Cyprien Gaillard
02 May - 16 Jul 2015
Cyprien Gaillard
Where Nature Runs Riot
May 2 - June 2015
Where Nature Runs Riot is an exhibition of new work by Cyprien Gaillard. The core of the show is a
major new film made by the artist over the last three years, and shot on locations in Berlin,
Cleveland and Los Angeles.
Through these locations, which have all featured in Gaillard's previous work, the artist reflects upon
ideas and phenomena that have held his interest since the beginning of his artistic practice: the disand
relocation of landmarks and vegetation, misguided urban planning and cultural vandalism, and
the anachronisms that constitute the world around us. Combining an advanced film technology with
a documentary visual language, Gaillard creates a hypnotic experience as a meditation on the
dynamics of history.
A new series of double-exposure Polaroids and sculptural works will also be exhibited on the first
floor of the gallery.
Moving between photography, film and installation, Gaillard embarks upon a search for artefacts,
monuments and architectural landmarks, as well as natural and urban landscapes that feature
historical or modern ruins in states of neglect or reconstruction. This process allows the artist to
investigate the effects and origins of social change. Entropy is an important theme for Gaillard: his
works allude to the forms and techniques of Land art and Process art. The subcultures and youth
movements that pervade public spaces also influence the artist. Gaillard transfers cultural materials
and symbols into other contexts, rearranging images and ideas to critically examine the history of
colonialism, thus inscribing his work with an enormous variety of cultural forms and symbols drawn
from sources worldwide. The artist then engages these to examine the forces driving destruction
and decay, as he observes and marks a continual disappearance of different cultures.
Sprüth Magers Berlin is concurrently presenting the solo exhibition The Symmetry Argument by
Marcel van Eeden.
Where Nature Runs Riot
May 2 - June 2015
Where Nature Runs Riot is an exhibition of new work by Cyprien Gaillard. The core of the show is a
major new film made by the artist over the last three years, and shot on locations in Berlin,
Cleveland and Los Angeles.
Through these locations, which have all featured in Gaillard's previous work, the artist reflects upon
ideas and phenomena that have held his interest since the beginning of his artistic practice: the disand
relocation of landmarks and vegetation, misguided urban planning and cultural vandalism, and
the anachronisms that constitute the world around us. Combining an advanced film technology with
a documentary visual language, Gaillard creates a hypnotic experience as a meditation on the
dynamics of history.
A new series of double-exposure Polaroids and sculptural works will also be exhibited on the first
floor of the gallery.
Moving between photography, film and installation, Gaillard embarks upon a search for artefacts,
monuments and architectural landmarks, as well as natural and urban landscapes that feature
historical or modern ruins in states of neglect or reconstruction. This process allows the artist to
investigate the effects and origins of social change. Entropy is an important theme for Gaillard: his
works allude to the forms and techniques of Land art and Process art. The subcultures and youth
movements that pervade public spaces also influence the artist. Gaillard transfers cultural materials
and symbols into other contexts, rearranging images and ideas to critically examine the history of
colonialism, thus inscribing his work with an enormous variety of cultural forms and symbols drawn
from sources worldwide. The artist then engages these to examine the forces driving destruction
and decay, as he observes and marks a continual disappearance of different cultures.
Sprüth Magers Berlin is concurrently presenting the solo exhibition The Symmetry Argument by
Marcel van Eeden.