This is the second phase of the collaborative program with the Teatro La Fenice promoted by the Bevilacqua La Masa Foundation and curated by Francesca Pasini.

Korean artist Kimsooja will show her site specific video, "To breathe / Respirare", on the Teatro La Fenice's filmscreen immediately preceding the opera "Die Walkure", which opens - with the first dress rehearsal - on 22 January. "To breathe / Respirare" will be shown before all of the subsequent performances, as well as in February/March for the production of "I Quatro Rusteghi" by Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari.

We are also pleased to announce the inauguration of Kimsooja's solo show on 27 January at the gallery of the Bevilacqua La Masa Foundation in Piazza San Marco (open until 20 March). Also on this date the Teatro La Fenice will be open to the art-going public in order to assist the screening of the artist's video work.

In addition to this twofold event, there will be a monographic work, edited by Charta, containing various essays published over the last ten years by such critics and writers as Nicolas Bourriaud, Bernard Fibicher Jonathan Goodman, Gerald Matt, David Morgan, Keiji Nakamura, Harald Szeemann, as well as new contributions by Eleanor Heartney, Francesca Pasini and Angela Vettese. The publication is a combination of both a book on the artist and a critical anthology of her work, and will come with a CD Rom of the production presented at the Teatro La Fenice.

Kimsooja is a renowned artist around the world and particularly in Italy. She participated in the Biennale of Venice in 1999 and 2005, and had a solo show at the Pac and the Raffaella Cortese Gallery in Milan in 2004.

In her Venetian project, light and color create a purified abstraction, starting with "Invisible Mirror" and "Invisible Needle" which are joined into the single video installation "To breathe - Respirare". In the first piece the spectrum of colors move slowly and the video screen functions as a mirror in which the surrounding space is reflected; in the second piece the speed of the sequence increases until it reaches a frenzied pulsation, like the prick of a needle. The video work itself is silent, however, it is accompanied by the sound piece "The Weaving Factory 5.1", (2004), made up of the sounds of the artist's breathing which rise in a rhythmic crescendo, creating the perception of a space-time that merges with the theatre itself.

The precedent works leading up to this idea of colour in a pure state, can be seen in the six new videos shown at the Bevilacqua La Masa Foundation. In the videos nature is represented as a suspended figure free of prospective restrains. In "Wind Woman" (2001), a fluttering explosion of intense grey colour, in which now and then a burst of light blue can be glimpsed, slide across the screen like very fine and elusive paintings. In Bottari, "Waiting for the Sunrise" (2000), a Mexican desert landscape is filmed in the still moment before dawn. This imperceptible movement of light runs through the other videos as well, making the imagery ever so faint and nearly metaphysical.

Specifications

Title: Respirare - To Breathe
Curated by: Francesca Pasini
Inauguration: 27 January 2006, at 5 to 7.30 pm at Teatro la Fenice. From 7 pm at San Marco gallery
Location: Galleria di piazza San Marco, 71/c, Venice, Italy
Dates: from 28 January to 20 March
Opening hours: open Wednesday - Monday, closed Tuesday, 12:00-18:00; Full entry ticket 3 , Reduced ticket 2
Information: Giorgia Gallina, Mattia Zanetti; Press Office of the Bevilacqua La Masa Foundation, press@bevilacqualamasa.it; 0039.041.5207797, Dorsoduro 2826, 30123
Venice