Through the effect of slow motion, the great video creator Bill Viola (New York, 1951) explored human emotions (pain, crying, rage) in The passions, a kind of moving paintings for which he was inspired by religious art From the past. Two pieces from that cycle carried out in 2003, with which he tried to get closer to the old devotional images, are now part of Emociones. Images and gestures from the past and present. An exhibition at the Museu Marès that shows the transition from sadness to joy, and the relationship between the two, through a selection of sculptures from the 12th to 16th centuries from the museum's own collections in dialogue with outstanding contemporary works.
The exhibition is signed by Victoria Cirlot, curator and professor of Philology at the UPF, who through this conversation wants to “reflect on how art that is far removed from our time can acquire new life by putting it in relation to the contemporary world and art. “from common emotions in different historical times.”
With the figure of Mary, the mother of God and “representative of humanity”, as the guiding thread of the journey through the three exhibition areas (pain, wound and glory), Emociones relates the great theme of the passion of Christ with two other outstanding works of informalism and spatialism, by Antoni Tàpies and Lucio Fontana, as well as with a much more current lighting installation by Javier Riera, created already in the 21st century.
