Bill Viola's Video Installations to Fill Milan's Crypt of Santo Sepolcro

Video art pioneer Bill Viola will exhibit three video installations in the Crypt of Santo Sepolcro in Milan from October 18, 2017, to January 28, 2018. The crypt, reopened to the public a year and a half ago after 50 years of closure, has become a major cultural destination. The exhibition, organized by MilanoCard in collaboration with Bill Viola Studio, will feature The Quintet of the Silent (2000), The Return (2007), and Earth Martyr (2014). These works engage with themes of eternity, life, death, and the human condition, echoing Viola's earlier series The Passions (2000-02). The Quintet of the Silent depicts five characters overwhelmed by intense emotions in a Caravaggesque chiaroscuro. The Return shows a woman approaching an invisible threshold as a metaphor for the passage between life and death. Earth Martyr is part of the Martyrs series, a permanent installation at St. Paul's Cathedral in London since May 2014. The exhibition will be open daily from 5 PM to 10 PM, and until 11 PM on Saturdays, offering an evening experience blending contemporary art and spirituality. Edoardo Filippo Scarpellini, CEO of MilanoCard, expressed delight in contributing to the crypt's ongoing valorization. This follows Viola's previous Italian exhibition, Bill Viola: Electronic Renaissance, at Palazzo Strozzi in Florence.