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比尔 维奥拉 光之体

2009年10月23日-12月19日

James Cohan 画廊纽约馆隆重推出比尔.维奥拉个展。比尔.维奥拉是美国卓有建树的当代影像艺术大师，超过35年的艺术经历包括影像短片、建筑性影响装置、屏幕放映艺术、环境声场营造、电子音乐表演以及为广大电视台、广播台、剧院及大型空间塑造的多形态艺术广受称誉并获得巨大的社会反响。他的作品聚焦全人类的人性体验——出生、死亡、潜意识与无意识——深受东西方交汇艺术及传统精神的影像，并综合高新科技将其艺术在情感影响、通感同情与精致准确层面达到了相当的高度。

此次展览覆盖了其过去20年的代表性作品，包括影像/音响装置灵魂(1994/2009) 以及变形系列中的几幅屏幕放映作品。维奥拉最新作品的灵感则来自“无边的海洋——2007年威尼斯双年展为15世纪圣加罗教堂而作”。

灵魂, 是维奥拉全空间装置艺术的代表性作品，首创于1994年，并在2009年作了修改，将在画廊的主展厅进行展示。“灵魂Pneuma”一词来源于古希腊，在当代语汇中并无对应词汇。通常它被译作灵魂soul 或精神spirit, 但同时它也包含着呼吸或使人类及自然世界充满生机的生命力。在这个装置艺术中，黑白影像在阴影中游弋、出现、消失，不停转换在可辨认的边缘。这更像是记忆与内在感受的直接表达、作用，而非仅仅是可见的地点、事件之图像。观者在暗黑的空间中被四面充满映射图像的高墙所包围，如入其境地感受不断渗透扩散的变幻声场。

变形系列展示的时刻是人或物由内在、而非外在影响而变形。维奥拉说”自我的变化，常缘于深刻的内在揭露或清晰而深不可测的过度的感知，这将持续至“一道灵光”真正降临在他或她的心灵之上……这些深刻的人类体验发生之时，可能将超越意识感知的外在边界。”在其变形系列中，黑白影像与鬼魂形象从全黑的背景中无先兆的出现，莫名高处的阀骤然开启，水和光倾泻而下。同时一系列的情感赤裸裸地呈现在眼前：惊讶、困惑、恐惧、愤怒、奄奄一息的欲望，直至人像最终隐出画面。维奥拉利用粒状模拟影像技术及一台老旧的监视摄像机进行实录，并将这些影像与另一些高清视频段落相揉和，为观者带入模糊而清晰地交错之中——生与死——再将其拉回到现实里。变形系列包括 验收Acceptance(2008,) 化身Incarnation (2008,) 无辜者The Innocents (2008) 和 小圣人Small Saints (2008).

此次展览的其他作品：“诗乙Poem B（宾馆The Guest House”,迁移过往至今的回忆的挂毯的三联图片（2006），“光之体”（2006），平板雕刻板，从佛教密宗叙述了在出生和死亡的过程中身体的解散的需要及其启示，“老橡树”（研究，2005）和“四手”（2001）。
自20世纪70年代早期，维奥拉的艺术作品就在全球范围众多一线艺术机构举办了多场展览，包括：“比尔.维奥拉：装置与影像Bill Viola: Installations and Videotapes”，纽约现代美术馆MoMA, NY，1987；巡展“比尔.奥维拉：隐形的画面Bill Viola: Unseen Images, 1992-1994”，策展人Kunsthalle Düsseldorf 和 Kira Perov；维奥拉代表美国于1995年参加第46届威尼斯双年展，题为“在1997年被埋葬的秘密Buried Secrets. In 1997”，惠特尼博物馆Whitney Museum 随即举办了“比尔.维奥拉：持续25年的调查Bill Viola: A 25-Year Survey”，并在美国和欧洲的六家美术馆进行了巡展；2002年在古根海姆柏林和纽约举行了“每日一进，五段式循环影像“壁画”Going Forth By Day, a five part video “fresco”；2003年，“激情”，加拿大 J. Paul Getty 博物馆，并在伦敦国家美术馆National Gallery, London进行了巡展；马德里个展”La Caixa“，并在澳大利亚堪培拉国家美术馆 the National Gallery of Australia进行了巡展；2006 年在东京家蚕艺术博物馆Mori Art Museum 的个展；2007年在华沙Zacheta 国家美术馆的个展；2008年由Kira Perov策展的“比尔.维奥拉：内部视觉Bill Viola: Visioni interiori”在罗马展览宫Palazzo delle Esposizioni举行；其最新个展“亲密”正在荷兰蒂尔堡的桥馆De Pont展出，展期直至2010年1月10日。

维奥拉获奖无数，包括1989年John D. & Catherine T. MacArthur 基金奖；1993年Medienkunstpreis；2006年法国政府艺术与文学最高荣誉将军奖章；2009年麻省理工学院 Eugene McDermott 艺术奖； 2009 年Catalonia 国际荣誉奖。.光环之外，维奥拉在学术界的造诣亦甚高，他在1989年受洛杉矶Getty研究院客座学者。比尔.奥维拉及其爱妻与事业伙伴Kira Perov生活工作在加利福尼亚长滩Long Beach。

