On July 12th, Bill Viola, considered the pioneer of video art, passed away. Discussing his career offers us the opportunity to remember that technologies are a means to an end, even though it is precisely thanks to them that certain objectives can be achieved
Bill Viola, born in 1951, began using video in the mid-70s when the technology was still very rudimentary, everything was in black and white, “and video art was not a career option,” as he himself said. However, Viola immediately took hold of this medium, which was still without rules and involved ongoing technological progress. Attracted by the possibility of reproducing moving images, he arrived in Florence and joined Art/Tapes/22, one of the very first video art production centers, founded in 1972. Through video, Bill Viola was able to “dictate the rules” for the viewing time of his work, which lasts several minutes, a time that might (perhaps) only be dedicated to the Mona Lisa; and even within his videos, time is often “modified” using the very means that video offers. Let’s see some examples of these “means.”
In 1995’s The Greeting, a homage to Pontormo’s Visitazione: the scene is shot in 35mm at a speed of 300 frames per second, so that the 40 seconds of real action become 10 minutes in the video (thus giving the viewer time to see every single detail and movement), while also acquiring extremely high definition, unknown until many years later thanks to 4K. The Veiling, also from 1995, features the encounter between a man and a woman in an immersive environment, where two color video projection channels, on opposite sides of the room, set the figures in motion as they traverse the dark space, appearing on nine large gauze screens hung from the ceiling. Or take The Reflecting Pool (1977-1979) where Viola explores the characteristics and potential of the visual medium; an extremely complex production in the pre-digital era that required a fixed camera and several takes dissolved into one another to achieve the desired image transitions and highlight the complexity of perception. Over time, Viola has experimented with many of the features that underpin today’s video production, from immersiveness to ultra-high definition, to viewer engagement.
Our industry can draw great inspiration from artists like Viola, not only from the work itself but also from the means used: it is no coincidence that Viola participated in the research laboratories of the Sony Atsugi Technology Center during his stay in Japan in the 1980s. Indeed, what the industry produces today, from displays to LEDs to cameras, serves and will continue to serve artists like Bill Viola in pursuing their creative processes, and research will enable them, in the years to come, to reach ever-new goals.
