Tag: video art

Video art exhibit “Electronic Renaissance” by Bill, Viola as Florence

Electronic Renaissance is not the name of an event about electro music, but the title of a video art exhibit by Bill Viola – Viola as the violet heart of Florence. Viola as a unique contemporary artist who believes that video is one of the leading arts and uses it in all of its shapes, from videotapes and architectural video installations to performances in rooms and areas completely where the sound and the electronic musics are a total immersive environment.

The exhibit is in Palazzo Strozzi and in the Strozzina –  the Centre for Contemporary Culture –  two of the most popular places of the city which take their name after an important ancient family based in Florence. This location is the most suitable one, seen that this exhibit is going to compare ancient art with high-tech performing art, the contemporary into the old world.

But let’s see some of the pics that could help us enjoying this sort of spiritual experience that Bill tries to express:

The Crossing by Bill Viola

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First of all, The Crossing representing a man crossing natural elements, from fire to water: surrounding sounds of the nature, flames all up his body and then the flood who let everything disappear. That’s it, the circle of life which can now start again.

The Greeting, Bill Viola 1995
Visitation by Pontormo vs. Visitation by Bill Viola 1995
The Path, 2002 by Bill Viola
The Path, 2002 inspired by one of the Decameron stories by Boccaccio

Then there is a series dedicated to the depiction of passion:

Surrender, 2011 – reflections of the half body of a women into a man who try to meet…

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Four Hands, showing hands of a young boy, a woman, a man and an older woman in their daily gestures…

Pietà, representing the original one by Masolino da Panicale 1424

Then maybe the most amazing one, in a silent room, here it is the fresco by Paolo Uccello, originally located into Santa Maria Novella’s Green Cloister ”The Flood and Receding of the Waters” depicting Noah’s flood. Then suddenly  in the back it appears a video showing a contemporary flood, water covering the stairs and people passing by…

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The Reflecting Pool
The Reflecting Pool – the manifesto of electronic art. A study about mankind, time and world.

After, a representation of Florence in the ’70s, while shooting in some studios, or performing with the most idealistic men at that time: Peter Hutchinson – the Land artist, a conceptual artist, or Takahiko Iimura – a Japanese avant-garde filmmaker – and so on..

Bill Viola
Bill Viola picture
Takahiko Iimura
Takahiko Iimura, Japanese artist

The exhibit is dedicated to Bill, the artist who once worked for an exclusive and unique video production center based in Florence, the Art/Tapes/22: it is (unfortunately was!) one of the only four Italian centers where videos began to be considered as a way to express arts – now you can have a taste of the Art/Tapes/22, a collection of interviews, documents and pictures at the ‘900 Museum of Florence.

#NoteOfTheDay Little Boy in the Grass by Aurora