Deichtorhallen Hamburg
May 14 – August 15, 2004
Within a very short period of time, the artistic oeuvre of Anri Sala, born 1974 in Tirana, Albania, has emerged as one of the most important positions in contemporary art.
Since his first international show at Manifesta 3 in 2000, the work of the artist, who now lives in Paris, has been on display the world over. In 2001 and 2003, his works were exhibited at the Venice Biennial, where in 2001 he received the Young Artist Prize.
The Deichtorhallen are staging the first large-scale solo show of Anri Sala in Germany. From his multi-facetted work, which consists of photographs and striking films using digital technology, the latest works will be showcased by exhibition architecture especially designed for the Deichtorhallen. The show was conceived by the Musée d’art moderne de la Ville de Paris and originally produced by Paris Musées. The curators are Laurence Bossé, Julia Garimorth and Hans Ulrich Obrist.
In his work, Anri Sala explores political potential without abandoning aesthetic significance. While in his earlier videos his gaze was directed towards individual experiences that indirectly revealed socio-political events, his more recent art causes detachment and intimacy to coincide by means of a subtle mix of light, shadow and sound.
By using a very limited selection of angles, sometimes only one angle in which the camera barely moves, as well as repetitive sequences Anri Sala infuses the moving images in his works with permanence. Consequently, everyday motifs from the periphery of Western civilization become highly expressive “tableaux vivants“. These images stand for the experience of individuals in a globalized world. All are portrayed in orchestrated twilight that reminds the observer of something ghostly and conjures up a strange, melancholic mood. The evocative power of the soundtrack in Anri Sala’s video works intensifies this meditative effect, consisting as it does of the hum of cities, the roar of animals, music, and words of silence.
The artist derives his images from totally different locations around the world – be it his place of birth, Tirana, or North Carolina or even the Senegal. Although his narratives are anchored in a specific time and place, his use of cinematic language to carefully calibrate and reduce them ensures their meaning is one of general validity. As a concentrated, involved observer the artist responds to the “mini-scripts” of reality without ever committing them to a true narrative process.
With the kind support of AFAA-Association Française d’Action Artistique, Bureau des Arts Plastiques, Berlin, the French Embassy in Germany, Berlin, as well as Sharp Electronics Europe.
The following works are on view in the exhibition:
In time after time (Tirana, 2003) Anri Sala uses a stationary camera and a single angle to film a weak horse standing almost motionless at the side of a highway, highlighted by the headlamps of passing cars – a metaphor for solitude and violence in the city.
In his video work Ghostgames (North Carolina, 2002) Anri Sala examines the various relationships between people and animals. As if playing soccer, two youngsters hunt so-called ghost crabs at night on the beach using flashlights to “capture” them.
Mixed Behavior (Tirana, 2003) shows a DJ on a rainy New Year’s Eve who is mixing music on a rooftop with a desolate-looking Tirana as backdrop. Though initially the fireworks above the dilapidated façade recall war and bombs the interplay of firecrackers, fountain fireworks, electronic music and light produce a magical atmosphere.
In Làkkat (Senegal, 2004) three children chant various words in Wolof (a West-African language), that refer to light and dark. Depending on the listener’s origin and knowledge the words are transformed into music, into an evocative refrain.
Dammi i colori (Tirana, 2003) is a documentary work on an urban project in Tirana that endeavors to restore the citizens’ relationship to their town, which was destroyed in the war. The mayor, who takes an interest in art, commissioned Sala to use bright colors to transform the house facades into a colorful mosaic. The artist considers the political significance of colors in public spaces.
Blindfold (2002) belongs alongside Sala’s reduced, almost painterly works such as Ghostgames and time after time. We see an as-yet empty billboard, which serves as a screen reflecting the sunlight.
The exhibition will be accompanied by a catalog in German and English. Produced by Walther König publishers, the 200-page catalog features numerous color illustrations. The museum edition costs Euro 29.95. It includes texts by Suzanne Pagé and Robert Fleck but also Laurence Bossé, Julia Garimorth, Hans Ulrich Obrist, Jacques Rancière, Patricia Falguières, Israel Rosenfield, Alexandre & Daniel Constanzo, Philippe Parreno & Molly Nesbit.
