Take The Arches. by CYPRIEN GAILLARD. The Lake Arches. 2007
Dvd. 1:43 min. Edition de 5

The Lake Arches is a portrait with ruins – a film that narrates a violent collision with a shallow promise. It is also an ambiguous clip of teenage folly, an incisive architectural purview, and an allegory for the painful and perhaps pathetic failure of postmodernism’s liberating force.  Two young men stand the banks of a man-made lake, preparing to dive. Their carefree plunge ends abruptly, however, when one of them strike bottom, and emerges bleeding profusely. The camera follows the boy as he stagger toward shore, revealing in the distance the postmodern architecture of RICARDO BOFILL.

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“My work starts where and when the archaeologists left off.”

French artist CYPRIEN GAILLARD examines the buildings and landscapes ( with a preference for structures and places that others would rather ignore, and sites where contemporary claims to history have given rise to surprising visual manifestations) as well as the people who inhabit them.

In previous works, the modernist housing block was a recurring theme, a structure associated with the utopian aspirations of the architectural avant-garde in the early 20th century that became ubiquitous in the post-war era. GAILLARD has examined these buildings from different vantage points: depicting them as monuments that conjure up associations with ancient ruins or medieval castles, as backdrops for fringe group behaviour, as sites for mega-spectacles, and once demolished, as massive installations.

I really like how his haunting films and photographs confront the viewers to the many contradictions of our built environments.

As launch party for their current issue, MONO.KULTUR have organized a very special screening in a very special location, just for you. CYPRIEN GAILLARD will be showing some rare and in parts unreleased material this evening (September 07, 2010/ 20h) at  the first floor of TV Tower (Alexanderplatz) in Berlin.