As part of its 10th anniversary celebration, DHC/ART Foundation for Contemporary Art is pleased to present a new solo exhibition, Bill Viola: Naissance à rebours.
Bill Viola is recognized as a pioneer in video art, with a career spanning over forty years. His work across single channel video, video installation, sound environments, electronic music performances, and broadcast television deeply examines the universal themes of life, death, the unfolding of consciousness, the spirit, and the human condition. The presentation at DHC/ART brings together four flat panel video works, The Return (2007), Ancestors (2012), Walking on the Edge (2012), and The Encounter (2012), as well as the projection work Ascension (2000). Making its Canadian debut is his most recent major installation, Inverted Birth (2014). This monumental projection depicts the five stages of awakening through a series of violent transformations, exploring the very nature of our existence: life, death, birth, and rebirth. “Birth is not a beginning, death is not an end,” as Viola has remarked, quoting from the Chinese philosopher Chuang Tzu (370–287 BC).