“In the 1920s the Russian writer and formalist Viktor Shklovsky (1893-1984) lived in exile in Berlin. At that time it was a lot of Russian intellectuals and artist in the same situation caused by the political situation. In this group of people, he met the Russian/French writer Elsa Triolet. Viktor fell madly in love with her and started to send her several letters a day. An arrangement she accepted under one condition: he was forbidden to write about love.”
Esta bela história serviu de inspiração para o trabalho de colagens da artista norueguesa Maja Nilsen chamado Zoo, or Letters not about Love (Still images from a film never made, letters to a person who never existed, words about feelings never felt). “Como a arte e a vida se encontram involuntariamente” Apaixonante!
Obs: Shklovsky was the founder of OPOYAZ (Society for the Study of Poetic Language), one of the two groups, with the Moscow Linguistic Circle, which developed the critical theories and techniques of Russian Formalism. As a formalist he was keen to secure the value of the poetic language, at that time when language was a weapon to promote politics and social purposes. ( “No tempo em que a língua era uma arma para promover interesses sociais e políticos!”)
