Eye to Eye With the Animal: “I Do Not Know What It Is I Am Like” and Intercultural Negotiations of Bill Viola
Abstract
In the article the author presents an analysis and an interpretation of a piece of video art that has a special place in the work of the artist. I Do Not Know What It Is I Am Like is the longest „single channel” work by Bill Viola, and at the same time one of the most complex ones. Viola refers to a quote from Rigveda, which becomes a starting point for further divagations on the order of the world, its beginning, and the relations between humans and animals and nature as such. Viola, being a person of the Western culture, does not reject it and he does not reject his own identity. At the same time he searches for answers to his questions in the writings of the East. Andrzej Pitrus presents a guide to this complex and ambiguous work. Bill Viola is an erudite reaching - in an eclectic and fascinating way - to ancient and distant traditions, which often turn out to be closer to each other than we would want to believe.
Keywords:
Bill Viola, American cinema, videoReferences
DeMello, Margo. 2012. Animals and Society: An Introduction to Human-Animal Studies. New York: Columbia University Press.
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Keating, Thomas. 2006. Open Mind, Open Heart.20th Anniversary Edition. New York: The Continuum International Publishing Group Inc.
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Viola, Bill. 1995. Reasons for Knocking at an Empty House. Cambridge: The MIT Press, Cambridge.
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Wallis, Henry W. 1887. The Cosmology of the Rigveda. London: Williams and Norgate.
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Authors
Andrzej Pitruskwartalnik.filmowy@ispan.pl
Jagiellonian University Poland
Profesor nauk humanistycznych w Instytucie Sztuk Audiowizualnych UJ. Zajmuje się kinem współczesnym, a także reklamą, grami wideo oraz sztuką nowych mediów. W 2012 r. ukazał się tom zbiorowy pod jego redakcją: Olbrzym w cieniu. Gry wideo w kulturze audiowizualnej. Obecnie pracuje nad monografią artysty wideo Billa Violi.
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Copyright (c) 2012 Andrzej Pitrus
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In issues from 105-106 (2019) to 119 (2022) all articles were published under the CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 licence. During this period the authors granted a royalty-free non-exclusive licence (CC BY-ND 4.0) to use their article in „Kwartalnik Filmowy”, retained full copyright, and agreed to identify the work as first having been published in our journal should it be published or used again.
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