Publisher's Synopsis
Anri Sala, born in Tirana in 1974, has lived and worked in Paris since 1997. Winner of the special award for young artists at the last Venice Biennale (2001), he was also a finalist for the 2002 Hugo Boss Prize. The artist has participated in numerous group shows, including Manifesta 3, Lubiana (2000), the Yokohama Triennial (2001) and the Sao Paolo Biennale (2002), for which he was the French representative. Sala displays his work on video monitors and projectors, and uses the narrative structure of a cinematic story to give shape to his ideas. His stories have a symbolic/metaphoric quality that has to do with the position of the artist in society. Most of Sala's video works are made in Albania or refer to that country's situation. His videos and photographs are poetic comments on the violence and conflict in contemporary society, set within the context of the drama of loss and reconstruction of cultural identity that characterizes today's world. This first monograph dedicated to this artist's work presents a selection of new works together with a catalogue of all Sala's video works. Text by Marcella Beccaria and by the artist.
