Anri Sala Take Over, 2017

A conceptual point of departure for the central work Take Over are two well-known musical works, affiliated by an entangled political and cultural history, the Marseillaise and the Internationale. 

Placed in the otherwise empty room for which it was conceived, Take Over first manifests as a contained architectural structure consisting of a central wall with angled glass panels. The two songs appear doubled in two complementary films. Each projected on one side of the projection wall, the films depict the keyboard of a Disklavier piano, played by a human player and animated by its programming.

Around the central screen, the large glass panels create specific acoustic environments in which only specific parts of the soundtrack are audible. In a spatial equivalent of the two choreographies of music and image that structures the two films, these sections further arrange the auditory experience created by the installation.