Anri Sala Unravels Ravel at the New Museum

Philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein had an older brother Paul, a pianist who lost his right arm in World War I. Despite this, Paul Wittgenstein continued to perform, and commissioned celebrated composers to write piano music for one hand. The most celebrated of these pieces is Maurice Ravel’s Piano Concerto for the Left Hand, a lush impressionist fantasia that’s a joy both to fans of classical music and to anyone who’s heard Boléro in an elevator. It’s this piece that Anri Sala explores in his work Ravel Ravel Unravel, originally created for the 2013 Venice Bienniale and now a part of his acclaimed show at The New Museum, Anri Sala: Answer Me.

The Albania-born video artist makes music the centerpiece of his works, which explore “how sound and music can engage architecture and history.” Accordingly, sound pervades the gallery, making the exhibit as much or more of an aural experience as it is a visual one. "We worked closely with Anri Sala and his sound designer Olivier Goinard to create ideal environments for the works on each floor of the exhibition," New Museum curator Margot Norton tells The Creators Project. "It was part of the artist's intention for certain sounds to overlap and be in conversation with one another, creating a symphonic experience specific to the New Musuem galleries."

The two Ravels of Ravel Ravel Unravel are two performances of the piece, closely focused on the pianists’ left hands and played simultaneously on a single screen. This creates a piece for two hands (albeit two hands playing the same notes at more or less the same time) out of a work famously written for one. "We designed a semi-anechoic chamber for [Ravel Ravel]," writes Norton, "comprised of 1600 individual pieces of melamine foam that are suspended on cables lining the gallery walls." The two performances, played slightly out of time with one another, produce "an echo effect in a space where actual echoes are virtually impossible." In another room, a film plays of a DJ Unraveling the two performances—with one on each turntable, she tries to unite them.

Other works in the show feature similarly in-depth engagement with music, such as The Present Moment (in B-flat) and The Present Moment (in D), video works that find Sala rearranging another existing piece, this time Schoenberg’s Verklärte Nacht. The exhibition also has a live performance element; in 3-2-1, saxophonist André Vida improvises live alongside a recording of Jemeel Moondoc. Anri Sala: Answer Me also features 2D and sculptural works by the artist, like his series of drums that play themselves. Inside each drum a speaker that plays a low tone which causes the attached drumsticks to vibrate, hitting the head of the drum. One such drum is topped with four human skulls, in a nod to Cezanne’s paintings. Throughout the exhibit, Sala weaves narratives through music, creating an experience fascinating for art and music fans alike.

To learn more about Anri Sala: Answer Me at the New Museum, click here.

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