The Bastille Square
Paris, 21 October, 2017
Pavlensky's most recent performance, the arson of Bank of France on the 21st October on the Bastille Square in Paris, with an appeal to launch a new revolution, appears naive. However, visually this arson repeats in detail the Threat performance on the Lubyanka Square in Moscow, and such repetitiveness has deep meaning; a single helpless man cannot stand against unlimited power of the state or represent real threat to it. For Pavlensky, the bank represents the omnipotential power of the capital; the bloodline of the neoliberalist system; and as such, the subject of "mad hatred".
« The Bastille was destroyed by the uprising people; the people destroyed it as the symbol of the power and oppression. But on that same place, a new palace of slavery emerged! The bank which destroys the revolutionaries and supports the criminal VersaIlles. The Bank of France took the place of the Bastille; and the bankers took the place of the monarchs!» - Pavlensky wrote in his Manifesto.
In Pavlensky's propaganda arsenal, there is an important saying, "we already need an effort to stay where we are, and to move ahead, we need to make a gigantic effort". It looks like he is trying such gigantic effort. It is hard to say though whether in today's "Pavlensky's threat", we see more hope or more despair.