He Weeps For You 2

Bill Viola, Video and sound installation, 1976
Le Frenoys


'One of the foundations of ancient philosophy is the concept of the correspondence between the microcosm and the macrocosm, or the belief that everything on the right order, or scale, of existence reflects and is contained in the manifestation and operation of the lower orders. This has been expressed in religious thought as the symbolic correspondence of the divine (the heavens) and the mundane (the earth), and also finds representation in the theories of contemporary physics that describe how each particule of matter in space contains information about the state of the entire universe.

The ensemble of elements in He Weeps For You evokes a 'turned space', where not only is everything locked into a single rhythmical cadence, but a dynamic interactive system is created where all elements (the water drop, the video image, the sound, the viewer, and the room) function together in a reflexive and unified way as a larger instrument.

The traditional philosophy of the microcosm/macrocosm has been profoundly expressed in the Islamic mystical tradition of Sufism. The Persian poet Jallaludin Rumi (1207-1273) developed these concepts with subtle variation in the course of his life's work. In the Masnavi he wrote:

With every moment a world is born and dies,

And know that for you, with every moment come death and renewal.

Notes by Bill Viola, 1976'

Category:

Film & Animation

Tags:

• viola
• video
• frenoys
• eternités
• proches