TIRANA, April 23 – Albanian-French contemporary artist Anri Sala has been named France’s leading artist for the third year in a row by prestigious Le Journal des Arts magazine ranking the top 100 French artists. Called Artindex France, the top-100 list is based on the number of their solo exhibitions worldwide and prestige of the venues.
Anri Sala, 40, a contemporary artist who belongs to the last generation of Albanian artists who grew up under communism and the first generation to set contact with the international art stage, represented France in the 2013 Venice Biennale of international art.
His recent shows include an exhibition in Israel and the US and an ongoing installation in Germany. Last November, Sala won the of high-profile European contemporary art prize Vincent Award 2014 in the Netherlands.
He will be the special guests of this year’s second edition of the book and visual arts festival in Tirana scheduled to be held from May 6 to 10, organizers have confirmed.
Predominantly a video artist, philosopher Jacques Ranciere describes Sala’s visuals as “At the heart of all of Anri Sala’s films, including those that touch most on political issues and tend to documentary form, the same question lurks. A formal one for some, and yet it is the most profound, also in a way the most political. What is it that we see?”
Born in Tirana (Albania) in 1974, Sala first studied arts at the Albanian Academy of Art before continuing her studies at the École Nationale des Arts Décoratifs in Paris in 1996, and finally moved to Le Fresnoy in Tourcoing.
