23.03 – 27.04.2019
At the Dohyang Lee Gallery, Paris, France
For the third part of his trilogy, Au pied du gouffre, Louis Cyprien-Rials leads us into a spatio-temporal flaw. After travelling the roads of East Africa and observing violence through windows, we end up in a desert of solitude. Alone, before these abiotic landscapes, time passes.
We tread on dry ground, made of salt and lava. The earth rumbles. On our way, we pass the signs and symbols of other times, whose provenance and meaning we ignore. Fascinated, we strive in vain to understand what they seem to be revealing to us. The subject is no longer about questioning, observing or bearing witness to something. We are faced with emptiness, nothingness, Time and beauty.
Au pied du gouffre is the last chapter of a trilogy. It links instants together, both here and there. It announces an elsewhere.
In a first space, three territories, three experiences or three periods are brought together: Italy millions of years ago, Japan, in 2007 and Kazakhstan, in 2016. They may be seen as paths through the furrows of memory.
The voyage starts with a long pigmentary print presenting the mineral portrait of a Pietra Paesina: a precious stone offering us visions of beauty and escape, the equivalent of an imaginary, lithic maze. We are then confronted with the black cloud of a volcanic eruption, frozen and abandoned. Its carbonaceous mist hovers over a riparian horizon. The water shivers and surprizes us by its hue. Nothing else appears. And yet, the invisibility is dense. His X-Ray Records have materialized the phenomenon.
The X-Ray Records are medical x-rays on which music has been engraved. This technique goes back to the Soviet era when music meant resistance and had to be sold under the counter. The three prototypes of the Polygon X-Ray contain music composed and interpreted by Romain Poirier, an adaptation he realized for the x-ray records on the “Polygon” theme, composed for Louis-Cyprien Rials’ eponymous video shot in 2016 in Kazakhstan. A score conceived as a gradation, a melancholic drone melody floating over lands scarred by more than 700 nuclear tests from between 1949 and 1990, in which bass notes crescendo in rhythm to dead time and silence and Larsen frequencies come together to plunge us into almost deafening, suffocating, overpowering violence. This voyage into limbo is inspired by radioactivity and the impact of radiated power during the explosion.
All three propositions are related to obsessions, and yet they form the directive lines of long-term projects : the genesis of the artist’s fundamental projects. His passion for geo-politics is conveyed through testimonies in which extreme beauty is reflected, to the point of making us forget who the real protagonists actually are. This forgetfulness is the symptomatic denial of our humanity and reveals the end.
What, then, remains? There is a way of knowing the answer: by descending to the foot of the abyss.
Descending means falling, plummeting down. Collapsing. It also means changing levels. Maybe we should stop being afraid, of light as well of the dark, and break through, create new paths without touching the ground, totally immersed in order to be uplifted.
You may say that all of this is symbolic. Nevertheless, it is in this elsewhere that the deafening music invites you to lose yourself. Go down, then. The abyss is the depth created by collapse. The collapse of those who have lost faith. Faith we still have time to retrieve through the clues left by those who have lived before us.
Après la nuit is a video shot in several African regions: in Tanzania, Lake Natron, at the foot of the mountains sacred to the Massai people; in Uganda, by the Nyero Rocks; in Somaliland, in the Laas Geel Caves; and in Ethiopia, in the Afar Triangle, or the Danakil Depression, at Erta Ale. The images move back and forth between hallucinated landscapes and rock paintings; between two volcanoes, one active and the other dormant; and between abysses and summits. These places are as hostile to life as their extreme splendour is difficult to reach.
Après la nuit is an ode to contemplation, a prelude to the second video, Faith Rocks, which aims towards elevation. Faith Rocks is a mounting of shots of the oldest and most mysterious Neolithic paintings, amongst which several have only recently been discovered (2002), dating back to 6000 years ago. Consisting in small human figures with open arms before large-sized animals, their origin and signification are unknown. A reminder, maybe? Just like the triptych by Clément Bedel, painted under the artist’s guidance. This young painter, sensitive to the topics dear to Louis-Cyprien Rials, has accepted to apply his painting techniques to the desiderata of the photographer/video filmmaker.
