by Cyprien Gaillard, USA 2019, 12'
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Presented at Lo schermo dell'arte 2019This cinema version of a video loop exhibited at this year’s Venice Biennale combines images of random shapes – spirals which evoke shell concretions in the pavement and marble walls of subway stations in the former Soviet Union – with archival materials that show New York subway trains being dumped in the Atlantic Ocean. Underwater shots frame these monstrous remains of our civilization as they become part of the marine landscape, with fish and turtles swimming around them. Geological and ideological decay in which natural and urban space is equally prone to ruin is accompanied by a hypnotic oil-drum soundtrack. In Gaillard’s extraordinary last work, water is a deus ex machina: nature triumphs by perpetual self-renewal, however much it suffers from invasive human action.
Cyprien Gaillard
Born in Paris in 1980, he studied in Lausanne and currently lives and works in Berlin. He has been the recipient of a number of awards including Melbourne International Film Festival Award for Best Experimental Short in 2016. Solo exhibitions include Hammer Museum in Los Angeles, Fondazione Nicola Trussardi in Milan, Schinkel Pavillon in Berlin, Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris and Tate Modern in London. Major group shows include 58th Venice Biennal, 13th Biennale de Lyon and the 5th Berlin Biennale.
Selected Filmography:
2015 Nightlife 2011 Artefacts 2009 Pruitt Igoe Falls 2007 The Lake Arches
Selected Filmography:
2015 Nightlife 2011 Artefacts 2009 Pruitt Igoe Falls 2007 The Lake Arches