The Arrow of Time

Yervant Gianikian and Angela Ricci Lucchi visited the Soviet Union at the end of the 1980s. It was during the closing years of the Soviet Empire, and the words on everyone’s lips were glasnost and perestroika. They wanted to gather the memories of the cinematographic literary and artistic Russian avant-garde of the ’20s and ’30s, seeking out survivors and listening to their life stories. They both had the habit of filling up notebooks with thoughts, drawings, notes and recipes: a hotchpotch which reflects their own way of working. The volume features a selection of pages from these notebooks, reproduced here for the first time, thus providing us with access to the very source of their inspirations. Essays by Corinne Diserens and Eva Fabbris follow, along with an interview by Andrea Lissoni examining the work of two of the most important artists and filmmakers on the contemporary scene.