Cyprien Gaillard
dal 15/7/2011 al 10/12/2011
Segnalato da
15/7/2011
Cyprien Gaillard
Haus der Statistik, Berlin
Neon Indian. As a project of the DAAD's Berliner Kunstlerprogramm in collaboration with based in Berlin, a monumental 1950s bar style neon on top of the Haus der Statistik at Alexanderplatz will compete with the surrounding advertisement. The project renders a version of the familiar logo of the US baseball team Cleveland Indians. Gaillard's frequent use of the logo in his work points at the paradox of US sports club's adoption of American Indian team names and mascots, irrespective of the country's destruction of its indigenous peoples.
Cyprien Gaillard’s art refers to precarious, urban situations that record and formulate the contradictions of our
post-industrial society architecturally. The dislocation and relocation of the monument are central to his work,
which switches back and forth between ancient and modern, as it explores the conservation, reconstruction
and destruction of the urban landscape.
As a project of the DAAD’s Berliner Künstlerprogramm in collaboration with based in Berlin, a monumental
1950s bar style neon on top of the Haus der Statistik at Alexanderplatz will compete with the surrounding
advertisement. Neon Indian renders a version of the familiar logo of the US baseball team Cleveland Indians
– a Native American cartoon caricature. Gaillard’s frequent use of the logo in his work points at the paradox
of US sports club’s adoption of American Indian team names and mascots, irrespective of the country’s
destruction of its indigenous peoples. Gaillard is interested in how such ancient symbols live on in marketing
and mass culture, how what is “out of time” continues to exist. Likewise, the soon to be demolished
Plattenbau ruin of Haus der Statistik reveals the folly of urban planning in an ever-changing historical context.
On its roof, the displaced “face of the city of Cleveland” - a silent witness to the formerly rich industrial
metropoles’ downfall – a city scarred by modern ruins today - smiles back knowingly at Berlin’s skyline.
Cyprien Gaillard (born 1980 in Paris) lives and works in Paris and Berlin. Solo exhibitions include: Centre
Pompidou, Paris and The Recovery of Discovery, KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin (2011);
Obstacles to Renewal, Kunsthalle Basel, Geographical Analogies, Museum für Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt a.
M., and Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington (2010); Selected group exhibitions
include Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, The Original Copy: Photography from 1836 to Today, The Museum of
Modern Art, New York, Gwangju Biennial, and Aichi Triennial, Nagoya (2010). In 2009 Gaillard was a guest
of the Berliner Künstlerprogramm/ DAAD. Gaillard is winner of the Marcel Duchamp Prize 2010 and is
nominated for the Nationalgalerie Prize for Young Art 2011 in Berlin.
Kindly supported by the Institut français
Image: Cyprien Gaillard Neon Indian, 2011 (sketch)
Courtesy: Berliner Künstlerprogramm / DAAD & the artist
Press: artpress – Ute Weingarten
Tel: +49 (0)30 2196 1843
artpress@uteweingarten.de
Unveiling: Saturday, 16 July, 10 pm
Haus der Statistik
Otto-Braun-Str./ Karl-Marx-Allee
10178 Berlin