The work “The Greeting” by Bill Viola (1951–2024), created for the US Pavilion at the 1995 Venice Biennale, will be on display from Sunday 11 October 2026 to 6 February 2027 in the architecturally most layered, spiritually rich and, for this very reason, evocative spaces of the Roman Forum: those of Santa Maria Antiqua, with its marvellous layers of Byzantine and early medieval frescoes.
‘Bill Viola’s The Greeting in the Roman Forum. A Tribute to Pontormo’ is a video installation produced by the Parco archeologico del Colosseo in collaboration with Electa, to coincide with the major monographic exhibition dedicated to Pontormo at the Scuderie del Quirinale.

‘The Greeting’ was inspired by Pontormo’s ‘Visitation’ (1528–1532) – housed at the Pieve di San Michele Arcangelo in Carmignano – which depicts the meeting between Mary, expecting Jesus, and her cousin Elizabeth, who is pregnant with St John the Baptist, under the gaze of two other female figures.
Rather than re-enacting the biblical episode, Viola drew on Pontormo’s compositional form, colours and emotional resonance to create his own work. Using a special 35 mm film camera capable of capturing 300 frames per second, he films the very brief (45-second) encounter between two, and then three, women dressed in brightly coloured modern outfits who move with choreographic grace. The gestures, expressions and glances of the protagonists are stretched out over ten minutes, slowed down to reveal an inner depth imperceptible in real time, transforming this fleeting encounter into an immersive meditation on time and human presence.

Bill Viola (1951 – 2024) was a pioneer in the fields of new media, video art and installation art. For 45 years, his visionary works – characterised by immersive videos and soundscapes – have focused on fundamental human experiences such as birth, death and the unfolding of consciousness. His artistic language was shaped by Western and Eastern philosophy, mystical traditions and art history. Viola constantly pushed the boundaries of video art, combining technological precision with philosophical depth. His works are exhibited in museums and galleries around the world and form part of numerous prestigious collections. Major exhibitions held in Italy include: ‘Bill Viola: Visioni interiori’ at the Palazzo delle Esposizioni (2008); ‘Bill Viola: Electronic Renaissance’ at Palazzo Strozzi, Florence (2017); ‘Bill Viola: Icons of Light’ at Palazzo Bonaparte, Rome (2022); and ‘Bill Viola’ at Palazzo Reale, Milan (2023).