TO PRAGUE WITH LOVE

Single channel HD video, 2014

12:52 min

This piece was made during my two months residency at FUTURA in Prague, Czech Republic in 2013.

I grew up in Uzbekistan in the 80ies when it was still part of the falling Soviet Union. In 1987 my older sister, Victoria, participated in a program of correspondence between Soviet children and children from the "non-hostile" Western countries (as Czechoslovakia, Poland and other countries that were under Soviet occupation). She corresponded with a girl from Prague for about one year. The video examines the relationship between the children who unwillingly were representing their countries.  

When I was in Prague I posted an announcement in the local newspaper, in search for the woman who was corresponding with my sister. Few people who had similar experiences of correspondence replied, but none of them was the one who wrote to my sister. I interviewed four women about their experience of correspondence. 

Each woman tells her personal story, adding a scripted part about being the one who corresponded with Victoria.

The video presents a desperate search for a physical confirmation of a personal fleeting memory within the context of global history. It starts as a documentary then it abruptly turns into a staged reality TV show and ends as a completely fictional cinematic scene.  Going through various genres the video questions the credibility of storytelling as well as memory and history.