Twelve-Tone Music at the New Museum in New York - Anri Sala`s Video Installation "Answer Me"
Anri Sala in the meantime now is an acclaimed video artist who already exhibited his installations around the world. Now the New Museum in New York dedicates a big show to the artist, presenting his complex sound and video works on three floors.
The title of the show "Answer Me" refers to his eponymous work from 2008, which he shooted on a former communications intercept station on the Berlin Teufelsberg. It is the story of a failed communication between man and woman. In his works, Sala repeatedly reflects the impact of architecture in the production of sound and brings to mind that one´s position in the room is specifically perceived via the ear.
In addition to "Answer Me" Sala presents the US premiere of "Ravel Ravel Unravel" at the fourth floor of the museum, the French contribution to the Venice Biennale 2013. The masterpiece is projected on a dual-screen, with a symphonic 16-speaker installation. Even "The Present Moment" from 2014 will be shown. On the second floor of the museum, Sala presents the flowing music of Arnold Schoenberg´s "Verklärte Nacht" from the late Romantic period. This piece, created in 1899 for a string sextet, is played over the entire area and via 20 separate ceiling speakers. Several videos play in wide-open spaces, especially on the third floor, where a large screen hangs from the ceiling and receives projections from both sides. Here sounds mingle with guest conversations.
In his films Anri Sala focuses on randomly perceived and carefully staged moments. He picks up complex statements about societies across historical changes. His previous installations often relate this to his homeland Albania, where he was born in 1974. After studying art at the Albanian Academy of Arts from 1992 to 1996, he continued his video studies at the "École nationale supérieure des arts décoratifs” in Paris. Sala lives and works in Paris since 2010.
The exhibition in New York, showing a total of about a dozen videos and video installations, represent around 16 years artistic growth of the artist Anri Sala. Massimiliano Gioni, the artistic director of the New Museum in New York, organizes the exhibition. Finally yet importantly, the exhibition also contains of a few sculptures and drawings, including a snare drum with four stacked human skulls.
