Film Screening: ‘Bill Viola: The Road to St Paul’s’ (2017) + Q&A with Director Gerald Fox
Bill Viola / Michelangelo: Life, Death, Rebirth
Saturday 16 February 2019 4.30 - 6.30pm
The Benjamin West Lecture Theatre, Burlington Gardens, Royal Academy of Arts
£15, £9
Bill Viola / Michelangelo
In partnership with
Supported by the Genesis Foundation, with grateful thanks to John Studzinski CBE.
As part of our 'Does Art Connect Us?' Day and to coincide with the ‘Bill Viola / Michelangelo: Life Death Rebirth’ exhibition, we have joined forces with MUBI for a special screening of ‘Bill Viola: The Road to St Paul’s’ (2017).
The film documents Bill Viola and his wife and close collaborator Kira Perov’s 12-year odyssey to create two permanent video installations for St Paul’s Cathedral in London: Martyrs (2014) and Mary (2016), which offer a contemporary contemplation on life, death and the afterlife. This film follows Viola’s remarkable story of creating the first art commission of its kind to be installed in Britain’s best known cathedral.
The screening is followed by a Q&A with Director, Gerald Fox and independent film curator, Karen Alexander.
Director: Gerald Fox
Running time: 81 minutes
Language: English
Release: 2017
Gerald Fox is a BAFTA, Grierson, Royal Television Society and Prix Italia award-winning filmmaker who is known for his visual arts documentaries about leading artists including Gilbert and George, Claes Oldenburg, Gerhard Richter, Marc Quinn, Robert Frank and Bill Viola Hon RA. He was educated at Harvard and Oxford Universities. For over twenty years he worked for The South Bank Show on ITV, and making arts documentaries for Channel 4. His film about Bill Viola which took twelve years to complete just aired on BBC 1 Imagine. He is also a video artist in his own right with recent shows at the New Art Gallery Walsall and the Edinburgh International Festival.
Karen Alexander is an independent film and moving image curator, writer and researcher. She has worked with and for the BFI (1998-2006) and the Royal College of Art (2009-2014). Karen works across media, arts and culture, programming and running courses on female representation, independent cinema, and cultural memory. Her curatorial projects include Whip It Good: Spinning From History’s Filthy Mind, 2015 and Dream Time: We All have Stories Nuit Blanche (Toronto, 2018). Currently, she is a part-time tutor at the University of the Arts, London and a consultant programmer with Cinema Rediscovered at the Watershed, Bristol.
Organised in partnership with MUBI.
Does art connect us?
Bill Viola / Michelangelo: Life, Death, Rebirth
Can art be transformative or transcendental? Can it influence society or change opinions and behaviour? Join us as we unpick these questions at a special day of events, exploring key themes and questions around religion and belief in relation to the Royal Academy’s exhibition Bill Viola / Michelangelo: Life, Death, Rebirth.