US Embassy Gdansk Events Continue with Bill Viola’s The Messenger

8 August 2008

Bill Viola: The Messenger, 1996 Video/sound installation Photo: Kira Perov

Over the course of more than 35 years of work, Viola has created many groundbreaking films and video-installations that engage the viewer on many levels: intellectual, emotional and perceptual.  At the exhibition, Zachęta presented nine works, including The Crossing (1996), The Raft (2004) and Ascension (2000), works that make reference to the symbolism of the elements. Particular significance is attributed to water, the symbol that recurs most frequently in the artist’s works, and which conveys connotations of changes, birth and death, but also of the forces of nature, and spiritual cleansing.