Cyprien Gaillard. Water music

At the centre of the exhibition is the latest stereoscopic film by Cyprien Gaillard (born 1980, Paris): Retinal Rivalry (2024) was partly shot at the Munich Oktoberfest and co-produced by Haus der Kunst (House of art). Using state-of-the-art technology, Gaillard creates an expanded, sharpened view of the world around us. The key work takes the viewer on a journey through interwoven time and inaccessible urban surfaces: Dumpsters and underground veins, warm and humid landscapes and views from the eyes of the Bavaria statue over the Oktoberfest. It thus enters into a close dialogue with the city of Munich and its largest folk festival in the world, echoing it as if in a strange memory, subverting familiar patterns of perception with a sculptural and psychedelic space, and dissolving the narrative to reveal pure vision.

Water permeates this new series of works. Gaillard conceives of water as an elemental force - it traverses time and connects traces of disintegrated histories. Through interventions, film, sculptures and archive material, he transforms the South Gallery with relics such as emergency exit signs from the 1930s, pieces of furniture or a worn carpet.

This exhibition continues Haus der Kunst's vision of redefining the meaning of monuments detached from their original purpose and exploring how public monuments can create new collective experiences.

Last edited on 20.01.2026