E A Road Trip in Search of the American Dream In 1935 the daily paper Pravda (The Truth)
commissioned the Soviet writers and frequent collaborators Ilya Ilf and Evgeniy Petrov to
embark on what would become a legendary voyage across the United States of America: the two
boarded a mouse-gray Ford and traversed the widely vaunted land of milk and honey and putative
stronghold of the class enemy. After ten thousand miles on the road the conclusion they
reached in their travel novel One-storied America (published in English translation as Little
Golden America) was that if America were Soviet it would be paradise. Eighty years later The
Fearless Four-the moniker stands for the artists Jana and Alexej Meschtschanow the writer
Felicitas Hoppe and the cultural scholar and naturalized American citizen Ulrike Rainer-set out
to revisit the scenes of the two Russians' voyage retracing their route leg by leg. The online
project 3668ilfpetrow.com contains a comprehensive record of what they found now complemented
by a conceptual printed work whose design is reminiscent of Aby Warburg's approach. The
travelogue combines photographs a conversation with the artists excerpts from Hoppe's novel
Prawda: Eine amerikanische Reise (2018) quotes historic documents and register entries for a
cartography that brings America to life. A shot of Las Vegas's Trump Tower ornamental carpet
patterns in dingy motels the barren landscapes along the Mexican border: juxtaposed with Ilf
and Petrov's experiences on the road the pictures and texts in The Making of Prawda suggest
ways in which the earlier book speaks to today's social issues and illustrate how stories and
myths are perpetuated and take on new meanings.
