A theater giant has passed away; Bob Wilson leaves a "mark in the memory of fire"

▲ The most important creator of stagecraft in modern history, Robert Wilson, during a photo shoot in Paris, 2021. AFP photo

Pablo Espinosa

La Jornada Newspaper, Friday, August 1, 2025, p. 2

The most important creator of stagecraft in modern history, maestro Bob Wilson, passed away yesterday at his home in New York at the age of 83, after a brief but acute illness , his collaborators announced on the artist's website. Wilson, his colleagues explain, continued working until his last days . During one of his visits to Mexico, he told this reporter: "Silence is not immobile, an actor's body should be made of ice and his voice a mark on the memory of fire ."

Wilson was the creator of a theatrical language never before seen. Its foundation is light and its material is silence; its form is the infinite range of expressions afforded by the use of geometry. The first work that made him world-famous dates from 1970, titled Deafman Glance , and consists of seven hours of silence in a monumental symphony of light penetrated by shadow.

His masterpiece is also composer Philip Glass's touchstone piece: Einstein on the Beach , a five-hour opera with no plot or dramatic text. The actors sing numbers one through eight, solos, in duets, and in chorus, and the stage action contrasts with the musical: while the characters move slowly toward or away from the stage, the music swirls in fascinating whirlwinds.

Like every genius, Bob Wilson had his alter ego , his doppelgänger , his Pygmalion in the choreographer, actress and dancer Lucinda Childs, a great master of stage transitions, her smooth repetitive movements and recipient of Bob Wilson's aesthetic ideals.

In the opera Einstein on the Beach , for example, we see Lucinda Childs appear motionless in a corner of the stage, in very slow sequences of statues. She never seems to move, but 20 minutes into the opera, we see her at the opposite end of the stage. She glided without lifting her feet, she moved without walking, she crawled, she flew, she transformed. That was the genius, that was the magic of Bob Wilson.

Other great accomplices with whom Bob Wilson created masterpieces are William Burroughs, Tom Waits, Heiner Müller and Susan Sontag.

He was also an architect and sculptor, and as such, he won the Golden Lion at the 1993 Venice Biennale. The jury's report referred to unusual values in sculptors: the handling of light, the thunder of silence.

In March 2001, he premiered an opera by his student, composer Tania León, entitled El maleficio de los jacintos (The Spell of the Hyacinths) at the Palacio de Bellas Artes in Mexico City. The libretto was written by Nigerian Wole Soyinka, winner of the 1983 Nobel Prize in Literature.

That night, Bellas Artes smelled of hyacinths. We silently witnessed the unfolding of Wilsonian high-tech onstage in a state of hypnosis and reverie, amidst a computerized lighting system of icy, intense colors. The fascinating geometry of his stage layout and his ever-present chairs, designed by himself.

Chairs were a key element in his life. From the age of 12, he collected a wide variety of objects. But he always preferred them. Over the years, he acquired a pair of dance shoes worn by Rudolf Nureyev, who gave them to Wilson.

In 2013, the Louvre Museum organized the Living Rooms exhibition with Bob Wilson as the featured guest , and he, in response, installed his bed amid his collection of personal objects and video projections. Among those objects were dance slippers worn by George Balanchine, a child's glove found on Seventh Avenue in Manhattan, a pair of Marlene Dietrich shoes, and a white rabbit.

In 2003, we witnessed his staging of Leoncio and Lena in Berlin, based on the text by Georg Buchner, in collaboration with the German composer Herbert Gronemeyer, with the permanent cast of the Berliner Ensemble, founded decades earlier by Bertolt Brecht.

We were then able to appreciate something unusual: Brechtian detachment, but in a fairy tale. A theatrical tone, like that of an anthology. The actors were dressed in pastel-colored leather jackets, in a Rococo style, in the style of Mozart, while others were dressed in black leather jackets, à la Brecht. And the sensation that the opera is taking place in a dream.

Another of Bob Wilson's collaborations was with composer Arvo Pärt, when they created Adam's Passion , a celebration of Arvo's 80th birthday, and the recording was now available on DVD. The recording includes an early work, Sequentia , which Arvo Pärt wrote as a gift for Bob Wilson.

