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Pyotr Pavlensky, Russia's Controversial Self-Mutilating Artist

If Russian artist Pyotr Pavlensky planned to shock the public, his latest stunt can certainly be described as a success. On October 19, Pavlensky stripped naked, climbed onto the roof of Moscow's Serbsky psychiatric center and sliced off his right earlobe with a huge kitchen knife. The stunt, titled "Separation," was meant to denounce Russia's growing use of psychiatry to silence dissidents. Previously, he has wrapped himself naked in barbed wire in front of St. Petersburg's legislature and sewn his lips shut to condemn the prosecution of two members of the opposition punk collective Pussy Riot.

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