BOB WILSON

Hello bloggers! today I'm going to talk about an artist, his name is Robert Wilson, better known as Bob Wilson, an American theater stage director and a playwright who has been described by the media as "America's - or even the world's - foremost avant-garde 'theater artist'". Wilson was born in Waco, Texas. The son of Loree Velma and D.M. Wilson, a lawyer. He studies business administration at the University of Texas from 1959 to 1962. He moved to Brooklyn in 1963 and later he studied painting and architecture.

Bob Wilson found himself drawn to the work of pioneering choreographers. In 1968, he founded an experimental performance company the Byrd Hoffman School of Byrds. With this company, he created his first major works. He began to work in opera in the early 1970s, creating Einstein on the Beach with the famous composer Philip Glass. Wilson is known for pushing the boundaries of theatre. His works are noted for their austere style, very slow movement, and often extreme escale in space or in time. The Life and Times of Joseph Stalin was a 12-hour performance.

Language is one of the most important elements of theatre and Bob Wilson feels at home with commanding it in many different ways. Wilson's impact on this part of theatre alone is immense. No ones has dramatized the crisis of language with as much ferocious genius as Robert Wilson. Wilson shows the importance of language through all of his works and in many varying fashions. Wilson considers language and words not only changes with person, also changes with culture. The lack of language becomes essential to Wilson's work. In the same way an artist uses positive and negative space, Wilson uses noise and silence. Wilson inadvertently describes his necessity of silence: "The way actors are trained here is wrong. All they think about is interpreting a text. They worry about how to speak words and know nothing about their bodies. You see that by the way they walk. They don't understand the weight of a gesture in space. A good actor can command an audience by moving one finger".

Movement is another key element in Wilson's work. As a dancer he sees the importance of the way and actor moves onstage and knows the weight their movement bears. "I do movement before we work on the text. Later we'll put text and movement together. I do movement first to make sure it's strong enough to stand on its own to feet without words. The movement must have a rythm and structure of its own."

I love him because the way he think the space. He always think the visual first of everything. He believes that the most important part of theatre is light. He is concerned with how images are defined onstage. A set for Wilson is a canvas for the light to hit like paint. He is recognized by some as "the greatest light artist of our time". I think is a big influencie on Chilean theater designers and a big reference for students like us. Is a interesting way to think out side of the box.

Check this !
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ntDCz3MJ_g8