With POLICE STATE, Nadya Tolokonnikova returns to performance with unflinching focus. Staged inside the WAREHOUSE at MOCA Los Angeles, the work draws from the artist’s long-standing engagement with systems of state control, institutional violence, and the politics of visibility. Known as the founder of Pussy Riot, Tolokonnikova situates this latest performance in a confined cell, a constructed space that simultaneously isolates and exposes her body, voice, and intent.
ART
Born in Norilsk, Russia in 1989, Tolokonnikova has never shied away from confrontation. From her 2012 arrest following the now-historic Punk Prayer performance to the launch of her museum debut RAGE in 2024, her work challenges authoritarianism through both symbolism and sustained physical presence. In POLICE STATE, the cell functions as a live installation, equal parts prison and stage, silence and volume, vulnerability and provocation.
Inside the cell, Tolokonnikova performs a series of sonic expressions that span from distorted lullabies to jagged industrial noise. These sonic shifts are more than aesthetic, they map an emotional topography of entrapment and revolt. Every sound becomes a signal, a refusal to go unheard. While the space evokes the architecture of punishment, it also becomes a site of creative force, a contradiction that powers the piece from within.
Referencing the panopticon, the conceptual structure in which the act of observation becomes its own form of control, POLICE STATE positions both performer and viewer in a feedback loop of scrutiny and reflection. Tolokonnikova uses this tension to destabilize the act of watching itself. Who holds power in this space? Who resists it? And how?
Presented as part of MOCA’s Wonmi’s WAREHOUSE Programs, curated by Alex Sloane and produced by Amelia Charter with Michele Huizar, POLICE STATE is backed by the museum’s commitment to performance as a vital site of contemporary inquiry. The production also acknowledges the support of Galerie Nagel Draxler, Berlin and Honor Fraser Gallery, Los Angeles.
POLICE STATE by Nadya Tolokonnikova stands as a burning confrontation with present systems of domination, and a reminder that creation remains one of the last acts of defiance. The performance runs from June 5 to June 14, with daily activations that transform the cell into a living site of resistance and expression.