比尔.奥维拉受邀担任Walter Annenberg年度讲座嘉宾

时间为2009年9月27日下午7点

地点：惠特尼博物馆Whitney Museum

October 23 – December 19, 2009

New York Gallery

James Cohan Gallery is pleased to present its fifth gallery exhibition by internationally acclaimed American artist Bill Viola. The exhibition opens October 23rd and runs through December 19th, 2009. For over 35 years Bill Viola has been instrumental in the establishment of video as a vital form of contemporary art, greatly expanding its scale, creative scope and historical reach. He has created video films, architectural video installations, flat screen pieces, sound environments, electronic music performances, as well as works for television broadcast, opera, and sacred spaces. His works focus on universal human experiences—birth, death, the unfolding of consciousness—and have roots in both Eastern and Western art as well as spiritual traditions. They employ state-of-the-art technology and are distinguished by their emotional power, precision and direct simplicity.

The exhibition spans two decades and includes the New York premiere of Pneuma(1994/2009) a video/sound installation, and several flat-screen pieces from the Transfigurations series, Viola’s newest body of work, which originated with Ocean Without a Shore, created for the 15th century Church of San Gallo during the Venice Biennale in 2007.

Pneuma, one of Viola’s signature full-room installations from 1994 updated in 2009, will be presented in the main gallery space. “Pneuma” is an ancient Greek word that has no equivalent in contemporary terms. It is commonly translated as soul or spirit, but it also can refer to breath or the vital life force that is said to animate the entire human and natural world. In the installation, monochrome images alternatively emerge and submerge from indistinct shadows and shifting forms hovering at the edge of recognition. The projections function more like memories or internal sensations rather than actual images of places and events. Viewers enter the space and are surrounded by images projected onto the walls of a darkened room while a constantly shifting sound field permeates the space.

The title of the series Transfigurations refers to the moment when a person or an object is transformed not by external means but from within. Viola says “the transformation of the Self, usually provoked by a profound inner revelation or an overwhelming sensation of clarity and fathomless emotion, overcomes the individual until literally a ‘new light’ dawns on him or her… Some of the most profound human experiences occur at times like these, arising at the outer limits of conscious awareness.” In Viola’s Transfigurations works, black-and-white images of ghostly figures emerge slowly from complete darkness eventually passing through a threshold of water into a world of color and light. Reacting with a range of emotions from surprise, to confusion, fear and anger, often with a desire to linger, the figures are finally drawn back through to the other realm. Viola combines images recorded in grainy analog video using an old surveillance camera with those shot in High-Definition video to bring the viewer to the intersection of obscurity and clarity—from death to life—and back again. The works being shown from this series are Acceptance(2008,) Incarnation (2008,) The Innocents (2008) and Small Saints (2008).

Other works included in this exhibition are: Poem B (The Guest House), a triptych from 2006, in which images form a tapestry of shifting memories from the past to the present;Bodies of Light, 2006 a flat panel diptych which takes its inspiration from Tantric Buddhist descriptions of the dissolution of the body during the process of birth and death; Old Oak (Study), (2005); and Four Hands (2001).

Since the early 1970’s, Viola’s art works have been exhibited worldwide and are included in the collections of international museums and important private collections. Exhibitions include: Bill Viola: Installations and Videotapes, MoMA, NY, 1987; and the travelling exhibition Bill Viola: Unseen Images, 1992-1994, organized by the Kunsthalle Düsseldorf and Kira Perov. Viola represented the U.S. at the 46th Venice Biennale in 1995 with the exhibition Buried Secrets. In 1997 the Whitney Museum organized Bill Viola: A 25-Year Survey that traveled to six museums in the US and Europe. In 2002, Going Forth By Day, a five part video “fresco” cycle was presented at the Deutsche Guggenheim Berlin and the Guggenheim, NY. In 2003, The Passions, originated at the J. Paul Getty Museum, CA and traveled to the National Gallery, London; the Fondacion “La Caixa” in Madrid; and the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra. Other important solo exhibitions have been mounted at the Mori Art Museum in Tokyo in 2006 and at the Zacheta National Gallery of Art, Warsaw in 2007. In 2008, Bill Viola: Visioni interiori, a survey exhibition organized by Kira Perov, was presented in Rome at the Palazzo delle Esposizioni. His exhibition Intimate Works is currently on view at the De Pont, Tilburg, Netherlands through January 10, 2010.

Viola is the recipient of numerous awards and honors, including a John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Fellowship in 1989, the first Medienkunstpreis in 1993, the Commander of the Order of Arts and Letters by the French Government in 2006, the Eugene McDermott Award in the Arts, MIT in 2009 and the 2009 Catalonia International Prize. In addition to several honorary doctorates, Viola was invited to be a Scholar at the Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles in 1998. Bill Viola and Kira Perov, his wife and long-time collaborator, live and work in Long Beach, California

Bill Viola will give the Walter Annenberg Annual Lecture at the Whitney Museum, Oct 27 7:00pm.

For further information please visit James Cohan Gallery or contact Jane Cohan atjane@jamescohan.com and 212-714-9500.