Ravel Ravel Interval (2017), an audio and video installation by Anri Sala, is a key work in the exhibition OUT OF THE BOX. Instantly, upon entering the large space where this overwhelming installation is located, visitors are completely immersed in a work of art that impacts all of the senses, acoustically, visually and physically.  

The video projection shows two performances of the same piano concerto, played simultaneously. Vastly enlarged, the left hands of two concert pianists are seen gliding, dancing and hammering across the keyboard. Louis Lortie and Jean-Efflam Bavouzet are each playing Maurice Ravel’s Concerto pour la main gauche (1930), accompanied in both cases by the Orchestre National de France. This means that four elements are heard throughout: two pianos and two orchestras. However, since the tempi vary, the soundtracks drift apart undulating between harmony and dissonance only to meet up again a moment later. The sound is so virtuoso, so intoxicating that it has the power and immediacy of a performance in a concert hall. 

Since the two videos are projected on semitransparent screens suspended from the ceiling, one behind the other, both sound and sight overlap. And there are spatial intervals as well: the space between the two screens invites viewers to change their position within the installation and encourages them to move around.  

Ravel Ravel Interval is a version that has been adapted by the artist; it is presented here at Schaulager for the first time. The original installation, titled Ravel Ravel, was on view at the Venice Biennale in 2013 and was acquired by the Emanuel Hoffmann Foundation that same year.

On Saturday, 18 November, Anri Sala will talk with Benjamin Herzog, music editor at Radio SRF, about the making of this enthralling, multilayered work.