They interpret a fresco together displaying the empty hall of an American bank. There are no human figures, only what reminds us of our condition, the signs of which we no longer pay any attention to.
Our world is submitted to multiple forms of violence. Political, economic and climatic. Faced with a world running headlong towards its own destruction, Louis-Cyprien Rials has chosen to explore lands devastated by violence and doomed to disappear in order to offer their Beauty to our contemplation. He appeals to our humanity. We are nothing alone. Together, we will continue to exist.
Translated in English by Emmelene Landon
Louis-Cyprien Rials, Voyage au Danakil, 2019, pigment printing on 308g Hahnemühle paper, glued sandwich pannel on aluminium, anti reflective glass, tainted oak wood frame, 190 x 110 cm, unique piece + 1 A.P. Photo © Aurélien Mole
Louis-Cyprien Rials, Voyage au Danakil, 2019, 2019, pigment printing on 308g Hahnemühle paper, glued sandwich pannel on aluminium, anti reflective glass, tainted oak wood frame, 190 x 110 cm, unique piece + 1 A.P
Asama Volcano Observatory – Japan, 2007, silver photo printing, 60 x 70 cm, edition of 5 + 2 A.P. Photo © Aurélien Mole
Louis-Cyprien Rials, Asama Volcano Observatory – Japan, 2007, silver photo printing, 60 x 70 cm, edition of 5 + 2 A.P.
Photo © Aurélien Mole
Louis-Cyprien Rials, Asama Volcano Observatory – Japan, 2007, silver photo printing, 60 x 70 cm, edition of 5 + 2 A.P
полиго́н – Polygon X-ray, in collaboration with Romain Poirier, 2019, 33 t / minutes, project on going
1 – As far as the maps 7.30
2 – Plunderphonics, stochastic decayed 3.30
Additional voices Apollinaria Broche, Nina Salamova
Extract from Stochastic Performance à Hestia, Belgrade, Serbia, 2018
Composed and performed by Romain Poirier
Mix by Jean-Charles Bastion at Mer-Noir, Paris, France
Cut in x-rays by Marco Pellegrino at Analogcut Mastering, Berlin, Germany
Co-production : Aurélie Faure, Paris, France
Thanks to Anja Obradovic (Belgrade, Serbia), Adrian Thomas (London, UK), René Van Tiggelen (Brussels, Belgium), Louis-Cyprien Rials.
Matsuo Mine – Japan, 2007, silver photo printing, 60 x 70 cm, edition of 5 + 2 A.P. Photo © Aurélien Mole
Louis-Cyprien Rials, Matsuo Mine – Japan, 2007, silver photo printing, 60 x 70 cm, edition of 5 + 2 A.P. Photo © Aurélien Mole
Louis-Cyprien Rials, полиго́н – Polygon X-ray, in collaboration with Romain Poirier, 2019, 33 t / minutes, project on going
1 – As far as the maps 7.30
2 – Plunderphonics, stochastic decayed 3.30
Additional voices Apollinaria Broche, Nina Salamova
Extract from Stochastic Performance à Hestia, Belgrade, Serbia, 2018
Composed and performed by Romain Poirier
Mix by Jean-Charles Bastion at Mer-Noir, Paris, France
Cut in x-rays by Marco Pellegrino at Analogcut Mastering, Berlin, Germany
Co-production : Aurélie Faure, Paris, France
Thanks to Anja Obradovic (Belgrade, Serbia), Adrian Thomas (London, UK), René Van Tiggelen (Brussels, Belgium), Louis-Cyprien Rials.
