(from an email to a dear friend)
Today i went to see an individaul exhibition of Bill Viola which I loved soooo much! This is the first time that I saw a solo show of Bill Viola and i was completely stunned by his work ...
A little story: in 2002, i wrote him an email inviting him to go to Hong Kong for an artist-in-residence project for 6 months. Then he replied me not by email but a letter, a hand-written letter posted with a stamp!! I still remember the letter was written in capital letters, begins with "DEAR SELINA" and ends with "YOURS, BILL". I was so touched when I received it though the reply was negative.... unfortunately, i couldn't keep it as a souvenir but had to file it into the documents. Probably now a piece of torn paper.
I knew a bit of his work but never really seen one until in Paris. I was so excited to discover this solo show, which is so unexpected and yet marvellously beautiful !! There are 16 vidoes all together, a correct size for a video show in my opinion. Most of the shows in Paris museums are huge that determined to exhaust the visitors. 16 pieces is really good, on average 15 mins on each video, which is about the right running time of Viola's work, so you spent 3 hours for the visit and able to see almost all the work in complete.
I like in particular The crossing (1996), Catherine's Room (2001), Five Angels for the Millennium (departing angel) (2001), The Greeting (1995), The Veiling (1995) and Ocean without Shore (2007). His video gives audience a total experience (which hits me some much right now since I've been troubled with the word "exhibition" for a while), every single piece is an integration of visual aesthetic, sound, lighting, emotion, vision and imagination, and sometimes even physical movement of the space when the sound goes to a certain high frequency that the wall starts to shake!
Most of them are so emotionally intense yet all the images go so slowly, like taking a break from the reality to chew on the feelings of that particular single moment in life. The low frequency of the sounding system hypnotise the audience, you feel like you are entering into that moment of life, that you hear your own breathing, that you are completely surrounded by the vacuum of the distilled minute. Watching his video is like passing through redemption. He is a very meditative artist who like to explore the issues of life and death, memory and reality, suffrance and internal peace, emotion and detachment, etc. I like the title of the show, "visioni interiori", that's very Bill Viola !
I am not a big fan of video art, but Bill Viola is more than a video artist. He uses new technology to re-interprete the classical visual aesthetics. His images (the composition, the lighting, the colours scheme, the contrast, etc) are direct descendents of the italian renaissance, but the emotion and the attitude are contemporary, despite the fact that they are universal and eternal human predicament. When I stood in front of the five small screens of Catherine's Room, I coudn't take my eyes away from them ! The simple arrangement of the interior of each scene, the careful choice of colour (particularly the window and the fabric), the change of lighting, the slowness and tranquility of the movements... all the banality and confinement become such an immense visual pleasure, and every movement goes directly to the inner world of the personnage, so peaceful. At that moment, I dreamed to have some classical 
italian beauty and grace to be there in the scenes.
The other work, The Veiling, in which he set up 9 layers of silk screen with appx 30 cm of space in between, double projections from both ends through the silk layers. With the density of 9 layers, the images are perceivable but floating and sometimes nine-folded. It gives you the illusion of watching a 3D movie without the glasses on.
Ocean without Shore was created for the Venice Biennale last year. I 
haven't see the installation in its original scale. The version they are showing here is a looping of all the videos in the series. It's so powerful in terms of theme and images. It starts with black and white blur images of a person walking slowly towards the fixed camera. There is an invisible water screen in front, the moment when s/he passes the water screen, again everything in slow motion, the water splashes brutally on his/her body and s/he emerges from the water screen to a high-definition colour image, stunned himself as well the audience, he looks bewildered, troubled, excited and refreshed, like a rebirth or 1 minute in heaven. Then s/he truned quietly and passes again the water screen to his/her black and white blur world, sometimes, s/he would look back with nostalgic eyes, then disappears in melancholy. That's so powerful, really taking your breath away. It's the last video in the show and the latest of among the works as well, but the show is not chronological. When you finish a show with a powerful work, you look back with nostalgia too! An important consideration for a curator, I guess ! (Click to see the presentation of Bill Viola on Ocean without Shore)
Obviously, for Viola, the presentation (scenography) of each piece is perceived the moment the video is conceived. I appreciate the idea that artists create work with in mind the idea of showing instead of selling !
Bill Viola - Visioni Interiori / Palazzo delle Esposizioni di Roma / now - 06 January 09
文字/ 丁燕燕
「Pure Beauty」這個題目叫人會心微笑。由六十年代起即打正旗號「反美學」的老約翰，現在又與觀眾來一次他最愛的「文字遊戲」，擾亂視線。在一次訪問中，Baldessari說︰「藝術創作，熟能生巧。你不需要特意做漂亮、好看的東西，它自然會來的。那幹嘛還要以此為目標？」由繪畫走向以文字為創作元素的概念性作品，「反美學」就是這位藝術史上最重要的概念藝術家的基調，其一目標是反市場、反藝術商品化。如六十年代中期的經典作品「給想賣作品的藝術家的貼士」(Tips for Artists Who Want to Sell, 1960s)，Baldessari為藝術市場列出一條清單，如「一般來說，色彩鮮艷的作品比色彩調單、暗淡的更有市場」等，明顯地對當年橫行市場的普普藝術及抽象表現繪畫揶揄一翻。「反美學」就是不想對市場獻媚？「套用Kierkegaard的說法，我的使命是把事情複雜化，讓所有人都感到困難。但我明白這是一個調情遊戲，就像一個女人要扮矜貴，但又不能吓怕所有人，那就沒人追了。」
七十年代時，Baldessari走得更遠。某一天，他在報紙上刊登啟示，他已把1953年至1966年創作的繪畫作品付之一炬。此後，Baldessari開始轉向錄像創作，但保留了他一貫的矛盾、弔詭風格，如「我不會再做悶人的藝術品」(I will not make any more boring Art) (1971)，一個多小時的錄像中，他如被罸抄的小學生，在筆記本中一遍又一遍地抄著「I will not make any more boring Art」。
展覽，往往會被排擠。」餅已被瓜分了，請回老家吧。當市場慢慢轉過頭來青睞Baldessari的作品時，藝術家不忘自嘲一翻，「Embed Series: Ice Cubes: U – BUY BAL DES SARI」便是其中之一，藝術家在冰塊上噴上賣畫廣告。最終，等到八十年代，當他獲得Guggenheim的藝術資助後，他的作品開始被廣泛購藏。此時，他亦開始把目光投向電影劇照，在這些現成物加上Matisse式剪貼。「我對現成影像感興趣，尤其是電影劇照中不知名的演員，因為這些電影片段是我們的集體記憶，而我可以輕易地挪用、扭曲它。」
John Baldessari: Pure Beauty
I am pleased to present to you the launching edition of
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Le Soi Dormant #5 Etude
沿途又踫到一個正在進行中的行為藝術，雕塑小狗名叫 Lilli，牠的本性讓牠隨處方便，於是，藝術家指責道，「你好停止此等行為。」當然，弄髒地方的幕後真兇是另有其人。真是指桑駡槐。
