Russian street artist Konstantin Benkovich auctions off art piece in support of Meduza
Russian street artist Konstantin Benkovich has launched an auction on social media in support of Meduza. Up for sale is a one-of-a-kind art piece: the Meduza logo with the head of a snake, made from welded steel bars and painted gold (its dimensions are 79 x 56 x 3.2 cm, or 31 x 22 x 1.26 inches).
The starting bid was set at one ruble ($0.013). The artist is accepting bids in the comments section on his Facebook post, as well as on Instagram, and on Telegram @Benkovich_Konstantin. Bidding will end at 10:30 p.m. Moscow time (3:30 p.m. EST) on July 16. Benkovich will transfer the proceeds from the auction to Meduza.
“I decided to support Meduza by doing an auction on my social media accounts. The biting, stinging, inconvenient ‘Meduza’ was made by me from [metal] bars. As a sculptural material, I used steel rods — a coded material in Russia that’s strongly associated with a cage and non-freedom,” the artist said.
Street artist Konstantin Benkovich is best known for making artworks from rebar. On June 12, 2021, Russia Day, he installed a clock that runs backwards on the wall of the house where murdered opposition politician Boris Nemtsov lived in Nizhny Novgorod. In 2018, he installed a sculpture of “The Scream” at the site of Nemtsov’s murder in Moscow.
Other artists have also created works in support of Meduza. In May, Russian artist Artem Loskutov auctioned off a painting of the Meduza logo created using the blows of a truncheon. Dozens of artists also created works of crypto art for an NFT auction in support of our publication.