Museum of contemporary art in Belgrade this autumn launches new program of Artist’s Film – dedicated to the moving image, video and film as increasingly popular and continually evolving art-form.
By this very first edition of the Artist’s Film program we have pleasure to host three different artists, who have already gained the highest world recognition and fame in the field of filmmaking, such as: Anri Sala, Shirin Neshat and Ali Cherri.
The main goal of the Artist’s Film program is to offer vivid account of the numerous artists who are inspired by the cinematic medium and felt compelled to interpret and respond to it in their own way. In doing so, during the Artist’s Film Museum will organise a rich following public program. Through the public program apart presenting and screening selected films, we would open up the possibility for discussions and presentations of artist’s widely differing achievements, aspirations, theories and approaches. By inviting artists them selfs and arranging the public talks with the artists in the Museum as well by inviting some theoreticians to speak, our public would get more insights and will be more informed and more familiar with the production and the process of filmmaking as well as about the special aspirations of each of the selected artists.
The Artist’s Film program at the Museum of Contemporary Art begins on September 29th with the screening of Anri Sala’s film Take Over, while a conversation with the artist will take place on Saturday, September 30th at 4 pm in the Museum of Contemporary Art.
Take Over (2017) – a video and sound installation comprising two films – addresses central themes in Anri Sala’s oeuvre, exploring the relationships between music and narrative, architecture and film and interleaving qualities of different media in both complex and intuitive ways to produce works in which one medium takes on the qualities of another.
A conceptual point of departure are two well-known musical works, affiliated by an entangled political and cultural history, the Marseillaise and the Internationale. Written in 1792, the Marseillaise was closely tied to the French Revolution but also quickly spread to other countries where it became a symbol for the overthrow of oppressive regimes. Thus the 1871 lyrics of the Internationale were initially also set to the tune of the Marseillaise, until 1888 when its original music was composed and the song became the standard anthem of the socialist movement. Both anthems have undergone major changes in their political connotations: from revolution, restoration, socialism, resistance and patriotism, to additional associations with colonization and oppression in the second half of the twentieth century (as national anthems of France and the Soviet Union, respectively). Yet to this day their meaning remains in flux, as the two songs continue to be appropriated. Take Over makes audible the close relationship of these two political anthems and mines the musical kinship for traces of this changing symbolic significance. Sound literally determines the films, whose changing focus is tied to musical tones and the movement of the keys producing them – even if the underlying system remains elusive.
Both films have been originally conceived to run simultaneously with their respective soundtracks playing in tandem. For this presentation, the films will be screened one after the other in the period from September 29th to October 8th.
Berlin-based artist Anri Sala was born in 1974 in Tirana, Albania. His work has been the subject of solo exhibitions at Bourse de Commerce, Paris (2023); Kunsthaus Bregenz (2021); Buffalo Bayou Park Cistern, Houston (2021); Centro Botìn, Santander (2019); Mudam, Luxembourg (2019); the Castello di Rivoli Museo d’Arte Contemporanea, Turin (2019); Museo Tamayo, Mexico City (2017); the New Museum, New York (2016); Haus der Kunst, Munich (2014); Centre Pompidou, Paris (2012); Serpentine Gallery, London (2011); Museum of Contemporary Art North Miami (2008); and ARC, Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris (2004). He has also participated in major group exhibitions and biennials internationally, including the 57th Venice Biennale (2017), dOCUMENTA (13) (2012), the 29th São Paulo Biennial (2010) and the 4th Berlin Biennale (2006). In 2013, he represented France in the 55th Venice Biennale.
Anri Sala was awarded the Prix Gilles Dusein in 2000; the young artist award at the Venice Biennale in 2001 and the Absolut Art Award, Stockholm, Sweden in 2011. He was the winner of the Vincent Award, Den Haag, The Netherlands in 2014.
The curator of the program is the director of the museum, Maja Kolarić.
The general sponsor of the program is Raiffeisen Bank, while technically supported by EPSON