Fondation

Bill Viola
Bill Viola was born in New York in 1951 and graduated from Syracuse University in 1973. A seminal figure in the field of video art, he has been creating installations, films, sound environments, flat panel video pieces, and works for concerts, opera, and sacred spaces for over four decades. Viola represented the US at the Venice Biennale in 1995. Other key solo exhibitions include Bill Viola. Electronic Renaissance, Palazzo Strozzi, Florence; Bill Viola. Installations, Deichtorhallen, Hamburg; Bill Viola. Retrospective, Guggenheim Bilbao (all 2017); Bill Viola, Grand Palais, Paris (2014); Bill Viola, visioni interiori, Palazzo delle Esposizioni, Rome (2008); Hatsu-Yume (First Dream), Mori Art Museum, Tokyo (2006); Bill Viola – Visions, ARoS, Aarhus (2005); The Passions, J. Paul Getty Museum (2003); Bill Viola: A 25-Year Survey, The Whitney Museum of American Art (1997).

In 2004, Viola created a four-hour video for Peter Sellars’s production of Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde, which has had many performances in the US, Canada, Europe, and Japan. Viola has received numerous awards, including the XXI Catalonia International Prize (2009) and the Praemium Imperiale from the Japan Art Association (2011). He was elected as an Honorary Member to the Royal Academy, London, in 2017.

Kira Perov
Kira Perov is executive director of Bill Viola Studio. She has worked closely with Bill Viola since 1979, managing, creatively guiding, and assisting with the production of his video works and installations. She edits all Bill Viola publications and organizes and coordinates exhibitions of the work worldwide. Kira Perov earned her BA (Honours) in Languages and Literature from Melbourne University, Australia in 1973.