Voina: Noze Brothers of the Russian Art World

"Beyond Art" police car burning.

Voina, without the Nozes.

In celebration of New Years, the Russian street art group Voina burned a police car.  The group acknowledges that their performances are not "ART" per se.  Instead, they argue, their work is "beyond art."  The "Beyond Art" school of "Art" is problematic.  When you do not know where "art" is in the first place, it is hard to say when you have passed it; when you have gone "beyond art."  The other problem with "beyond art" is that if you approach "art from the opposite direction," what was once "beyond art" is now "not quite to art."  Perhaps the semantic solution for this dilemma is to say that the performances of Voina are "near art."  But in order to find out just how "near" or "far away" one is from "art," we will have to wait for the iPhone app.