Cyprien Gaillard
Retinal Rivalry

Curated by Samuele Piazza

From 30 October 2024 to 02 February 2025 | Binario 1

EXHIBITION SOIRÉE | 01 November 2024 H 7 - 11 PM

FREE ENTRANCE

Thursday and Friday, H 6 – 10 PM
Saturday and Sunday, H 10 AM – 8 PM

On 30 October 2024 OGR Torino will inaugurate Retinal Rivalry, a solo exhibition by Cyprien Gaillard (Paris,1980) curated by Samuele Piazza.

On the occasion of Torino Art Week 2024, in the spaces of Binario 1, until 2 February 2025, video becomes sculpture through the Parisian artist's new video work visible for the first time in Italy after its debut at the Beyeler Foundation in Basel, Switzerland, as part of the group show Summer Exhibition.

The work is commissioned by OGR Torino and co-produced by OGR Torino, Fondation Beyeler, Haus der Kunst München, the French Ministry of Culture, Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg, Sprüth Magers, and Gladstone Gallery.

Retinal Rivalry continues Cyprien Gaillard’s interest in stereoscopic motion pictures for their sculptural, spectral and psychedelic potential, which began with Nightlife in 2015.

By expanding the pictorial space and embracing the medium’s spatiality as an organizing principle for the various subjects considered, the film leaves specific narration behind to focus on pure vision. The work centers its gaze on Germany’s built environment, such as Oktoberfest, Roman ruins found in a 1970s parking lot under the Cathedral of Cologne, a Burger King situated inside an electrical substation for the Nazi Rally grounds in Nuremberg, and the touristic infrastructure running through the romantic landscape of Bastei. Oscillating between deep, void-like vision and sculptural recreation, the images of "Retinal Rivalry" protrude beyond the screen into the exhibition space, altering our perception of the visible world.

The film score was assembled by the artist, at times dissonant, at times synchronized with the images, with sources as diverse as Sundanese music, a field recording found in the archives of UNESCO in Paris, or the sound of an organ encountered on the streets of Weimar.