In another provocative turn for the absurdist Russian art collective, Voina has asked international artists to boycott the 4th Moscow Biennale of Contemporary Art. They charge that the exhibition is exhibiting a work that does not belong to the group under its name.

The misattributed piece is “Kiss the Cops,” a stunt documented on video and in photos in which former Voina members Pyotr Verzilov and Nadezhda Tolokonnikova worked with female activists to “force kisses on policewomen on duty in the Moscow metro” (a still from the video is seen above left). The mistake seems to be that Verzilov and Tolokonnikova are no longer part of the collective, and thus the work on display should not be assigned to Voina.

“Alexei Plutser, who documents every Voina stunt with photos and text descriptions in his Livejournal.com blog, said then that “Verzilov and his girlfriends” had been kicked out of Voina for allegedly handing in a Kiev activist to the Ukrainian police in November 2009,” reports the Saint Petersburg Times.

Voina are known for their surreal interventions in urban life, performances that have included throwing cats at Russian McDonalds workers and drawing an enormous phallus on Liteiny Bridge in St. Petersburg in 2010. Check out a video of the “Kiss the Cops” performance embedded below.

Tags: Performance Art, Russia, Voina