Anri Sala, Ravel Ravel, 2013. HD video projection, colour, on 2 screens, multi channel sound. Duration: 20’ 45” each. Courtesy : Galerie Chantal Crousel, Paris; Marian Goodman Gallery, New York; Hauser & Wirth, Zurich/London, © Anri Sala, Photo Francesca Cristellotti Rovereto TN Italy.
French Pavilion
55th International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia
Anri Sala
Ravel Ravel Unravel
Commissioner: Institut Français in co-prodction with CNAP.
Curator: Christine Macel
Sede: Padiglione ai Giardini di Castello
www.pavillonfrancais.com
The project
Anri Sala’s project for the French Pavilion has
been conceived for the space of the German Pavilion
where it is exceptionally being exhibited, and is
entitled Ravel Ravel Unravel (2013).
The title of the piece is a subtle play on words
based on the verb to ravel and its opposite, to unravel,
as well as a reference to the famous French
composer Maurice Ravel, who in 1930 composed
the Concerto in D for the Left Hand which is at the
heart of Anri Sala’s project.
Occupying the central space of the German Pavilion,
the first of two works, entitled Ravel Ravel,
consists of two films, each focused on the left
hand of a famous pianist: Louis Lortie and Jean-
Efflam Bavouzet. Both of these performers were
invited by Anri Sala to perform Ravel’s Concerto,
accompanied by the Orchestre National de France,
conducted by Didier Benetti.
At the centre of Anri Sala’s project is the interpretation
of the same piece of music by the two
musicians. As the artist explains: “each film is
focused on the choreography of the left hand
encompassingthe
entirety of the keyboard, while
the right hand remains still”.
These two films are projected simultaneously
in a semi-anechoic chamber, and, thanks to the
sound spatialisation work of sound designer OlivierGoinard,
they create the impression of a musical
“race”, due to the discrepancy between their
tempos that has been prepared beforehand by
Anri Sala and by the composer and conductor Ari
BenjaminMeyers.
The artist continues: “my intention,
is to make a space resound consecutively to
the temporal gap between the two performances;
to paradoxically create an ‘other’ space in an
environmentconceived
to annihilate the sense of
space (by suppressing echoes)”.
In the adjacent rooms, two other films are presented
under the single title Unravel. Chloé, a DJ,
is filmed alone, mixing each of the two interpretations
and trying to unite the two versions of the
Concerto through her unique interpretation.
Unravel and Ravel Ravel generate a three-fold
narration. The viewer indeed first discovers a film
centred on Chloé’s face and whose meaning, in
the absence of any music, remains open. After the
Ravel Ravel installation, the last film (and second
part of Unravel) finally unveils the movements of
the DJ filmed in the German Pavilion, on the musical
score of Ravel’s « re-unified » Concerto.
In these films, Anri Sala continues his exploration
of space and sound, as well as the silent language
of the body. He offers an experience based
on difference and sameness, in an ambitious piece
of work that further pushes his experimentations
in sound spatialisation. The work appeals just as
much to the viewer’s intellect as to his body, creating
a powerful physical and emotional experience,
submerging the viewer in its music.
For Anri Sala, the space of the German Pavilion
has proved to be a source of infinite possibilities.
While he has not focused on the history of the
building, the artist is nevertheless interested in the
specific resonances that it holds and what its history
will give to his work.
Christine Macel
Curator of the French Pavilion
Biographies
Anri Sala, artist
Anri Sala was born in 1974, in Tirana, Albania.
He belongs to the last generation of artists who
grew up under the communist regime in Albania
and the first generation to enter into contact with
the international art community. In his first films,
at the end of the nineties, he highlighted the social
and political changes in the country where he grew
up and he was confronted with. His increasing
interest in sound then led him to create artworks
where he reevaluates the relation between sound
and image, revealing at the same time his great interest
in performance and in particular the musical
performance.
He was first educated at the National Academy
of Arts, in Tirana (1992-1996), and moved to France
where he attended École Nationale Supérieure
des Arts Décoratifs in Paris (1996-1998), and Le
Fresnoy, Studio National des Arts Contemporains
in Tourcoing (1998-2000). Internationally recognized,
he has participated in a great number of international
art biennials including Berlin (2001, 2006),
Moscow (2007), São Paulo (2002, 2010), Sydney
(2006) and Venice (1999, 2001, 2003). He has had
numerous solo exhibitions, including at Kunsthalle
Wien (2003), the Musée d’art moderne de la Ville
de Paris (2004), the Museum of Contemporary
Art North Miami, the Contemporary Arts Center
Cincinnati (2008-2009), the Serpentine Gallery in
London, the NMAO in Osaka, Japan and the Musée
d’art contemporain de Montréal in 2011. Anri
Sala was also awarded the Young Artist Prize at
the Venice Biennale in 2001. His work forms part of
major international museum collections including
the Art Institute of Chicago, the Pinakothek der
Moderne (Munich), the MoMA (New York), the
Centre Pompidou (Paris) and MUSAC (León). He
was recently the subject of a wide-ranging monographic
exhibition at the Centre Pompidou, (May
2 - August 6 2012). He lives and work between
Paris and Berlin, and is represented by the Galerie
Chantal Crousel in Paris, Marian Goodman Gallery
in New York, Hauser & Wirth in Zurich and London,
kurimanzutto in Mexico, Galerie Rüdiger Schoettle
in Munich and Galerie Johnen in Berlin.
