James Lee Byars: The Golden Tower

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This presentation of "The Golden Tower" is an event of the LVII Venice Biennale and will be on view from 13 May - 26 November 2017.

Byars envisioned "The Golden Tower" as a colossal beacon and oracle that would bridge heaven and earth and unify humanity - a contemporary monument surpassing the grandeur of the Lighthouse of Alexandria. The idea of "The Golden Tower" first began in 1976 and was developed with numerous conceptual studies throughout the artist's career. The work was first exhibited in 1990 at the GegenwartEwigkeit exhibition at Martin-Gropius-Bau, Berlin and later in 2004 at the posthumous retrospective Life, Love and Death at the Schirn Kunsthalle, Frankfurt. Towering to a height of 20 meters, "The Golden Tower" is the artist's largest and most ambitious work. The Venice installation of "The Golden Tower" is the first to fully realize the artist's intentions of presenting the sculpture in a public space.

Located in the Dorsoduro, between the Accademia and the Peggy Guggenheim Collection, "The Golden Tower" will be visible throughout most areas of the city. The tower's brilliant gilded surface echoes the golden mosaic facade of the adjacent Palazzo Barbarigo. Its placement in Campo San Vio will recall Canaletto's famous view of the Grand Canal, painted from that same spot.

The exhibition in Venice of "The Golden Tower" is doubly significant given Byars's deep connections to the city. Byars lived off and on in Venice beginning in 1982. He worked closely with the master glass-blowers of Murano to realize his major 1989 sculpture, "The Angel". Throughout his career Byars enacted numerous performances in Venice, including "The Holy Ghost", Piazza San Marco, 1975; "The New Pink Flag of Italy", also Piazza San Marco, 1980; and "The Death of James Lee Byars", Punta della Dogana, 1993. Byars participated in four previous Venice Biennales, performing "Be Quiet" at the opening of the XXXIX Biennale and "The Poet of the Gondola" during the Biennale in 1986. Harald Szeemann included the large sculpture "The Spinning Oracle of Delphi" in the 1999 Biennale and three major gilded marble sculptures were included in the
Biennale in 2013.

This presentation of "The Golden Tower" is curated by Alberto Salvadori and possible thanks to the generosity of Fondazione Giuliani, Rome. For more information, please contact the gallery at press@michaelwerner.com, visit www.michaelwerner.com or contact Rachel Rees, Sutton PR at rachel@suttonpr.com.