficult to answer this question, I guess I’m just a sensitive person,” Sasha replied.
“You are not even being judged for dissenting thoughts or actions here, but for dissenting feelings,” summed up Novolodsky.
In another update, Sasha’s supporters bitterly noted that, when reading out the evidence relating to the defendant’s mental health, the prosecutor lowered her voice to ensure that the judge and the audience had trouble hearing her.
After several days of deliberations, the judge could not reach a decision. The trial was postponed, and Skochilenko’s detention was extended by a further three months. Undoubtedly, later this summer this parody of justice will continue.
Je suis Sasha
The dissident Russian media (now entirely operating from exile) and some Western media have picked up on Sasha Skochilenko’s story and have thrown it into the limelight — partly, perhaps, because it so easily captures the imagination. Yet, her plight is far from unique. As I have alluded elsewhere in this blog, many similar stories are quietly taking place all over the country, some of which I have been a witness to. Thus, Sasha’s case has become representative of all those other lesser known cases; it is the tip of an iceberg.
The small exhibition space at the former Hampstead police station is peppered with quotes by Skochilenko. One such quote talks of a dandelion flowering within the cracks of the prison yard floor. Sasha lovingly describes the flower and the joy that it brings her during her prison walks.
I’ve been thinking about that dandelion ever since.
In the West, I often come across discussions about “separating the art from the artist.” They are usually intended to criticise the individual for whatever failings they have, while allowing for their artwork to be enjoyed in isolation. And yet, here, the exact opposite must surely be true: the artist has transcended her own art to become something bigger; her art has become an embodiment of this quiet strength. The artist herself is now a symbol.
A symbol of other art exhibitions that were trashed by the police or by violent thugs, or held in secret for fear of prosecution.
Of other people who spoke out against the war and were punished for it.
Of other lives broken by Putin’s regime.
Of other dandelions that grow within the cracks of the tightening repressions.
We are Sasha.
***
NOTES
* — The phenomenon of snitching (Russian: стукач — reporting by ordinary citizens of those whom they perceive to be engaging in illegal activities such as “discrediting the Russian army or the Special Operation in Ukraine”, to the authorities) has been rising sharply in Russia since the start of the Ukraine invasion. It echoes the widespread snitching that took place during Stalinist repressions.
**, *** — The Russian army’s Mauripol atrocities have never been broadcast on the Russian state media, while the Russian officials have labelled any such evidence as ‘fakes’. When the snitch talks of “watching all the news about it”, she is referring only to the Russian state TV, which depicts the Russian army as ‘heroes’ and the Ukrainians as ‘Nazis’. It is very likely that she, like most ordinary Russians, would have had no access to any other news sources.
