• Director(s):

    SCHWERFEL (HEINZ PETER)

  • Producer(s):

    REUNION DES MUSEES NATIONAUX, SCHUCH PRODUCTIONS, ARTE FRANCE

  • Territories:

    Worldwide.

  • Production year:

    2014

  • Language(s):

    German, French

  • Rights:

    TV, DVD, NON-THEATRICAL, INTERNET, VOD

What exactly is a utopia today, in this early 21st century? The answer will be revealed in May, at the Grand Palais in Paris, where the Kabakovs, experts in failed utopias, will present their “Strange City”. On the occasion of a new edition of Monumenta, an art event that is unique in the world.

Ilya and Emilia Kabakov recount their career, and their exile to the West, and present their major works, sharing their doubts and aspirations and their vision of life and art. In their Long Island workshop, the artists reveal the model of their project for Monumenta. Ilya Kabakov, born in the Soviet Union in 1933, lives and works with his wife Emilia on Long Island, near New York. In their own words, the former star of the Moscow underground has become an international artist, whose main subject is still utopia - a utopia that is doomed to fail. The Kabakovs did not just experience the famous “end-of-history” fall of the Wall, they actually anticipated it. In the Kabakovs world, museums also double up as temples that open the doors of a world that is sensual, conceptual, poetic, political, realist and spiritual. The nave of the Grand Palais is therefore an ideal location for the setting of their artistic universe: it will become its space and time.