Oleg Kulik, an artist who often performs naked, mostly as a dog, is explaining why there is a photograph on display in a London gallery of his genitals gently resting on the backs of kittens. “It was, you know … so nice, so comfortable.”

Kulik, who has also shared his bed with a goat, preached to fish, and been arrested for biting people watching his mad dog performances – all for the sake of art – is taking part in a new exhibition opening on Thursday at the Saatchi gallery.

Work from some of the most deliberately provocative and wonderfully troublesome artists working in Russia has been gathered for a show dedicated to post-Soviet protest art.

Aside from Kulik, regarded as something of an actionist art father figure, there are works by Pussy Riot, the Blue Noses Art Group, Arsen Savadov and Pyotr Pavlensky, best known for nailing his scrotum to the stone of Red Square. Read more