Bill Viola at the Museum of Montserrat

The Museum of Montserrat shows, until 6th of January 2020, one work by Bill Viola (New York, 1951), one of the most important artist of videoart around the world.

Viola use with mastery the sophisticated audiovisual technologies in order to explore and express a constant concern by the nature of human beings and a the transcience of life.

The work that can be seen in the Montserrat Museum is untitled Observance (2002) and it has been located on the ground floor of the museum. The installation has required the dismantling of a permanent exhibition room, right next to contemporary art, so that the public will see the video almost at the end of the museum visit. In Observance, the viewer watches a steady stream of people that slowly moves forward toward us. One by one they pause at the head of the line, overcome with emotion. Their gazes are fixed on an unknown object just out of sight below the edge of the frame. An air of solemnity and sorrow pervades the scene.  Individuals sometimes touch each other gently or exchange brief glances as they pass. Couples comfort one another in their shared grief. All are unified by their common desire to reach the front of the line and make contact with what is there. Once their solitary moment is fulfilled, they move to the back of the line to make way for the others.
 
The event spreads from La Pedrera to other institutions besides Montserrat: Bòlit - Center of Contemporary Art in Girona, the Episcopal Museum of Vic and the Sorigué Foundation in de Lleida. There will also be activities at the Palau de la Música and at the Gran Teatre del Liceu.

More information (http://www.museudemontserrat.com/en/the-museum/-/4/-/1160)