ART CITIES:Melbourne-Anri Sala
Anri Sala’s works of film, sculpture and installation create poetic analogies that reflect on life and culture from different frames of experience. Past works have traversed European contexts, from his hometown, Tirana, to Germany and France where he has spent much of his adult life. His films balance allegorical and symbolic subjects, presented as simple narratives that often creatively pair image with sound, and explore the choreographic potential of musical instruments and their performers.
By Efi Michalarou
Photo: Kaldor Public Art Projects Archive
Anri Sala’s “The Last Resort”, at Sydney’s Observatory Hill Rotunda is the latest work presented by Kaldor Public Art Projects with a public program developed in partnership with the Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences (MAAS). “The Last Resort” is a sound and sculpture installation reimagining W.A. Mozart’s “Clarinet Concerto in A Major, K. 622”, with a weather-beaten interpretation and the addition of thirty-eight snare drums. The open structure of Sydney’s Observatory Hill Rotunda houses 38 especially constructed snare drums, suspended from the ceiling in an up-side down position. The ensemble of drums is a self-playing sculpture. Each of the drums is custom-made and conceals two in-built speakers: a low range speaker whose low frequencies incite vibrations on the drum skin, triggering in return the response of the drumsticks that create the characteristic rat-a-tat, and a high- and midrange speaker that plays audible musical fragments. The snare drums also function as visible markers of the sound of the installation. The musical starting point of The Last Resort is the “Clarinet concerto in A major, K. 622”, composed by Mozart in 1791, shortly before his death. This area was the site of Fort Phillip built in 1800 and named after the colony’s first Governor. It is thought to have been a popular lookout spot for the Aboriginal people. For this reason the site is also associated with the first contact between the two culture previously unaware of one another. The snare drums are animated by the Mozart’s concerto, in a recording that Sala rearranged according to specific conditions. Each of the three movements of the concerto was altered according to a self-imposed rule: from the first central tones (A, C sharp, and E) were removed, in the second all original tempo indications were replaced by the daily wind description from James Bell’s 1839 journal of his sea crossing from London to Australia, whereas in the third movement the chronological order of all solo and tutti parts was altered. The musicians playing the individual parts in the rearranged scores were recorded simultaneously with separate mikes. The distribution of the recorded parts among the drums is loosely based on the typical seating formation of a classical orchestra. Thus the ensemble of drums will be positioned in accordance with the typical seating formation of an orchestra. The individual parts in Mozart’s rearranged score are assigned to the corresponding snare drums. The upside-down placement of the drums suspended from the ceiling playfully alludes to the notion of Australia as a country “down under.” At the same time, it also recalls the indigenous flying foxes hanging upside down from outstretched tree branches.
Info: Rotunda, Observatory Hill, Sydney, Duration 13/10-/11/17, Days & Hours: Mon-Tue & Thu-sun 10:00-18:00, Wed 10:00-19:30, kaldorartprojects.org.au
