Yervant Gianikian (born to Armenian parents in 1942) studied architecture in Venice; Angela Ricci-Lucchi (born in Lugo di Romagna, 1942–2018) studied painting in Austria with Oskar Kokoschka. Settling in Milan, they together devoted their activities to cinema since the mid-seventies, first with their performance screenings of “scented films,” then with their artisanal re-working of the old films of their collection which they tinted, toned, step-printed and re-edited—as they did, for example, in From the Pole to the Equator (Dal polo all’equatore - 1986) with footage shot by the pioneering filmmaker Luca Comerio. Their films have been presented at several film festivals around the world including the Cannes Film Festival, Venice Film Festival, Rotterdam Film Festival, Berlinale, Filmoteca Espanola Madrid, and FID Marseille. Their video installations have been shown at the 2001 Venice Biennial; Maison Hugo, Paris (both curated by Harald Szeemann); Jeu de Paume, Paris; MoMA, New York; Tate Modern, London; and Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago, among other places. More recently their work featured in the 2012 Taipei Biennial, the 2013 Venice Biennial, and 2017’s Documenta 14.