Lia Rumma Gallery is pleased to announce Waiting for the Sibyl and other histories: the new solo show by the South African artist William Kentridge, who consolidates his over-twenty-year relationship with Italy and the gallery.
Waiting for the Sibyl is the title of Kentridge’s most recent project, commissioned by Teatro dell’Opera in Rome, which had its worldwide premiere last September as a companion piece to Work in Progress (1968), the only stage work conceived by the US sculptor Alexander Calder. Inspired by the movement and by the rotation of Calder’s artworks, Kentridge evokes the priestess mentioned by Dante: the Cumean Sibyl, who used to write her prophecies for people’s destinies on oak leaves. The leaves at the mouth of her cave were scattered by the wind, confusing the destinies of those who came to fetch them. This image becomes a symbol of uncertainty and of time that flows, mutates and returns.
