Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and Foundation
Nel video a 4 canali Breath, ora rimasterizzato, i canti evocativi di preghiere Buddiste, Cristiane, Ebraiche e Islamiche sono diffusi da diversi schermi video.
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Shirazeh Houshiary presenta Breath (Respiro), un video a quattro canali realizzato la prima volta nel 2003, ora rimasterizzato e parte di una nuova e unica installazione fissa. In Breath (2013), i canti evocativi di preghiere Buddiste, Cristiane, Ebraiche e Islamiche sono diffusi da quattro schermi video. Il suono diventa coreografia, con le immagini che catturano il respiro ritmato dei cantanti. L’installazione è un recinto rettangolare rivestito di feltro nero, vi si accede attraverso uno stretto passaggio che porta a un interno bianco illuminato da une luce fioca. Quattro schermi sono sospesi ad altezza d’uomo, da questi si diffondono e si attenuano i canti delle diverse tradizioni, si gonfiano e si disperdono in un coro inquietante che riempie le sale e oltrepassa le pareti. Se all’interno c’è unicità, all’esterno tutto è molteplicità.
Organizzazione: Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and Foundation
Sponsor: Lisson Gallery
Torre di Porta Nuova
Arsenale Nord - Venezia
Orario: 10-18, chiuso lunedi
Ingresso libero
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For her presentation as a Collateral Event of the 55th International Art Exhibition of la Biennale di Venezia, Shirazeh Houshiary presents Breath, a four channel video that was first conceived in 2003, in a remastered version and as part of a unique, site-specific installation.
In Breath (2012-13), the evocative chants of Buddhist, Christian, Jewish and Islamic prayers emanate from four video screens. The sound is choreographed with images that capture the expanding and contracting breath of the vocalists. The installation takes the form of a rectangular enclosure clad in black felt, which is entered through a narrow passage that leads to a dimly lit white interior. There are four screens hung at eye level from which the chants of the different traditions rise and fall, swell and dissipate in a haunting chorus that fills the room and permeates beyond each of its walls. Where inside there is unity, outside is multiplicity.
Inspired by the history, location and scale of La Torre, Houshiary envisioned a structure – an enclosure swathed in heavy cloth, its presence constituted by an act of veiling – in which to house the animation. The structure appears as a haunting presence within the Tower's vaulted interior, acting to both capture and coalesce the disparate invocations of the vocalists, and also to isolate and extract them: projecting the sounds into the wider space. Houshiary has reconceived the work so that it inhabits and transforms the Tower, and at the same time, asks that the work be shaped by the specificity of the space: a Tower that is the gateway to the Arsenale, a boundary and a threshold.
The exhibition also comprises a suite of new paintings shown alongside the awe-inspiring diptych Between (2010-2011): the largest work on canvas that Houshiary has produced to date.
The version of Breath presented at La Torre has been kindly lent by the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York.
Sponsor: Lisson Gallery
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Thu, May 30 | 11am - 2 pm Press and Vip Preview
Arsenale, Torre di Porta Nuova
Opening hour: 10am - 6pm
Closing day: Mondays (except for June 3 and November 18)
Admission: Free
Transport: Lines 4.1, 4.2, 5.1, 5.2, Bacini or Celestia; shuttle from Arsenale-Press Office Biennale to Arsenale Nord every ten minutes