Christine Macel, curator
Chief Curator at Centre Pompidou-MNAM
since 2000, where she heads the Department of
Contemporary and Prospective Creation Christine
Macel recently curates Anri Sala’s monographic
exhibition at the Centre Pompidou (May-August
2012). In April 2013 she inaugurated in the Espace
315 of the same institution the exhibition L’image
dans la sculpture, showing the work of four young
artists (Nina Beier, Simon Denny, Navid Nuur,
YorgosSapountzis).
At the Centre Pompidou, she
conceived and curated the exhibition Dance your
Life (with Emma Lavigne), Promises of the Past,
Airs de Paris and Dionysiac, as well as various solo
shows, among which those of Raymond Hains,
Sophie Calle, Philippe Parreno, and Gabriel Orozco.
She presented many young artists in the Espace
315 of the Centre Pompidou, from Koo Jeong-A in
2004 to Tobias Putrih in 2009. She has furthermore
curated a large number of shows outside the Pompidou,
such as John Bock at the FRAC Provence-
Alpes-Côte d’Azur (2005) or Ziad Antar at the
Sharjah Art Foundation (2012). She acted as advisor
for the project Based in Berlin in 2011. Christine
Macel contributes to many catalogues and leading
publications such as Flash Art and Artforum and
in 2007 published an essay on contemporary art
entitled « The Time taken, the work of time in the
work of art » (Ed. Monografik/Centre Pompidou).
55th International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia
June 1 – November 24, 2013
Jean-Efflam Bavouzet, pianist
A former student at the Conservatoire de Paris,
Jean-Efflam Bavouzet was discovered by Sir
George Solti in 1995, when he started playing
with the Orchestre de Paris. Since then, he has
performed in the greatest international concert
halls (London, Boston, Berlin…), together with
the greatest conductors (Piere Boulez, Vladimir
Ashkenazy, Ivan Fischer…). Jean-Efflam Bavouzet
was awarded the title of artist of the year 2012 by
the ICMA (International Classic Music Awards),
and has received numerous prizes throughout his
career: Gramophone Awards, BC Music Magazine
awards, Diapason d’Or, Choc de l’année Classica…
He is the artistic director of the Lofoten Piano
Festival in Norway and will be giving concerts, this
year, in Beijing, Bilbao, Porto and Schwetzingen.
Louis Lortie, pianist
Having won the most prestigious piano competitions,
Louis Lortie has made a name for himself
on the international stage over the past fifteen
years. A native of Montréal, he has appeared as
a soloist with the best European orchestras (London,
Munich, Leipzig…) and has played with most
of the major North American ensembles (Boston,
Philadelphia, San Francisco…). Louis Lortie is also
a remarkable and much sought-after chamber
music pianist, and regularly plays with the Quatuor
Ébène. Louis Lortie has been awarded the highest
distinctions of his native country, and has over
thirty recordings to his name.
Didier Benetti, conductor
As a solo timpanist in the Orchestre National de
France, Didier Benetti has played under the direction
of the greatest conductors: Lorin Mazel, Piere
Boulez, Ricardo Muti, Valery Gergiev, Kurt Masur.
Having gained a wealth of learning and inspiration
from these encounters, he decided to become a
conductor. He has taken part on numerous occasions
in projects involving the fusion of musical
genres: symphonic music and jazz, traditional music,
electronic music – and he regularly collaborates
with French and European opera houses. This season,
he will be conducting the Orchestre National
de France several times in recordings and concerts.
L’Orchestre National de France
The Orchestre National de France was born out
of the desire of creating a tool at the service of
French music and of the symphonic repertoire.
This ambition has ensured the enduring prestige
of the Orchestre National, as can be seen from
the list of conductors who have directed it and of
the soloists it has invited. Since September 2008,
Daniele Gati has been the orchestra’s musical director.
Together, they take on the French repertoire
(Debussy and Ravel), the German repertoire
(Brahms, Beethoven, Mahler) and the Italian lyric
repertoire. The orchestra is a major player on the
international scene, as can be seen from the success
of its numerous international tours. The orchestra
has played several concerts in residence at
the Vienna Musikverein for many seasons.
Chloé, Dj artist
Chloé Thévenin is a DJ artist and composer of
French electronic music. Her style and the eclectic
range of musical genres, which she works into her
performances, have established her as a sought-after
artist, who has been invited to the most prestigious
European clubs (Rex Club in Paris, Tresor
in Berlin, Robert-Johnson in Frankfurt…). She has
been producing maxi singles, remixes and albums for
various labels for many years, including for BPitch
Control, Kil the Dj and InFiné Records, while participating
in countless collaborations with choreographers,
performers, filmmakers and artists – in particular,
she provided the musical soundtrack for the
show Pandora’s Box/Body by Fabrice Ramalingom
at the Montpellier Danse festival in 2010.
