Bill Viola

BILL VIOLA – Five Angels for the Millennium / Oberhausen Gasometer 2003

In May 2003, five beings who seemed not to be of this world took up residence in the Gasometer: ‘Five Angels for the Millennium’ – an installation by Bill Viola, one of the world’s most significant video artists. The five angels for the new millennium entered into a transcendent dialogue with the vast industrial cathedral. Never before had Viola exhibited his installation, completed in California in 2001, in a space of this scale.

‘Five Angels for the Millennium’ consists of five complementary video sequences: – the Ascending Angel, the Birth Angel, the Creation Angel, the Departing Angel and the Fire Angel. On huge screens mounted on the steel walls of the gasometer, suspended at heights ranging from twelve to 64 metres, the images shimmered, glowed, sparkled and exploded. This was accompanied by sounds which, in combination with the gasometer’s unique acoustics, conveyed a sense of infinity.

The IKS and Ralph Goertz were given permission to film the artist during the installation.

Watch the documentary on Vimeo!