COMING SOON
COMING SOON
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LIO MALCA PRESENTS:
BILL VIOLA AT LA NAVE SALINAS
June 21st-October 13th, 2018
New York art collector Lio Malca, in collaboration with Bill Viola and Bill Viola Studio, are pleased to present two of the artist's most acclaimed works: Fire Woman and Tristan's Ascension (The Sound of a Mountain Under a Waterfall).
THE EXHIBITION
In 2018, La Nave Salinas presents two pieces of video art by video artist Bill Viola: Fire Woman and The Ascension of Tristan (The Sound of a Mountain Under a Waterfall). For its projection, a 7x5 feet screen has been installed in the center of the show space. All lighting has been dispensed with, leaving the viewer in an entirely dark La Nave. The only light source is the vivid glow of the projections.
Teaser Bill Viola
THE WORKS
Fire Woman is an image seen in the mind’s eye of a dying man. The darkened silhouette of a female figure stands before a wall of flame. After several minutes, she moves forward, opens her arms, and falls into her own reflection. When the flames of passion and fever finally engulf the inner eye, and the realization that desire’s body will never again be met blinds the seer, the reflecting surface is shattered and collapses into its essential form—undulating wave patterns of pure light.
Format: Video and sound installation.
Duration: 11:12 minutes, 2005.
Performer: Robin Bonaccorsi.
Tristan’s Ascension describes the ascent of the soul in the space after death as it is awakened and drawn up in a backward-flowing waterfall. The body of a man is seen lying on a stone slab in an empty concrete room. Small drops of water become visible as they leave the ground and fall upward into space. What starts as a light rain soon becomes a roaring deluge, and the cascading water jostles the man’s limp body and soon brings him to life. His arms move of their own accord and his torso arches upward amidst the churning water.
Finally, his entire body rises off the slab and is drawn up with the rushing water, disappearing above. The torrent of water gradually subsides, and the drips decrease until only the empty slab remains, glistening on the wet ground. The image sequence is projected onto a tall, vertically oriented screen mounted on the wall.
Format: Video and sound installation.
Duration: 10:16 minutes, 2005.
Performer: John Hay.
Opening Bill Viola
Making of Bill Viola
THE ARTIST
“There's more than just the surface of life. The real things are under the surface.”
Bill Viola
Bill Viola (Nueva York, 1951 - Long Beach, 2024) was a fundamental artist in contemporary art. His works have been exhibited in major museums around the world, and he has received numerous accolades throughout his career, such as the prestigious MacArthur Foundation Fellowship (1989). In 2017, he was named an honorary member of the Royal Academy of Art in London. Influenced by artists such as Joseph Beuys, Nam June Paik, and Bruce Nauman, Bill Viola approached the novel universe of video art in the 1970s after graduating in Fine Arts from Syracuse University.
His work revolves around the concerns of the human condition. Universal themes such as birth, death, life, and transformation reveal his interest in mystical experiences, especially Zen philosophy, Christian mysticism, and Sufism. Medieval and Renaissance art are also aesthetically present in his work, which often exhibits a pictorial quality, where sound and music are essential parts of the artistic experience.
Bill Viola was is a pioneer and a master at a technical level. He was always concerned with staying up-to-date with technological advances, but technology in his work is not an end in itself, but rather the tool that helps him better refine the expression and transmission of the theme that obsesses him and is inherent to the human condition: duality. Life and death, light and darkness, action and calm, strength and tranquility are a constant play of opposites in his work. He was interested in recreating inner landscapes where time extends to infinity, scenes of the invisible where subtle changes in light create eternity, and where sound becomes a spiritual guide. His works are spaces for meditation, contemplation, and perhaps even epiphany.
For more info: www.billviola.com