Anri Sala, Promises, 2001
color film, sound

Missing Landscape

"Each time the ball goes away, the goalkeeper follows it, and disappears in the „missing landscape". When he returns, he always enters through the door to get back into the playground. This action is like the theatre convention where the actor moves from the kitchen to the waiting room through the trapdoor, even though there are no walls or visible boundaries between the rooms in the scene. The actor considers the entrances to the different spaces. Each time the children enter the playground through the goals, considering a space in a space where there are no walls. They are unconsciously cutting the playground off the world surrounded by the mountains. They are playing the game and the play! There are moments of tension and violence, receiving a stone when giving the ball, just a few meters away from the playground and a few seconds before stepping in. The children are playing the adults living in the „missing landscape" in-between the in playground and the world within the ! ! ! mountains. They are also scoring a few great goals."
Anri Sala






Promises

"Next he went after Capone himself, giving Scarface's personal chef $10,000 to dump prussic acid in Capone‚s soup. The chef backed at the last minute, telling his chief of the plot while tears streamed down his face. Capone allowed the man to live but changed his kitchen help immediately. Scarface was next told that Aidello had placed a $50,000 bounty on him for everyone bold enough to kill Capone. Said Capone to his ten top bodyguard, Louis Little New York Campagna, "Nobody puts a price on my head and lives".
I asked friends if they could say it: "Nobody puts a price on my head and lives."
Anri Sala