
Anri Sala, Artist
Shiao-Jen Yeh, Executive Director of Winsing Arts Foundation
Winsing Art Place (1/F. 6, Lane 10, Lane 180, Section 6, Minquan East Road, Neihu District, Taipei City)
Free, prior registration is required
Unrestricted
At the end of 2022, the Winsing Arts Foundation held the solo exhibition AS YOU GO by artist Anri Sala at Winsing Art Place. Centered on an immersive video experience, the exhibition showcased the Foundation’s collection piece AS YOU GO, which comprises three video works—Ravel, Ravel, Take Over, and If and only if. Based on the fluidity of music and imagery, the entire exhibition resembled a large-scale kinetic sculpture, offering visitors an experience akin to a “parade.” Beyond video, Anri Sala also works across various media—such as installations, paintings, prints, and more recently, frescoes—to explore themes of identity, history, memory, and the interrelationship between past, present, and future.
At the exhibition’s opening, the Foundation invited the artist for an online conversation in which he shared many thoughts on the exhibition and his works. On October 4, in this special lecture, we are honored to welcome Anri Sala in person to engage in a dialogue with Winsing Arts Foundation Executive Director Shiao-Jen Yeh about her collected works. This rare opportunity offers a new perspective for understanding Sala’s artistic practice.
The lecture began with Executive Director Shiao-Jen Yeh discussing a piece from her own collection, which is also part of Anri’s recent Fresco Painting series. Anri shared that fresco painting is a unique technique he first encountered during his university years. He described this method as a kind of bridge that connects painting with temporality, allowing it to break free from the conventional framework of painting. Extending from the topic of painting, he also spoke about the development of art in Albania from past to present, and its relationship with political influences.
During the lecture, Anri presented a range of his video works from early to recent years, including Intervista, created while he was studying at the École Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs in Paris. The work originated in 1997, when Anri discovered a 16mm black-and-white newsreel while helping his parents move into a new apartment. The film documented his mother, then serving as a leader of the Albanian Labor Youth Union, being interviewed under the communist regime, and explored the subtle relationship between these historical clips and their editing.
Executive Director Shiao-Jen Yeh first encountered Anri’s work during the 2017 Venice Biennale, when 1395 Days without Red was exhibited at the Customs House Museum. This work, filmed in reference to the Siege of Sarajevo, presents the gap between past and present within a single image. From the scene in 1395 Days without Red where a woman crosses an intersection, the discussion extended to the slow crawl of a snail in If and Only If. By chance, Yeh later acquired the artist’s AS YOU GO, a work that brings together three significant pieces—Take Over, If and Only If, and Ravel Ravel—which was exhibited at Winsing Art Place in 2022. At the close of the lecture, through works such as Ravel Ravel, Unravel, and Time No Longer, Anri spoke about the importance of the “interval” in his practice.