Ari Benjamin Meyers, collaborating
with Anri Sala on the project
A native of New York, Ari Benjamin Meyers trained
as a composer and conductor at the Julliard
School in New York, at Yale University and at the
Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore. He moved to
Berlin thanks to a Fulbright grant in 1996, and has
lived there ever since. His most recent compositions
include The Lightning and Its Flash (solo for
conductor, 2011), SOLO (performance installation
for one singer and one audience, 2010) and
Symphony X (for Redux Orchestra, 2009; for two
pianos, 2010, for electronic instruments, 2011; for
orchestra, 2012).
On top of the numerous artist projects which
he has contributed to (which include works by
Tino Sehgal, Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster and
Saâdane Afif), Ari Benjamin Meyers has collaborated
on the production of The Breathing Line (2012)
and 1395 Days without Red (2011) by Anri Sala. He
has also been the musical director of the collaborative
project Il Tempo del Postino, commissioned
by Hans-Ulrich Obrist and Philipe Parreno, which
was presented for the first time as part of the
Manchester International Festival in 2007.
Olivier Goinard, collaborating with
Anri Sala on the project
Olivier Goinard is an engineer, editor and sound
mixer. He has worked on numerous featurefilms
by French and international directors, includingthe
films, Les Adieux à la Reine (2011) and
L’Intouchable(
2006) by Benoît Jacquot, Carlos
(2010) and L’Heure d’été (2006) by Olivier Assayas,LaurenceAnyways
by Xavier Dolan (2011), Les
Trois singes (2008) by Nuril Bilge Ceylan and the
films of VladimirPerisic,
Julie Bertucelli, François
Ozon and Agnès Varda. His work has been nominated
twice for the César for best sound, in 2004
for Les Egarés by André Téchiné, and in 2013 for
Les Adieux à la Reine. In addition, Olivier Goinard
has taken part in various projects conceived by
Anri Sala; in particular, he was responsible for the
sound spatialisation of the entire southern gallery
of the Pompidou Centre in the context of Sala’s
monographic exhibition in 2012.
The context 2013
The swap of Pavilions
Christine Macel, the curator of the French Pavilion,
and the artist Anri Sala; Susanne Gaensheimer,the
curator of the German Pavilion, and the artists
she has invited, Ai Weiwei, Romuald Karmakar,
Santu Mofokeng, and Dayanita Singh, have agreed
to exchange the spaces of the French and German
Pavilions for the next Venice Biennale.
Beginning of this year, France and Germany proposed
to exchange the buildings of the French and
the German Pavilions at the 55th International Art
Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia in 2013. This
move had been discussed time and again in the
past decade, and this year the curators and artists
chosen for the French and German Pavilions decided
to start a constructive dialogue, eventually
agreeing to exchange the spaces of the pavilions,
whilst developing independent artistic concepts.
International dialogue is a given in today’s art
world, which seems much more defined by the
meeting of cultural spheres than by the rigidity of
national borders. Moreover, the curators as well as
the artists feel committed to the vision of a common
European culture in the larger framework of a
global cultural community.
Elysée 50
To celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of Franco-
German friendship (Elysée Treaty) in 2013, France
and Germany have decided to pay tribute to the intensity
and excellence of their cultural relationship
by exchanging their national pavilions on the occasion
of the Biennale di Venezia – International Art
Exhibition.
Contacts
Brunswick Art
French Pavilion
Leslie Compan
T +33 (0)6 29 18 48 12
lcompan@brunswickgroup.com
Maria Marques
T +33 (0)6 26 54 28 67
frenchpavilion@brunswickgroup.com
Institut français
Communication and Digital Department
Catherine Briat,
Director
T +33 (0)1 53 69 83 06
catherine.briat@institutfrancais.com
Marie Bauer,
Communication Manager
T +33 (0)1 53 63 32 25
marie.bauer@institutfrancais.com
Flore Baubion,
Press Officer
T +33 (0)1 53 69 83 86
flore.baubion@institutfrancais.com
Centre national des arts plastiques
Communication and Information Department
Perrine Martin-Benejam,
Manager
+ 33 (0)1 4693 9955
perrine.martin@culture.gouv.fr
The Ministry of Culture and Communication
General Directorate of Artistic Creation
Communication Department
Marie-Ange Gonzalez,
Communication Manager
+ 33 (0)1 40 15 88 53
marie-ange.gonzalez@culture.gouv.fr
Press Contacts French Pavilion
Brunswick Arts
Leslie Compan
T +33 (0)6 29 18 48 12
lcompan@brunswickgroup.com
Maria Marques
T +33 (0)6 26 54 28 67
frenchpavilion@brunswickgroup.com
