On the anniversary of the 2016 U.S. Presidential election, as well as the centennial of the 1917 Russian Revolution, Pussy Riot has released a new video for “Police State” starring Chloë Sevigny. Directed by Matt Creed, the video features Sevigny as a cruel autocratic agent of the state, using her police baton to lay down the law. This is the first release Pussy Riot has put out since their xxx mixtape last year, which featured a politically charged video for “Make America Great Again,” as well as feminist self-love anthem “Straight Outta Vagina,” and the anti-Putin “Organs.”
In a statement about the video, Nadya Tolokonnikova connected the political revolutions of the twentieth century with the need for a stronger resistance after last year’s election: “Soviet dissidents were fighting against one of the most oppressive governments on the planet and shared their own D.I.Y. magazines (samizdat) via secret networks. Labor union leaders and civil rights activists were dying for their beliefs in the U.S. And it actually did make our world a better place.” Tolokonnikova also underscored the importance for an active resistance to the new administration, adding, “What was in fact blown up on 8th of November 2016 was the social contract, the paradigm that says that you can live comfortably without getting your hands dirty with politics.”
Watch the video below.
