Transforming the Observatory Hill Rotunda, celebrated French-Albanian artist Anri Sala is creating a splendorous installation of sculpture and sound for the 33rd Kaldor Public Art Project.

Step beneath the gravity-defying ensemble of custom-built drums to experience their rhythmic, live response to a contemporary interpretation of a Mozart concerto. Set against the sights and sounds of the harbor below, the musical dialogue animates the relationship between sound, place, time and history.

To shape the intricate recorded soundscape for The Last Resort, Sala has reimagined Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto in A Major, a masterpiece of the European Enlightenment. Mozart’s score is upended, as if it were a message in a bottle carried from Europe across the ocean to Australia, affected by wind and waves.

Vibrant and enchanting, The Last Resort promises a sensory onrush amidst sweeping views of Sydney’s treasures. Take a stroll to Observatory Hill and surrender to the poetic beauty.

This artwork is part of Art & About Sydney, an ongoing year-round program of temporary art projects in unusual spaces produced by City of Sydney. The project is presented by Kaldor Public Art Projects, a non-profit organisation that has created groundbreaking art projects in public spaces since 1969. It was co-commissioned with partners Esther Schipper (Berlin) and Marian Goodman Gallery (New York and Paris).