Exhibition in New York

Indeed, Bob Wilson worked until the last day of his life: yesterday, the day of his death, the Animals exhibition opened at the Winston Wätcher Fine Art gallery in New York.

These are photographs Bob Wilson took of snowy owls, a black panther, a moose—works where the most important thing is the use of light. Bob Wilson described the intention of what turned out to be his posthumous work: "The fascination with animals," according to AFP, "is a way of listening within ."

A giant has died.

Omar González Morales

La Jornada Newspaper, Friday, August 1, 2025, p. 3

The exhibition Japan: From Myth to Manga will open its doors on Friday, August 8 at the Franz Mayer Museum, inviting visitors to take a nostalgic journey that connects the past with the present through more than a hundred images of mythologies, prints such as Hokusai's The Great Wave , paintings and traditional netsukes, as well as Pokémon, anime, robots and books, which aim to bridge the gap between generations and learn more about the changes that the passage of time has left in that country.

In an interview with La Jornada , Ana Carolina Abad, the museum's cultural manager, spoke about the transcendental presence of Japanese culture that shaped generations starting in the 1980s, with the arrival of anime on television.

"We're very excited to bring this exhibition, which comes directly from the Victoria & Albert Museum in London. The exhibition was put together during a renovation of that venue with the intention of opening a space for new youth. Now that it's coming to Mexico, we can build a bridge of nostalgia that unites us with the generations of the 80s and 90s and the younger generations ," commented Ana Abad.

The Great Wave by Hokusai

Among the 150 pieces on display are works by painter Katsu-shika Hokusai, including an original woodblock print of The Great Wave , made around 1831.

Due to its diversity, the exhibition was designated as an important part of the Franz Mayer project, which gave it space with the intention of allowing the public to enjoy it as a family experience: "Since it arrived, many of us have been overcome by memories and we think that to truly enjoy it, you have to see it in the company of friends and family.

The exhibition is divided into four sections: Sky, Sea, Forest, and City. In each section, we explore both the history and the links between these elements and their importance as a process of change in Japanese society, which captured its myths in ancient woodcuts, stories, and scrolls, which we can see today as inspiration for anime, manga, and video games , explained the curator.

▲ Procession on Nihonbashi Bridge, Tokyo, by Utagawa Hiroshige, 1863, © Victoria and Albert Museum, London. Photo courtesy of the Franz Mayer Museum

Summer workshops and recreational activities

The venue will also host summer workshops and recreational activities to accompany the exhibition, allowing visitors to interact with some of the exhibits and participate in activities in the galleries. A reading circle will also be held, exploring topics such as Japanese daily life, philosophy, and beliefs.

“We consulted with Mexican experts several times because some of the pieces belong to Mexican collections, and the text in the galleries is very simple so both adults and children can enjoy this exhibition.

“Part of the Sky module is dedicated to the stars and explains the myth of Tanabata, a festival that stems from a classic legend where the gods Orihime and Hikoboshi fall in love and abandon their divine duties. Because of this, they are separated and only reunite once a year. The manga Sailor Moon was based on this vision of the celestial vault,” Ana Abad noted.

Another connection between the mythology of the exhibition is the figure of the catfish, which Japanese culture attributed with power over earthquakes. "In that country, one of the systems for analyzing earthquakes uses the shape of this animal. And in popular culture, it's connected to the figure Whiscash from the Pokémon series, whose powers are related to earthquakes."

The manager added that she finds the closeness we have with them very exciting due to their great cultural influence. Surely, many people who have collected cards or plush toys from these series, from Pokémon to the cute little ones, will be able to see that their life treasures are also treasures for others .

The exhibition "Japan: From Myth to Manga" will open on August 8 at the Franz Mayer Museum, located at 45 Hidalgo Avenue, Guerrero neighborhood, Cuauhtémoc City. Admission is 180 pesos. Students, teachers, and seniors receive a 50 percent discount on admission with identification.