Anri Sala Làk-kat 3.0 (Brazilian Portuguese/Portuguese/Angolan Portuguese), 2016
Three-channel video (mono sound)
Duration 09:38 min
Using video and sound, Anri Sala’s haunting and subtle work Làk-kat 3.0 investigates the dynamics of language, history and memory. The film focuses on three Senegalese schoolboys rhythmically reciting and repeating sounds and words spoken, in their native language of Wolof, by a teacher. They begin with seemingly unrelated words, such as “shining” and “dining”, which they alternate for the first couple of minutes of the film, before speaking Wolof words that articulate various tones between dark and light.
The work is based closely on an earlier piece titled Làk-kat, meaning “gibberish” or “outlandish”, that Sala made in 2004. It was exhibited with subtitles that translated the words into American English, British English and French, depending on where the film was shown.