Artwork details - EVN Sammlung

Uomo Duomo
Anri Sala

Single-channel video projection (color, no sound)
edition 1/6
1' 41''
2000

Acquisition 2001
Inv. No. 0085

The video artist Anri Sala works in between geographies. In Uomo Duomo, he shows an old man asleep who he “discovered” by coincidence in the Milan cathedral on consecutive days. With discretion and consideration for those at prayer, Sala succeeded in presenting a picture of the person using a hand-held camera. The stillness of the camera position that the artist found is only interrupted by the jerky movements of the central figure. The work’s title refers to the concrete location of the occurrence, but the diffuse light produces a type of indefinite surrounding with a surreal quality reminiscent of scenes from Beckett’s dramas. Similar to Beckett, whose work achieved great popularity especially in post-communist Albania of the 90’s, Sala poses questions about time, space and change or the common quest for the existence of humanity. The reality of the scene is difficult for the viewer to judge and so the “Man in the Cathedral” becomes a symbol for the impenetrable, the infinite.

Hans Ulrich Obrist, 2005 (translation: Tim Sharp)

Exhibitions

Träume ... träumen, Schallaburg Kulturbetriebsgesellschaft, Schallaburg, 2025

Now, At The Latest. videos and other attractions from the evn collection, Kunsthalle Krems, Krems, 2015

Sleep – A State of rest in motion picture, Overbeck Gesellschaft - Kunstverein, Lübeck, 2012

Borrowed Time, Viennafair, Vienna, 2010

Nach Rokytník. The collection of EVN, MUMOK, Vienna, 2005

Publications

IACCCA - Art in the Time of Ecological Disruption, Madrid 2021, p. 238

Now, At the Latest, Maria Enzersdorf 2015, p. 4

evn sammlung 95–05, Cologne 2005, p. 276 f

evn sammlung. Ankäufe 2000–2002, Maria Enzersdorf 2002, p. 40

Uomo Duomo Anri Sala

Exhibitions

Publications

Context

Uomo Duomo
Anri Sala