MONTREAL.- Starting November 29, the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (MMFA) will present the Canadian premiere of the immersive video installation Ravel Ravel Interval by world renowned French-Albanian artist Anri Sala. In this work, Sala trains his lens on the left hands of two pianists performing Maurice Ravel’s (1875-1937) Piano Concerto for the Left Hand in D Major: Louis Lortie and Jean-Efflam Bavouzet. The exhibition will run through April 2025, the year of the 150th anniversary of Ravel’s birth.

To foster an immersive auditory experience, a chamber will be installed with several speakers that transmit two quasi-simultaneous interpretations of Ravel’s concerto. Lortie’s and Bavouzet’s hands are shot in close-up as they play the music, rest and then resume playing again. Each interpretation is accompanied by an unseen orchestra somewhere outside the shot. As they perform the piece, the two pianists vary their tempo: starting out in unison, they then split apart, come back together, drift apart again and finally resume their synchronous play. This concerto was originally commissioned by pianist Paul Wittgenstein following the amputation of his right arm in the First World War.

“The staggered tempo and sound created by Anri Sala completely transforms the musical experience. Rather than listening from a fixed position in a concert hall, we’re invited to walk around and move between the screens to take in the two performances simultaneously,” says Alexandrine Théorêt, Assistant Curator of International Modern and Contemporary Art at the MMFA.

The interval between these two interpretations highlights the uniqueness of human expression, inviting us to accept and embrace uncertainty as an essential part of life and our artistic experience.

Ravel Ravel Interval (2017) is adapted from the work Ravel Ravel (2013), which was first shown at the 55th Venice Biennale, where Sala represented France. This striking installation has been generously promised to the Museum by Pierre Bourgie and Carolyne Barnwell.

For this adaptation, rather than projecting the two videos one on top of the other, the artist chose to play them on separate semi-transparent screens suspended one behind the other. In this way, the two tracks overlap not only sonically but also visually, creating a wholly immersive environment.

Anri Sala was born in Tirana, Albania, and now lives in Berlin. He is known for his captivating projects that bring together the unique qualities of different artistic mediums in order to invite reflection on culture, communication and the human condition. His work draws on an impressive array of modes of expression, such as video, photography, installation, sculpture, drawing and fresco painting.