In order to understand the following text it is necessary to define some terms. The 'fallen system' refers to a political system, specifically the communist reign of Enver Hoxha in Albania, the country where Anri Sala was born in 1974. The piece of work discussed in this essay is his video Intervista - Finding the Words, made in 1998. 'Intervista' is the Albanian word for interview. In the course of the text I will only use the shortened version of the title Intervista.

When I was at school, the bell often rang before the teacher had time to
finish and he would complete his last sentence the following day. The day
after the system fell, the teacher who taught us Marxism-Leninism had no
other choice but to start teaching philosophy, the heretic one.' Can you
imagine the continuation of his lecture that day!?¹

The thinking processes in this quote, and in Anri Sala's video Intervista, are based on a similar experience. Both are dealing with empty space, the vacuum that the disintegration of social systems creates for the individuals who have lived within them and helped carry them out.

At the beginning of the work, cracks appear in the black of the opening sequence. Eventually the black becomes recognisable as the inside of a cardboard box, perhaps a packing case. The box is cut open at the edges and it becomes clear that the camera is filming the scene from the bottom of the box itself. From this perspective we see a young man who bends over and, as this view from underneath is