Anri Sala

International Summer Festival 2024

ESTHER SCHIPPER GALLERY INFO

With solo exhibitions spanning from Kunsthaus Bregenz to Museo Tamayo Arte Contemporáneo in Mexico, Anri Sala (*1974, Tirana) has become an internationally acclaimed and award-winning video artist. In his works, Sala depicts randomly perceived or carefully staged moments, references people and places within complex historical upheavals, and explores the fragility of time with captivating clarity. Anri Sala is featured multiple times at this year’s Summer Festival: through his collaboration with Lucinda Childs in the opening production, in the exhibition UNTRANQUIL NOW in partnership with Hamburger Kunsthalle and with an extensive installation at Vorhalle: "Take Over (Internationale), 2017" revisits the renowned "Internationale" anthem, which has been reinterpreted numerous times over the past 150 years, carrying various political connotations. Sala presents a lively performance featuring a pianist and a self-playing piano, with a focus on the keyboard that is transformed into a dynamic landscape of valleys and peaks. By repeatedly overlapping the notes and alienating the familiar melody, a space for interpretation is created that refers to the hymn's eventful history and focuses on the process of remembering itself.

More works by Summer Festival artists are on display at the exhibition UNTRANQUIL NOW at Hamburger Kunsthalle, including three more works by Anri Sala: »Long Sorrow, 2005«, »Untitled (United Arab Emirates/Xenomystax Rictus), 2023«, and »Untitled (Nepal/Muraena moa, Moringua microchir, Muraenichthys Schultzei), 2023«.