Cyprien Gaillard
17 Jul - 11 Dec 2011
Neon Indian
Haus der Statistik
Otto-Braun-Str./ Karl-Marx-Allee
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.
Haus der Statistik
Otto-Braun-Str./ Karl-Marx-Allee
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.