“No Formula One No Cry” Installation

TIRANA, September 6 – Tirana Art Center inaugurated last Monday Anri Sala’s permanent installation “No Formula One No Cry.” This project started at Manifesta 2002 in Frankfurt. “No Formula One No Cry” explores the relationship between speed and space in the city. Presented in a city-centre taxi, the installation offers a multi-layered collage of images, sounds and emotions. The familiar, rhythmic cry of the Formula One car is interrupted by the unsettling sound of stray dogs barking.
“The ‘speed’ at which we perceive and experience the city becomes a central feature of the work; the imagined adrenaline rush of travelling in the racecar is frustrated by the sober reality of journeying in a taxi. The world suggested by the Formula One sounds is momentarily punctuated by images of a distinctly urban, yet different economic reality – that of the political and geographical space inhabited by stray dogs,” organizers said in a statement.
“No Formula One No Cry” is an ongoing project already hosted in Frankfurt, Birmingham, Kitakyushu, Miami, Paris and Vienna as part of a wish to create a network of taxis around the world in which the audio work may be heard.
Anri Sala, 36, one of the most highly regarded young video artists around the world, has participated in dozens of international exhibitions and competitions.
Born in Tirana, he lives and works in Berlin
Since last July, a contemporary art video by Anri Sala has been on display at the Promenade Gallery of the southern coastal city of Vlora. The short video called “Who Is Afraid of Red, Yellow and Green” was also the title of the exhibition which continues until September 14.
In this video, the artist presents an unusual situation by focusing on a static plane, as spiders build their webs over a stoplight, without fearing the tension that the latter create.
The exhibition’s organizer, Tirana Art Center (TAC), is a non profit public space created by Fani Zguro, which promotes contemporary art. TAC’s purpose is not collecting or creating a museum of contemporary art. Starting from October 2007, it has represented exhibitions selecting some of the best artists in the international art arena. The fact that the Albanian capital city, among many others, doesn’t have a market for contemporary art, makes it almost paradoxical that TAC will represent emerging artists, because this will not help to promote anyone. Considering this fact this space will try to bring to the capital city the most well known contemporary artists, introducing Albanian art lovers to that particular fragment of art, which the public for different reasons missed, such as The Venice Biennale, Munster, Manifesta, Art Basel, Documenta Kassel etc.