Anri Sala: Take Over (Internationale), 2017

In the organizer's words:

INTERNATIONAL SUMMER FESTIVAL 2024

With solo exhibitions ranging from the Kunsthaus Bregenz to the Museo Tamayo Arte Contemporáneo in Mexico, Anri Sala (*1974, Tirana) has become an internationally acclaimed and award-winning video artist. In his works, Sala shows randomly perceived or carefully staged moments, refers to people and places in complex historical upheavals and examines the fragility of time with captivating clarity. Anri Sala is represented at the Summer Festival on several occasions: through his collaboration with Lucinda Childs in the opening production, in the exhibition UNTRANQUIL NOW as a cooperation with the Hamburger Kunsthalle and with an expansive work in the vestibule: "Take Over (Internationale), 2017" takes up the world-famous "Internationale" anthem, which has been appropriated many times over the course of 150 years and charged with different meanings. Sala presents a lively performance between a pianist and a self-playing piano, focusing on the keyboard, which is transformed into a living 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.

In the exhibition UNTRANQUIL NOW at the Hamburger Kunsthalle, further works by Summer Festival artists can be seen, including the three other works by Anri Sala
"Long Sorrow, 2005", "Untitled (United Arab Emirates/Xenomystax Rictus), 2023" and "Untitled (Nepal/Muraena moa, Moringua microchir, Muraenichthys Schultzei), 2023".