The film Retinal Rivalry is a co-production of Haus der Kunst and the Fondation Beyeler, where it was shown for the first time in summer 2024. By expanding the pictorial space and using the spatiality of the medium of film as an organizing principle for different themes, the work leaves the narrative behind and concentrates on pure seeing.
Munich is one of the main locations of Cyprien Gaillard's latest film Retinal Rivalry, a groundbreaking work that takes us on a journey through time and beneath the surface of the city. Retinal Rivalry continues Gaillard's exploration of stereoscopic films, which he first began in his film Nightlife (2015), and explores their sculptural and psychedelic potential. Reflecting on public monuments and their meanings, we are inspired by Gaillard's longstanding search for artifacts and architectures that have lost their original purpose. This leads to the question of how the Haus der Kunst building functions as a monument to its difficult history, constantly unfolding anew through new works by living artists. Gaillard's important film installation is complemented in the exhibition by a new series of photographs and site-specific works by the artist.
Cyprien Gaillard lives in Berlin and Paris. He works with various media, including photography, film, video, collage, installation and live performance. He creates an extraordinary cosmos in which phenomena such as civilizational upheavals or geological time find expression in new forms. Gaillard is preoccupied with the ruins of modernity and the interaction between man-made artifacts, urban geography and psychology. His work affirms a poetry of entropy that reorganizes history to shed light on the present.
October 3, 2025 to March 8, 2026
