Anri Sala was born in Tirana, Albania, in 1976 and grew up under the most repressive regime in Europe, the Stalinist dictatorship of Enver Hoxha. His body of work, primarily in video, is distinguished not so much by a particular look or subject matter as by a specific sensibility. Working primarily with music and location-based filming, Sala’s works are precise evocations of particular sensibilities, made in places as far afield as Albania, Africa, Berlin and now Sarajevo.
Anri Sala was educated at the National Academy of Arts, Tirana; at the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs in Paris; and at Le Fresnoy, Studio National des Arts Contemporains in Tourcoing. Sala has exhibited internationally and is the recipient of numerous prizes. Recent solo shows include Background/Foreground with Edi Rama (About Change Collection, Berlin, 2010) and Purchase Not By Moonlight at various galleries including Marian Goodman Gallery in New York (2009), Contemporary Arts Centre in Cincinatti (2009) and the Museum of Contemporary Art in North Miami (2008).