It’s been a couple of weeks since my last post. I don’t know if it is really a choice or the result of a very busy life. I’m not complaining at all, but I have so much to share with you, new books, new exhibitions, new artists, and of course new studio visits, that I decided to blog more often, presenting shorter but more spontaneous posts.
Today I felt like talking about Anri Sala current exhibition ” No Names, No Title ” at the Helena Rubinstein Pavilion for Contemporary Art. I visited the show a first time back in December, and I recently went back to have a second look at his videos installations.
Anri Sala is a very successful contemporary artist who was born in Tirana (Albania), and at a fairly young age decided that he wanted to be an artist. The communist regime at the time was not easy on the local art scene, but Sala was surrounded by an open minded family and benevolent painters such as Edi Hila who made his apprenticeship more simpler. After his studies at the Beaux-Arts in Albania, he entered the Ecole des arts décoratifs in Paris where he specialised in video art.
His first exhibition in Israel “No Names, No Title” perfectly fit to the pure and quiet environment of the Pavilion. You are welcomed by a self playing drum that gives you an hint at what the exhibition might be about : sound and space. For some of you the different sounds traveling through the place might be overwhelming but it didn’t bother me at all, I actually felt a lot of peace and serenity while walking around the exhibition space : “His works explore the interrelationship between sound and space and examine the concept of rupture from its audial, visual and social aspects” (description from the Tel Aviv Museum of Art’s Website).
Sala included to the show is famous video installation ” Ravel Ravel Unravel ” which represented France at the 2013 Venice Biennale. The video, like the other pieces from the exhibition, is a real experience. In 1930 Maurice Ravel created the concerto in D for the Left Hand which is at the heart of Anri Sala’s video. Sala invited two pianists Louis Lortie and Jean-Efflam Bavouzet to perform the same piece, in the video we can see the two musicians playing it simultaneously revealing some differences that Sala is using for his own artwork : “each film is focused on the choreography of the left hand encompassing the entirety of the keyboard, while the right hand remains still” explained the artist. While watching the video I had the feeling that a race started between the two pianists, giving to the piece an urge, a different tempo.
The exhibition is a great auditory but also visual experience even though you don’t have any particular interest for music.
CURATED BY : Noam Segal
UNTIL : March 21st
The Bubblist 