REPORTAGE
"He bought a new mailbox, put his name on it, 'Pavlenski', and then removed it," says Mathilde, evoking her neighbor. The Russian artist and activist, indicted on Tuesday, and placed under judicial supervision in the Griveaux case, lived for a long time in the Parisian district of La Mouzaïa (19th). In this village-like neighborhood, Piotr Pavlenski lived in a house with a garden, nestled in a small alley. There, his neighbors describe an enigmatic, intriguing man. "He said hello to me, he is very polite," continues Mathilde, who says that he recently met him. "I asked him if he was a new neighbor, he replied 'I squat'".
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Housing squatted by "a tough guy"
"I am an artist. A political artist". This is how Piotr Pavlenski introduced himself, says Mathilde. Other neighbors, they look badly at the presence of this man in the house. Today, the activist's ex-wife lives in this home, squatted since the owner's death last summer. "Since September, they have renovated the interior, they have tidied up, they have settled in ... They are very strong, but I find that absolutely disgusting", indignant another neighbor.
Before taking up residence in this house, Pavlenski would have occupied another accommodation in the same district. "He squatted the house behind ours," reports Félix. "He stayed there almost a year. We could see him, he was sleeping on mattresses," he adds, before evoking his first impression on the Russian activist. "I saw that it was a tough guy."
Already convicted in 2019 for having burnt down in October 2017 the facade of a branch of the Banque de France place de la Bastille, in Paris, the 35-year-old activist assumed, Tuesday, when he left court, the distribution of videos of a sexual nature from the former government spokesperson. "Of course, I'm glad I did that," he said, claiming "political art".