A parade of absurdity

'Monstration' overtakes the streets of Novosibirsk. A photo series

Since 2004, a growing group of creative youngsters in Novosibirsk has held a strange parade on May Day called Monstration, where demonstrators dress up in odd costumes and carry deliberately absurd slogans. This year, city officials refused to allow the carnival to march through downtown Novosibirsk.

When Monstration demonstrators tried to join the city’s sanctioned May Day march today, police turned them around. So the parade went the opposite direction, away from the city’s center, and a small group even found its way to city hall, where demonstrators demanded to speak to the mayor, Anatoly Lokot, who roundly ignored them. Before long, the group dispersed and 2015’s Monstration was over.

During the parade, no one was arrested, but afterwards police did detain Artem Loskutov, Monstration’s creator and organizer, on charges of organizing an unsanctioned rally and disobeying police.

The slogans at this year’s Monstration parade were very much in the spirit of the times in Russia today. Participants alluded to the scandal surrounding the production of Richard Wagner’s opera Tannhäuser, which authorities say violates the right to freedom of conscience and religion in Russia. Other signs poked fun at Russia’s growing number of censorship cases