In an untitled photograph from Cyprien Gaillard’s series “Real Remnants of Fictive Wars (Part 6),” 2007, Robert Smithson’s Spiral Jetty is the site of a new intervention: A halo of smoke, seemingly from a smoke bomb (in fact, Gaillard used industrial fire extinguishers), rises from the emblematic earthwork. A series of engravings, titled “Belief in the Age of Disbelief,” comprises images of modern towers superimposed on seventeenth-century Dutch landscapes. Both foreground romantic confrontations of man and landscape, the reevaluation of a past aesthetic in the contemporary arena, and the trope of the “warrior epic.” These elements recur in this young French artist’s work and characterize Desniansky Raion, 2007, the thirty-minute video at the heart of this exhibition. A tower in the city of Belgrade, presented as a victory arch, sets the action in motion, and soon a confrontation between rival gangs in the city of Saint Petersburg evokes a cleverly orchestrated ballet that references the paintings of Ucello. As the narrative moves forward, a tower in the Parisian suburbs plays host to a light-and-fireworks display that climaxes with the building’s implosion. Finally, a camera flies over a group of residential blocks on the outskirts of Kiev. The ensemble is presented without commentary, but the music by Koudlam that accompanies it—new wave, punk, and even triumphal orchestral pieces—orients the film toward romantic catastrophe. What Gaillard’s film sends up—bravery, tragedy, glory—it imitates with neither buffoonery nor kitsch; its scenes are offered up sincerely. Finally, it’s worth adding that the film’s footage has been captured without permission. Desniansky Raion arises from the minute attention bestowed on the images and a belief in the transformative power of their beauty, a beauty arising from a slightly oblique, necessarily cropped perspective.
Translated from French by Jane Brodie.
