ANRI SALA - INTERVISTA

The work of Anri Sala (1974) is often about obscurity - obscurity of images but also of language and experience - which can render it both vexingly subtle and uncomfortably immediate. This balance also becomes apparent when he confronts the history of his homeland Albania with the present, like in his debutfilm Intervista, which might be perceived as a documentary, a biography and a mystery play. The video is based on the discovery of a twenty-year-old, silent newsreel with images of a convention of the Albanian Communist party. In the front Sala recognised his mother, making a speech as the leader of the Youth Alliance. Due to lack of sound in the footage the artist had the words deciphered by lipreaders. Intervista records the moment when Sala shows the subtitled film to his mother: a confrontation of a woman with her younger self, but also of her communist ideals with the chaos which was manifest in Albania while the video was made. The video ends with a reflection on her youthful ideals, now softened through experience: “I think we’ve passed on to you the ability to doubt. Because you must always question the truth.”

1998, 26’, video, colour, Albanian spoken, English subtitles.