Photo © Aurélien Mole
Louis-Cyprien Rials, полиго́н – Polygon X-ray, in collaboration with Romain Poirier, 2019, 33 t / minutes, project on going
1 – As far as the maps 7.30
2 – Plunderphonics, stochastic decayed 3.30
Additional voices Apollinaria Broche, Nina Salamova
Extract from Stochastic Performance à Hestia, Belgrade, Serbia, 2018
Composed and performed by Romain Poirier
Mix by Jean-Charles Bastion at Mer-Noir, Paris, France
Cut in x-rays by Marco Pellegrino at Analogcut Mastering, Berlin, Germany
Co-production : Aurélie Faure, Paris, France
Thanks to Anja Obradovic (Belgrade, Serbia), Adrian Thomas (London, UK), René Van Tiggelen (Brussels, Belgium), Louis-Cyprien Rials.
Photo © Aurélien Mole
Louis-Cyprien Rials, полиго́н – Polygon X-ray, in collaboration with Romain Poirier, 2019, 33 t / minutes, project on going
1 – As far as the maps 7.30
2 – Plunderphonics, stochastic decayed 3.30
Additional voices Apollinaria Broche, Nina Salamova
Extract from Stochastic Performance à Hestia, Belgrade, Serbia, 2018
Composed and performed by Romain Poirier
Mix by Jean-Charles Bastion at Mer-Noir, Paris, France
Cut in x-rays by Marco Pellegrino at Analogcut Mastering, Berlin, Germany
Co-production : Aurélie Faure, Paris, France
Thanks to Anja Obradovic (Belgrade, Serbia), Adrian Thomas (London, UK), René Van Tiggelen (Brussels, Belgium), Louis-Cyprien Rials.
Photo © Aurélien Mole
Louis-Cyprien Rials, полиго́н – Polygon X-ray, in collaboration with Romain Poirier, 2019, 33 t / minutes, project on going
1 – As far as the maps 7.30
2 – Plunderphonics, stochastic decayed 3.30
Additional voices Apollinaria Broche, Nina Salamova
Extract from Stochastic Performance à Hestia, Belgrade, Serbia, 2018
Composed and performed by Romain Poirier
Mix by Jean-Charles Bastion at Mer-Noir, Paris, France
Cut in x-rays by Marco Pellegrino at Analogcut Mastering, Berlin, Germany
Co-production : Aurélie Faure, Paris, France
Thanks to Anja Obradovic (Belgrade, Serbia), Adrian Thomas (London, UK), René Van Tiggelen (Brussels, Belgium), Louis-Cyprien Rials.
Photo © Aurélien Mole
Louis-Cyprien Rials, Au pied du gouffre (triptyque), collaboration with Clément Bedel, 2019, triptych, oil on linen canvas, wood chassis, 70 x 55 cm each, unique pieces. Photo © Aurélien Mole
Louis-Cyprien Rials, Faith Rocks, 2019, 4K video, color, sound, 18’10”, edition of 5 + 2 A.P. Photo © Aurélien Mole
Louis-Cyprien Rials, Faith Rocks, 2019, 4K video, color, sound, 18’10”, edition of 5 + 2 A.P. Photo © Aurélien Mole
Louis-Cyprien Rials, Après la nuit, 2019, 4K video, color, sound, 32’, edition of 5 + 2 A.P
Sound : Romain Poirier. Photo © Aurélien Mole
Louis-Cyprien Rials, Après la nuit, 2019, 4K video, color, sound, 32’, edition of 5 + 2 A.P
Sound : Romain Poirier. Photo © Aurélien Mole
Louis-Cyprien Rials, Après la nuit, 2019, 4K video, color, sound, 32’, edition of 5 + 2 A.P
Sound : Romain Poirier. Photo © Aurélien Mole
Louis-Cyprien Rials, Après la nuit, 2019, 4K video, color, sound, 32’, edition of 5 + 2 A.P
Sound : Romain Poirier. Photo © Aurélien Mole
Rashomon (in Uganda). Photo © Louis-Cyprien Rials
20.02 – 12.05.2019
At Palais de Tokyo, Paris, France
Mogadishu, Somalia
