Cyprien Gaillard

Pressetext

Cyprien Gaillard questions a certain kind of Romantic vision of nature — or what is considered as such — by means of a gesture that is akin to trespassing or vandalism. The idea is to see how nature reacts to this transgression and to film the chaos and deterioration. “Whether his paintings look at the monstrous architectural grafts of the 1960s that disfigured natural sites in order to create utilitarian housing blocks… Whether he appropriates the landscape iconography of 17th-century Flemish prints, treating them as so many 'building plots'… Or whether he films urban, peri-urban and natural landscapes filled with smoke from fire extinguishers… His approach to the question of vandalism is always linked to a certain aesthetic conception of Romanticism. For the artist, man's effect on nature is an object of fascination which he presents in works that revisit the teachings of Land Art” (from a text by Vérana Pina).

Cyprien Gaillard's project Real Remnants of Fictive War V 2004, 35 mm transfer onto DVD (7 min.)

The series Real Remnants of Fictive Wars V was begun in 2002. Originally defined by Cyprien Gaillard as Land Art, the project used power extinguishers traditionally used to put out fires. It is their thick white smoke that fills the space in his film, where he makes urban, peri-urban and disfigured rural landscapes as the settings for his actions. The film, which consists mainly of still shots, seems to be paying homage to Romantic painting.

Cyprien Gaillard is presenting several other works specially conceived for his exhibition at the Jeu de Paume, notably a series of Polaroids entitled Geographical Analogies, and a video film, Pentagone, projected at night on the façade of the Jeu de Paume.

Cyprien Gaillard, born 1980, is a graduate of the École Cantonale d'Art de Lausanne (Switzerland).

Cyprien Gaillard
L'Atelier du Jeu de Paume