Sound art in Sainte-Chapelle: "Gloria" by Robert Wilson

For their series “Carte Blanche à…,” the Centre des monuments nationaux, the French federal agency that manages almost 100 national monuments across the country, commissioned Robert Wilson to create an artwork in celebration of Sainte-Chapelle. The iconic cathedral in the heart of Paris inspired an immersive 360° sound installation with music by Richard “Dickie” Landry. The work consists of fifteen speakers, positioned at various locations within the church. Wilson’s "secular mass," in which a child, a woman and a man respond to each other with short excerpts from "De Rerum Natura" by the Latin philosopher Lucretius, will occupy and structure the space in a new way, with the voices and Dickie Landry’s beautiful music resonating in the space of the upper chapel. Gloria echoes the stained glass windows of Sainte Chapelle: the birth of the world, the course of the sun, the soul, the body, the void, and the relationship of humans to the universe, to nature.

Gloria runs Saturdays and Sundays from October 8 through December 31, 2022. Since the number of people inside the church is limited, visitors must pre-book a time slot (9:30 AM, 10:30 AM, 12:30 PM, 1:30 PM, 2:30 PM, or 4 PM) for an approximately 30-minute session.

For more information and tickets, please click here.

Hamburg: Thursday "H" drawings, Friday "H" on stage

While rehearsing his new theater production, H—100 Seconds to Midnight, at the Thalia Theater Hamburg, Robert Wilson created a series of charcoal drawings connected to this work, opening new associations while capturing furtive moments from the theater work and its scenography.

Sotheby’s Hamburg will display the original drawings from Sept. 8 through 23, curated by Harald Falckenberg. This exhibition opens tomorrow, September 8, with a vernissage from 5 to 7 PM, at which Robert Wilson will be present. The works can be purchased directly from the artist (contact: office@robertwilson.com).

Meanwhile, final rehearsals and public previews for “H” at the Thalia Theater are in full swing. The grand opening of this new show, with music by Philip Glass and others, and texts inspired by Stephen Hawking and Etel Adnan’s unique poetry, will open on September 9.

All photographs © Lucie Jansch

Dogon exhibition: Signing today & Exhibition extended through 9/17

The exhibition Black & White - Tribal Art Meets Drawings at Berlin’s Dogon Galerie has been extended through September 17. Several sold works have been replaced with new ones, so do come back even if you have already seen the show.

Today, August 19, at 5 PM, Robert Wilson will be on site to sign his works and mingle, meet & greet. Looking forward to seeing you there!

Click here for event information.

Click here for the online exhibition catalogue.

DORIAN previews start tomorrow - Exhibition of drawings and furniture in Düsseldorf

Robert Wilson’s third production at the D’haus (Düsseldorf Schauspielhaus Theater), Dorian, with a text by Darryl Pinckney, based on motives from Oscar Wilde’s life and work, starts previewing tomorrow, June 6, 2022. The opening will be on June 9, and the show will remain in D’haus repertory.

The following day, Gallery Beck & Eggeling in Düsseldorf will open an exhibition of selected furniture and new drawings by Robert Wilson (most of them related to Dorian), entitled: “Dorian and The Days Before: Death, Destruction and Detroit III.“ The exhibition will be up until July 23.

"A Boy From Texas" - NY opening today - Bird and Fox still up in Houston

Some of the unique glass sculptures that Robert Wilson designed and developed in 2019 with the Corning Museum of Glass will be on display at Cristina Grajales Gallery in Tribeca, opening today, until September 9. The installation in blown and cast glass reflects on nature, fragility, and rebirth, in memory of Wilson’s childhood in Texas, as well as his early theater works and installations developed in rural America.

A Boy From Texas - Cristina Grajales Gallery - from today through September 9, 2022

In April this year, when Robert Wilson’s Turandot opened at Houston Grand Opera, the Josh Pazda & Hiram Butler Gallery presented a selection of his video portraits - among those the “Hermès by Nature” series that premièred during Here Elsewhere in 2016 -, drawings and other works. This exhibit will be on view until June 25 only.

A Bird and A Fox - JOSH PAZDA HIRAM BUTLER - until June 25, 2022

Detail from: Robert Wilson, Wouter (Cordon Bleu Finch), 2016; video portrait from the series Hermés by Nature

Check out all current and upcoming exhibitions of Robert Wilson’s works here.

EINSTEIN ON THE BEACH iconic Bed Scene minted as a digital artwork

The latest revival of the original production of Philip Glass and Robert Wilson’s opera Einstein on the Beach (1976) was in 2012, and it toured around the world. Now it is making its entrée into the digital realm: the iconic “Bed scene", the slow rise of a horizontal light bar into fully vertical, and its upward float out of the scene, has been minted into the first-ever EOB NFT (non-fungible token).

The 20-minute NFT will be exhibited live at the equally iconic Kraftwerk (“power plant”) in Berlin, every event night at 9:45 PM, presented by the DAO Bright Moments, and auctioned on April 22-23, 2022.

For tickets and schedule click here.

For more information on the EOB NFT click here.

To view Robert Wilson’s profile on Foundation.App and purchase the NFT click here.

Einstein on the Beach (Montpellier, 2012), Act 4, Scene 2 - Photograph © Lucie Jansch

Changed OTELLO dates in Athens

On account of the recent weather disruptions in Athens, the Greek National Opera had to change the rehearsal and performance schedule of Otello at the Stavros Niarchos Hall. The opening has been postponed to February 23 (instead of 20), the performance on March 6 has been replaced by one on March 5, and another show was added on March 8.

Click here for the notice on the Greek National Opera’s web site.

New Robert Wilson Documentary to première on ARTE this Sunday 01/16

The new documentary film, “Robert Wilson - The Beauty of the Mysterious” by Carl von Karstedt will première on the French-German TV station ARTE this Sunday. The broadcast on the German side will start at 11:15PM, and in France just after midnight (Monday).

The filmmaker, Carl von Karstedt, was driven by his fascination for his first Wilson piece, The Black Rider (Hamburg 1990), and all the others he has seen since, and his goal to “crack the unique artistic code” around Robert Wilson’s works. For this film, he accompanied Wilson for about a year to various rehearsals and projects, and met several of his key collaborators.

A Film by Carl von Karstedt; with: Marina Abramovic, Willem Dafoe, Tom Waits, Philipp Glass, Christian Friedel, Christopher Nell, Ann-Christin Rommen, Stefan Kurt, Sabin Tambrea and Traute Hoess