Naked Russian Artist Cuts Off His Ear in Protest
Editor's Note: This story contains graphic images.
KIEV, Ukraine — The controversial Russian performance artist and political activist who nailed his scrotum to the cobblestones of Moscow’s Red Square last year sliced off his earlobe in his latest protest against the return of repressive Soviet-era policies.
Naked and sitting atop a wall at Moscow’s Serbsky State Scientific Center for Social and Forensic Psychiatry, Pyotr Pavlensky, a St. Petersburg native, severed his right earlobe with a large kitchen knife on Sunday in a performance aptly titled "Separation."
In a statement posted to his wife’s Facebook timeline, Pavlensky said his performance was a meant to symbolize the consequence of “returning to the use of psychiatry for political goals” in Russia.
