La Cité Etrange des Kabakov

The film retraces the work of Moscow underground figures Ilya and Emilia Kabakov, with images of their artworks, which the director filmed over the course of 20 years, and a long interview conducted in their studio-house on Long Island. During their journey of exile, the Kabakov’s made “Cité etrange”, an immense installation for the nave of the Grand Palais, at Monumenta 2014. In their conversation with Schwerfel, they speak about their search for concepts of utopia and ideal cities, which they worked on for the major Paris show. The film shows their sketches and maquettes. Isolated in the West, where they were never really able to integrate, the artist-couple also reveal other sensual, spiritual, poetical and political works, which turn on the question of the defeat of the Communist utopia in which they lived before they left for the United States in 1987.