Opening of Bar Laika and Screening of Anri Sala, Intervista

e-flux is very happy to announce the opening of Bar Laika, our new space in Brooklyn.

Located in Clinton Hill and designed by architects Nikolaus Hirsch and Michel Müller, Bar Laika was conceived with both our local neighborhood and the extended artistic community in mind. Our food menu is based on local Atlantic seafood and farm fresh and foraged vegetables, and is a result of a decade-long collaboration between e-flux and Hsiao Chen, an artist and chef. The cocktail list is organized by Danna Vajda, an artist and bartender, and the wines are selected by sommelier Florence Barth. The music is selected by DJ Sanna Almajedi, and an extensive program of screenings, talks, and readings is organized by Lily Lewis and Anton Vidokle, with help from Ingrid Erstad, a curator and chef. Come have a drink with us!

On the B52 Greene Ave/Grand Ave bus shelter outside the bar, we will be presenting a series of oversized artists’ posters specially commissioned for Bar Laika. The series starts with Liam Gillick’s Let Us Drink, Death Is Certain.

Bar Laika opens on Thursday, October 18, starting at 5pm. Dinner will be served 6 to 8:30pm, and a screening of Anri Sala’s Intervista (1998) will begin at 9pm, followed by Japanese curry and drinks.

Anri Sala, Intervista (1998, 26 min)
In the process of moving house with his family, Anri Sala, an Albanian art student, discovered a twenty-year-old 16mm newsreel film, containing images of a congress of the Albanian Communist Party. In the film, a young woman, a leader of the Communist Youth Alliance, is seen making a speech and later giving an interview. But Sala could not make out what she was saying, because the sound had been lost. With the passing of years, this woman had left behind the hopes and fears, ideals and disappointments, deceptions and rebellions of her youth. She was his mother, Valdet.Intent on learning the contents of the speech and interview, which Valdet cannot remember, Sala visits old party leaders (later imprisoned by Enver Hoxha) in the hope that they might remember. But they are old now, and the specifics of the speech elude them. He visits the film studio, and meets with the sound recordist of the newsreel (who now drives a taxi in Tirana), but Sala cannot find any of the original sound, or anyone who remembers what his mother actually said.So Sala takes the film to a school for the deaf in Tirana, and with the help of lip readers, his mother’s words are deciphered.Intervista dramatically captures the moment when Sala shows his mother a video of the film again. This time, with her words recovered and subtitled on the screen, she confronts her younger self. Her Communist ideals and the current chaos in Albania collide, offering a moving opportunity for reflection on the country’s—and one woman’s—history and present state.

Arni Sala Working primarily in film and video, Anri Sala creates works that bring together documentary, history, language, and cultural memory. Early films referenced his personal experience and reflected on Albania’s social and political changes, while recent works have explored the tension between repetition and improvisation, often involving or offering the possibility of live performance. He currently lives and works in Berlin.

Stay tuned to e-flux Program for more information on Bar Laika’s upcoming events.

Bar Laika
224 Greene Avenue
Brooklyn NY, 11238
www.laika.bar

Daily opening hours
7am-11am coffee service (beginning 10/22)
5pm-1am drinks
6pm-10pm dinner service (6pm-8:30pm on screening nights)
10pm-1am curry service

Closed Wednesday

*Bar Laika wishes to thank Marianne Goebl, Artek, and Vitra for donating beautiful Alvar Aalto lighting and helping us with seating.