Eye to Eye with the Animal: "I do Not Know What It Is I Am Like" and Intercultural Negotiations of Bill Viola. Cover Image

Oko w oko ze zwierzęciem: "I do Not Know What It Is I Am Like" i międzykulturowe negocjacje Billa Violi.
Eye to Eye with the Animal: "I do Not Know What It Is I Am Like" and Intercultural Negotiations of Bill Viola.

Author(s): Andrzej Pitrus
Subject(s): Theatre, Dance, Performing Arts
Published by: Instytut Sztuki Polskiej Akademii Nauk
Keywords: Viola Bill

Summary/Abstract: In the article the author presents an analysis and an interpretation of a piece of video art that has a special place in the work of the artist. "I Do Not Know What It Is I Am Like" is the longest „single channel” work by Bill Viola, and at the same time one of the most complex ones. Viola refers to a quote from Rigveda, which becomes a starting point for further divagations on the order of the world, its beginning, and the relations between humans and animals and nature as such. Viola, being a person of the Western culture, does not reject it and he does not reject his own identity. At the same time he searches for answers to his questions in the writings of the East. Andrzej Pitrus presents a guide to this complex and ambiguous work. Bill Viola is an erudite reaching – in an eclectic and fascinating way – to ancient and distant traditions, which often turn out to be closer to each other than we would want to believe.

  • Issue Year: 2012
  • Issue No: 80
  • Page Range: 203-213
  • Page Count: 11
  • Language: Polish