Lugano's LAC pays tribute to the eclectic Robert Wilson with his new installation

An artist, sculptor, video artist and filmmaker of international renown, for more than half a century Robert Wilson (Texas, 1941) has never ceased to amaze with his overflowing creativity, which, combined with his personal stylistic rigor, still continues to traverse and contaminate the languages of contemporaneity with aesthetically surprising and emotionally charged images.

Beginning Dec. 6, Lugano’s LAC will pay tribute to the eclectic U.S. artist capable like few others of traversing the landscape of the arts while remaining faithful to a unified poetics. Wilson will be the protagonist of the end-of-year programming with three appointments designed to delve into his exceptional artistic journey: a site-specific installation Panther Owls Elk - Animal Stories (until Jan. 7, 2024) specially created by the artist for the cultural center; on opening day, Wednesday, Dec. 6 at 6 p.m:30 Robert Wilson’s meeting with the public in a dialogue open to all, and on Wednesday 13 and Thursday 14 the performance Relative Calm, the artist’s latest work. This is a Change Performing Arts production co-produced with LAC together with six international institutions, celebrating the reunion with choreographer Lucinda Childs more than four decades after the absolute debut of Einstein on the Beach, to music by Philip Glass, which revealed Wilson’s indisputable talent to the world.

The cultural center of the City of Lugano thus offers a unique opportunity to get to know the poetics and aesthetics of one of the world’s most multifaceted and innovative contemporary artists, capable of interweaving languages as diverse as theater, sculpture, ’installation, architecture, light, drawing, gesture, movement, dance, music, and sound, giving life to a unique and unequivocal style in the sign of total art.

The installation at LAC | December 6, 2023 - January 7, 2024

Panther Owls Elk - Animal Stories is a multimedia installation specially created for the cultural center, a Change Performing Arts project commissioned by LAC Lugano Arte Cultura, which from December 6, 2023 to January 7, 2024 will transform the Hall into a virtual forest thanks to seventeen video portraits of snowy owls, a panther, and an elk, works that reflect the essence of his poetics. Made at different times, they are exhibited and juxtaposed for the first time at LAC in one place and in a unified design, creating a true environmental sculpture articulated in three spaces, which involves the visitor’s passage through a tall, bright and boisterous corridor inhabited by the owls, contrasting with the two darker adjacent rooms, where a black panther and a moose immersed in fog call for an almost intimate and meditative participation. In Wilson’s video portraits, as in his theater, action is the result of a reduction of gestural and verbal language: a minimal process made iconic by slowing down and repetitive ritual.

Robert Wilson meets the public | Wednesday, December 6, 6:30 p.m.

On the occasion of the inauguration of the installation Panther Owls Elk - Animal Stories, Robert Wilson will introduce his work in a conversation with directors Michel Gagnon and Carmelo Rifici: an appointment that will provide a close look at the many facets of his artistic journey. In addition to the installation, the dialogue will delve into the making of Relative Calm, his most recent work, and the transversality of his creations.

The show Relative Calm | Wednesday, December 13 and Thursday, December 14, 8:30 p.m.

Wednesday, Dec. 13 and Thursday, Dec. 14-the only Swiss performances-will be staged at LAC Relative Calm, a Change Performing Arts production co-produced with LAC along with six international theater organizations, celebrating a reunion with choreographer Lucinda Childs more than four decades after the absolute debut of Einstein on the Beach, which revealed Wilson’s indisputable talent to the world.

Relative Calm is a work constructed in three parts: the first and the last are a reinterpretation of two choreographies Wilson himself and Lucinda Childs worked on together in 1981 on Jon Gibson’s Rise and John Adams’ Light over water; in between lies an original creation on Stravinsky’s Pulcinella. It is an interdisciplinary work, a hypnotic machine of movements, sounds, lights and images that features on stage - in a harmonious architecture of space and time - twelve young performers from the MP3 Dance Project company. On the occasion of the Wednesday, Dec. 13 repeat performance, the LAC is organizing a free transfer for the public to and from Milan.

Departing from Via Paleocapa 3 (corner of Piazza Cadorna) at 6:30 p.m., the place to which they return at the end of the performance. Reservations are required and allowed only if in possession of a ticket for the show. Reservation here: https://www.luganolac.ch/it/lac/programma/evento~lac~23-24~s~relative-calm~.html Information and presale Ticket office LAC Piazza Bernardino Luini 6 CH-6901 Lugano Opening hours: Ma-Fri: 11 a.m.-6 p.m.; Sa-Su: 10 a.m.-6 p.m. +41 (0)58 866 4222 www.luganolac.ch

“We decided to dedicate an important moment of the theater and dance season to Robert Wilson,” declare Michel Gagnon and Carmelo Rifici, General Director and Artistic Director of the LAC, respectively, "precisely because of his ability to be a transversal artist with a great ability to work on artistic languages as diverse as theater-image, sculpture, architecture, drawing, gesture, movement, dance, music and light. This is a peculiar characteristic of his artistic expression in which we have caught an explicit assonance with the LAC project, which stands out for its interdisciplinary nature. The installation in the Hall, given the extension of Piazza Luini, also allows us to bring art into public spaces, to go out to the people, a custom that is important to us and coincides with the end-of-year holiday season."

Lugano's LAC pays tribute to the eclectic Robert Wilson with his new installation

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