© Cyprien Gaillard, Dunepark, 2009
Caserma XXIV Maggio Via vicenzo Monti 59 Milan Italie
From 13 November to 16 December, the Fondazione Nicola Trussardi is presenting Rubble and Revelation ; curated by Massimiliano Gioni, it will be the first major solo exhibition by Cyprien Gaillard in Italy.
The French artist’s new project will be housed in the military bakery of Caserma XXIV Maggio, a fascinating gem of industrial architecture built in Romanesque Revival style in 1898 and closed in 2005, after having been used for over a century to supply bread to all the military complexes in Lombardy, and after nourishing the entire city of Milan during World War II.
In just a few years, Cyprien Gaillard (Paris, 1980) has emerged as one of the most interesting artists of his generation, winning highly prestigious awards such as the Prize for Young Art from the National Gallery in Berlin (2011) and the Marcel Duchamp Prize from Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris (2010); he has already exhibited in the world's most respected museums, with solo shows and projects (at Centre Pompidou in Paris and Tate Modern in London, among others) and in group shows (at Hamburger Bahnhof in Berlin, the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, MoMA in New York, and the New Museum in New York); and has taken part in leading international events such as the Venice Biennale, the Gwangju Biennale and the Berlin Biennale.
Like an archeologist probing the wreckage of modernity, Cyprien Gaillard travels the world looking for monuments of our era that have lost their aura and symbolic power, and with the precision of a research scientist, he documents their life and gradual disappearance. He roams nomadically from continent to
continent, encountering ruins and relics that are immortalized in photos, videos, sculptures, and collages which convey his obsession with the poetry of decay.
With the gaze of a documentary maker and a dramatically raw aesthetic, Cyprien Gaillard reflects on the destruction—as well as decadence—that follow social and cultural transformations. Gaillard’s work is a study of iconoclasm, vandalism and the power of images: the artist traces the ways in which history is
perennially rewritten, highlighting subtle links between past and present, and between different cultures and contexts marked by violent transformations and signs of disintegration—an area of research that has grown all the more topical in this era of street protests and popular uprisings.
Architecture, with its globalized commercial symbols and its effigies of power, is a discipline that fascinates Gaillard because of its ability to deeply influence human behavior. Modernist buildings, rundown neighborhoods on the outskirts of town, crumbling highrises and skyscrapers, and military fortresses and bunkers serve as the setting for a “Natural History of Destruction” (to cite the essays by the German writer W.G. Sebald on the devastation produced by air raids during World War II); within it, Gaillard highlights the dynamics that govern social interaction, the relationship between the individual and the group—
specifically, in the youth subcultures of urban gangs and tribes—where categories such as freedom and the right to choose no longer apply, and everything seems to happen as if guided by mass will.
All of these forces can be found in the project Rubble and Revelation for the Fondazione Nicola Trussardi. Inside the spaces of the Caserma XXIV Maggio military bakery, with their patina of memories, Cyprien Gaillard leads us through his evocative vision of the ruins of our time: in a constant crescendo of juxtapositions and layerings, videos, photographs, images, and sounds trace a path that weaves between explosions and silences, devastation and contemplation.
HISTORICAL NOTES ON CASERMA XXIV MAGGIO
Designed in 1889 and opened in 1897, Caserma XXIV Maggio is part of a large military district, originally called the “Quartiere delle Milizie” and later the “Distretto Militare di Milano”, that was built in the late nineteenth century in a middle-class neighborhood in downtown Milan, near Parco Sempione, between Via Mascheroni and Via Vincenzo Monti. Along with barracks for recruits, Caserma XXIV Maggio houses the military bakery, a Romanesque Revival building from 1898 and a true gem of industrial architecture, with ovens that were used for over a century to supply bread to all the military complexes in Lombardy. During World War II, the bakery’s output nourished the entire city of Milan. It ceased operation in the late Fifties, but the eight ovens—culminating in six tall chimneys that soar up from the roof of the building like elegant red-brick smokestacks—were never dismantled and are still in perfect condition.
Caserma XXIV Maggio, on the other hand, remained operative until 2005, and over the years housed all the young men in Milan who were called up for the three-day selection for compulsory military service: one finds famous images from the Sixties of young girls flocked around the Via Mascheroni gate, waiting to catch a glimpse of singers like Adriano Celentano and Tony Renis, or up-and-coming football stars like Gianni Rivera. Starting on 1 January 2005, when the compulsory enlistment of young men for military service was suspended, the Distretto Militare was converted into a document center housing an archive of some 2,000,000 files, one for every member or potential member of the armed forces who spent time there. With the show Rubble and Revelation by Cyprien Gaillard, the Fondazione Nicola Trussardi is opening the doors of Caserma XXIV Maggio to civilians for the very first time: this is a unique opportunity to see inside a symbolic landmark that has played a vital role in the recent history of the city, and is deeply rooted in the heart and memory of its residents.
With Rubble and Revelation, the Fondazione Nicola Trussardi continues the nomadic mission that has led it to explore Milan since 2003, rediscovering forgotten places and hidden treasures in the heart of the city and bringing them back to life through the visions of contemporary artists. After major solo shows by Michael Elmgreen & Ingar Dragset, Darren Almond, Maurizio Cattelan, John Bock, Urs Fischer, Anri Sala, Paola Pivi, Martin Creed, Pawel Althamer, Peter Fischli and David Weiss, Tino Sehgal, Tacita Dean, Paul McCarthy, and Pipilotti Rist, the Fondazione Nicola Trussardi is proud to be presenting a large-scale exhibition by Cyprien Gaillard for the first time in Italy.
© Cyprien Gaillard, La grande allée du Château de Oiron, 2008
ARTIST’S BIOGRAPHY
Cyprien Gaillard was born in Paris in 1980, studied in Lausanne, and is now based in Berlin.
He has won numerous prizes and awards for emerging artists, including the Prize for Young Art from the National Gallery in Berlin, (2011), the Marcel Duchamp Prize from Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris (2010), the Karl Ströher Prize (2010), the Prix Academie Les David (2008) and the Audi Talent Award (2007).
His photographs, videos, sculptures and collages have been featured in personal exhibitions and projects at the world’s most famous museums—including Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris (2011, 2008); the KW Institute for Contemporary Art in Berlin (2011); Centre Georges Pompidou in Metz (2011); Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh (2011); the Zollamt/MMK, Museum für Moderne Kunst in Frankfurt (2010); Kunsthalle Basel (2010); the Turbine Hall at Tate Modern in London (2009); Kunsthalle Fridericianum in Kassel (2009); and the Hayward Gallery Project Space in London (2009)—and group exhibitions at venues such as Hamburger Bahnhof in Berlin (2011); the KW Institute for Contemporary Art , Atelierhaus Monbijoupark, Nationalgalerie im Hamburger Bahnhof, Neuer Berliner Kunstverein, Berlinische Galerie, Berlin (2011); the Mori Art Museum in Tokyo (2011); the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington (2010); MoMA in New York (2010); the ICA, Institute of Contemporary Art in Philadelphia (2010); the Witte de With Center for Contemporary Art in Rotterdam (2010); the Generali Foundation in Vienna (2009); and the New Museum in New York (2009).
He has taken part in prestigious contemporary art festivals such as the 54th Venice Biennale (2011); the Gwangju Biennale in South Korea (2010); the 3rd Moscow Biennale (2009); the 5th Berlin Biennale (2008); and the Biennale de Lyon (2007).