Lecture by Lyubov Arkus about Khamdamov + Screening of Petr Shepotinnik's film "Khamdamov on Video"

Lecture by Lyubov Arkus “The Magician and the Outsider”

“This is not a narration about Khamdamov’s work, this is a story about a person I lived with most of my life and about the most difficult moment I had to share with him,” says Arkus.

Screening of Petr Shepotinnik’s film “Khamdamov on Video”

This is the artist’s monologue, uninterrupted by anything but fragments of his own works. At times, Khamdamov resembles a rare seashell, within which the sound of time itself resonates. No questions are asked of the shell — it is simply listened to. 

Peter Shepotinnik: «Miracles do happen: modern technology has allowed us to bring back our old film, put together on the fly nearly 30 years ago after many hours of conversations with Rustam. It is borderline impossible to find words that could match Asya Kolodizhner’s and my impressions of our interactions with Khamdamov at that time — interactions that, despite the unimaginable vicissitudes of harsh times, thankfully continue to this day. Even more challenging, though, is trying to transcend the raw materiality inherent in filmmaking and, as much as possible, follow the fluid, unstoppable motion of Khamdamov’s art. This motion pulsates everywhere — whether in his drawings that grace prestigious galleries worldwide, or in a random stroke on a crumpled napkin left on a table in some Moscow café.»