CC Art Foundation Shangahai presents If and Only if by Anri Sala. Based on Igor Stravinsky's Elegy for Solo Viola (1944), Sala's work is both a voyage and a performance. The music becomes a duet with the garden snail as it slowly climbs the viola bow, forcing violist Gérard Caussé to change tempo and phrase.
The picture, which was shot in cinemascope and follows the snail's methodical ascent, highlights the work's construction as well as the conflict between presence and perception by fusing Stravinsky's melancholic score with brief interruptions, like a second snail. Sala honors both a deceased violinist and the timeless wisdom of the elderly by reimagining the elegy as a reflection on fragility, cooperation, and mortality through this interaction of performance, image, and chance.
+ about the exhibition