Bill Viola

Nantes Triptych

June 23, 2017 to March 18, 2018

The reopening of the museum in 2017 is an opportunity to present a major work by American artist Bill Viola, part of the permanent collections.

  • Contemporary art
  • Oratory Chapel

Last update: Tuesday, October 22 at 10:10 am

Bill Viola is an internationally renowned video artist, a medium he practices with great virtuosity. 

Nantes Triptych New window consists of 3 video screens: a pregnant woman in labor, a very old woman who is gradually fading away, and in the center, a man who dives underwater and holds himself apneic. The viewer is immediately plunged into the heart of the work: the cycle of birth, death and rebirth, archetypal figures central to the artist's work.

This video installation was specially commissioned by the museum in 1992 for the Chapelle de l'Oratoire, with support from the FNAC, and has never since been presented. A video altarpiece presented in the chapel's choir, the work restores all its power to the question of the sacred and questions the cathartic power of images.