Der Anfang vom Ende begann an dem Tag als Erins Hinterradnabe mitten in der Kasachischen Steppe ihr eigenes Kugellager zu Metallmehl zerrieb. Kurz zuvor parallelisierten wir noch glücklich mit den Kamelen. Ich stellte mir vor, so wäre es mit Delfinen zu schwimmen.

The beginning of the end began on the day that Erin’s rear hub ground up its own ball-bearings into metallic dust in the middle of the Kazakh steppe. Shortly before we’d been coasting happily in a herd of trotting camels. I’d imagined that this must be what it’s like to swim with dolphins.

Thoughts on Peter and the Snake

We stand for the first time in front of the equestrian monument to Peter the Great in the city center of St. Petersburg. We start to sketch the monument: Peter, wide-eyed, atop a horse. His arm outstretched to the distance. The horse, rearing back on its hind legs, tail flung back. The tail, sweeping down to the upraised coils of a massive snake, writhing on the surface of a large slanted boulder. The coiling motion of the snake and the rearing of the horse seem to ripple outward from one point: the horse’s hoof stamps the neck of the snake firmly onto the rock.

(English and German)

Wir fahren eine Landstrasse entlang. In den Büschen weiden Kühe, neben einem zusammengeschweissten Ninokreuz. Autos rauschen vorbei, auf der gegenüberliegenden Strassenseite preschen zwei Pferde mit erhobenem Schweif über eine Brache und verschwinden hinter einer riesigen, halb zerfallenen Halle. Wir folgen den Pferden und erkunden die Industrieruine durch deren herausgefallene Fensterfront sich die leuchtend weissen Ausläufer des Kaukasus abzeichnen.

It’s raining in Odessa today and we’re tying up loose ends before finally boarding the ferry to Batumi, Georgia tomorrow night. The last three months were startlingly settled: after months of moving around, we arrived in Odessa with our bikes dismantled and thick winter coats slung over our bags. We took to our Odessite flat like bears hibernating in the Ural Mountains we had just left behind and it was with a groggy sort of blinking wonder that we began cleaning out our bags, oiling our chains, and saying good-byes in our unexpected winter home this past week.

As our exhibition Open Jars (Открытые Банки) at the Tea Factory Center for Contemporary Art  in Odessa neared its end last month, we sat down with Anna Litman of hudcombinat.com and Alexandra Dorset from the Tea Factory to talk about our trip and our work. Over tea, of course, we told them about how we started travelling, what we hope to gain from taking our artistic practices on the road and what’s been most interesting for us so far. Anna published the original interview in Russian on her website. Below is a transcription of the interview in English.