Cyprien Gaillard at OGR Turin Transforms Cinema into Sculpture
He’s one of the brightest stars in contemporary art—a complex, multi-layered, and, in some ways, controversial figure but with pure, captivating talent. This is Cyprien Gaillard, aged 46, who now arrives at Platform 1 of OGR Torino with his exhibition Retinal Rivalry, curated by Samuele Piazza. The latest video from the Parisian artist lands like a UFO under the Mole Antonelliana during the 2024 Turin Art Week, guiding us through a journey, both physical and spiritual, across Germany’s built environment. We move from Oktoberfest to the Roman ruins discovered in a 1970s parking lot under Cologne Cathedral, from a Burger King located within a former electrical substation that once hosted Nazi gatherings in Nuremberg, to the tourist infrastructure that traverses the romantic landscape of Bastei, frequently depicted by painter Caspar David Friedrich.
This work, complex and captivating like all of Gaillard’s creations, has the unique quality of giving physical form to cinematic images, transforming them into true sculptures conceived for the former train workshop spaces at OGR. What emerges is a universe full of contradictions, where the sense of reality in the images collides with their ephemeral existence as sculpted light.
The exhibition, commissioned by OGR Torino and co-produced with Fondation Beyeler, Haus der Kunst München and the French Ministry of Culture, was inaugurated the other evening in the presence of numerous art and cultural figures. We were there and met, among others, Delaine Le Bas, Giovanna Caruso Fendi, Samuele Piazza, Francesco Manacorda, Nicola Ricciardi, Marzia Migliora, Luca Lo Pinto, Andrea Lissoni, Susanne Pfeffer e Tal Sterngast.
A final note: Gaillard not only created the video but also arranged the soundtrack. He reworked it using diverse sources: from Javanese music to field recordings from UNESCO archives and the sounds of a small organ found on the streets of Weimar in tribute to Johann Sebastian Bach. In short, it’s a 360-degree project, in true Gaillard style.
Text: Germano D’Acquisto
Photos: Ludovica Arcero
Exhibition views: Andrea Rossetti – OGR Torino
