Florence, protests at Museo dell'Opera del Duomo over Bill Viola nude

Some visitors to Florence’s Museo dell’Opera del Duomo protested against Bill Viola’s work Acceptance, which was included in the museum itinerary as part of the anthology of works by the American artist exhibited in several Florentine museums on the occasion of the major monographic exhibition that opened March 10 at Palazzo Strozzi. The video-art work, installed in the Chapel of the Relics, features a nude woman who, passing under a jet of water, advances toward the viewer: some visitors would not have liked the presence of the nude in the setting chosen for the exhibition.

The work is in fact displayed in front of an altar that, museum director Timothy Verdon told Corriere Fiorentino, “in the last 50 years perhaps has been used twice. Even Cardinal Betori agreed, I didn’t think I was hurting anyone’s sensibilities by placing it next to that nude by Viola, which has nothing erotic about it, rather it refers to a spiritual message. By the way, in our churches there are more sensual naked women than this one. I think of the Baroque heritage.” To avoid further offending visitors’ sensibilities, Bill Viola’s work has been moved to the Hall of Fragments.

Source: Florentine Courier

Image: Bill Viola, Acceptance (2008; High-definition black-and-white video on plasma screen installed vertically on wall; stereophonic sound and subwoofer. Performer: Weba Garretson; duration: 8’14"; 155.5 x 92.5 x 12.7 cm; Courtesy Bill Viola Studio)

Florence, protests at Museo dell'Opera del Duomo over Bill Viola nude

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