I recently interviewed the artist and former model Elle Muliarchyk for the online magazine I edit, vevant.com. Here’s a bit that didn’t make it in the piece. It’s Elle talking about the story behind her beautiful video The Last Poet. And, kind of like Elle herself, it’s mysterious and somewhat otherworldly:
“It’s a short movie that I made for the New York Times that was inspired by Wim Wender’s Wings of Desire aesthetically, but in fact is sort of auto-biographical. When I was growing up in Belarus, many young lonely girls of all ages would commit suicide by jumping off the roof, which was always on the 9th floor. And the mothers would try to install a fear of being too close to the windows in their daughters. Like mine would put me in a corner for 6 hours at a time if I came too close! Also – it’s kind of a tribute to a model (and poet) with whom I used to model in Paris, the Russian girl Ruslana Korshunova, who committed suicide a few years ago. She jumped out of the 9th (!) floor across the street from my house here in New York. I could have seen her doing this – our windows almost face each other!!! I was really shocked by this event and started making the movie shortly after it.”