{"title":"Pan","description":"","products":[{"product_id":"cyprien-gaillard-retinal-rivalry","title":"Cyprien Gaillard 'Retinal Rivalry'","description":"\u003cp\u003eRetinal Rivalry is the soundtrack to Cyprien Gaillard’s new stereoscopic film, Retinal Rivalry (2024). It is an entrancing journey through Germany’s urban landscape and its layers of historical and social significance.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBuilding on his previous exploration of the sculptural qualities of three-dimensional moving images, the work extends beyond the confines of the screen. By harnessing cutting-edge technology to its full potential, Gaillard offers an expanded, sharpened and deeply affecting novel view of the world around us. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eRetinal Rivalry is named after the visual perception phenomenon that occurs when the brain receives two conflicting images at the same time. Instead of blending into one 3D image, the neural system alternates between prioritising one image while suppressing the other, causing confusion and discomfort for the viewer. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eGaillard’s film engages with these complexities of visual processing and the limitations of technology, collating visual information through exceptional, often tongue-in-cheek, shots that intertwine the inside and outside, the contained and dispersed, and the natural and built. His camera adopts unusual viewpoints, shifting from smooth aerial perspectives to a rodent’s low gaze to the dizzying darting in and out on the bulbous nose of a sculpture, or a long shot of a train moving through a landscape, drawing us into a layered experience that teeters between a bad trip and unexpected beauty providing solace.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThroughout Retinal Rivalry, various stairs, spirals and lifts allude to a state of constant ascent and descent, emphasising the interplay between distance and closeness, chasmic depth and vivid sculptural representation. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe film rhythmically pulses with images that swell and contract, inflate and deflate. Manipulating viewers’ sense of depth, scale and texture, it renders familiar materials and locations uncanny, highlighting the inherent inaccuracies and distortions of representation. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eRecording the ordinary world in magnificent detail while aiming to look beneath the surface of things, Retinal Rivalry is a depiction of space and time, destabilising modes of representation and offering a new hyper-vision version of reality. Shot at 120 frames per second and projected at the same rate—five times the standard rate in cinema—Gaillard captures more than the human eye can naturally perceive.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAn early scene places us inside a glass recycling bin, up close between discarded bottles that stretch deep behind the screen and flies buzzing around our heads—Gaillard’s objects materialise in space. Vignettes of collectable Meissen porcelain animal figurines appear like strange scavengers among the rubbish. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe bottlenecks and broken glass call to mind the composition of Caspar David Friedrich’s The Sea of Ice (1823–24), with its sharp step-like layers of sheets of ice. When the container opens, the “sea” of spirit and wine bottles spills into a dump far below, performing a kind of ritualistic libation in remembrance of the dead. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eGaillard has made alcohol and its deteriorative and amnesic effects the subject of previous works, such as his anti-monument Recovery of Discovery (2011), a pyramid made of beer bottles, which touches on the paradox of (self-)destructive behaviour driven by the instinct for (self-)preservation. Retinal Rivalry evokes moments of intoxication and disorientation as we are enveloped inside the head of Bavaria, a nineteenth-century female personification of the Bavarian state, the first colossal bronze statue made since classical antiquity. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eA shaky shot slowly draws us towards an opening, revealing a view of the Oktoberfest’s big wheel turning above Munich. At the feet of “Mama Bavaria” lies what is known as Kotzhügel (vomit hill) on the fringe of the beer festival, where an inebriated young man sleeps off his hangover. Back inside the statue’s head, the camera moves nervously from side to side as if to ask: how did we get here?\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFull of extraordinary clashes, Retinal Rivalry embodies the dynamics of memory and endless cycles of both literal and figurative destruction and construction. One notable example features a drunkenly misplaced iPhone, which displays a colourful animated psychedelic wheel before tumbling through a stairwell. We land below ground, beneath the Cologne Cathedral, where the remains of a Roman city wall are integrated into a 1970s car park, a corner of which shows traces of drug use. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn another striking scene, the camera scans several posters advertising an immersive Van Gogh exhibition, before aligning itself with the painter’s eye, pushing into the graffiti-covered wall and scraping along its length for a true immersive experience. A later sequence portrays the misty views of Saxon Switzerland and its iconic rock formation, the Bastei, a well-developed tourist attraction, shaped by invasive alterations over the years. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eOnce more, Gaillard’s lens intervenes, penetrating the stone that lies behind a protective glass covering, making us forget what we are looking at. Gaillard’s techniques evoke an atmosphere of delusion—an expedition into the irrational, a realm where seeing is hallucinating and viewers navigate between heaven and abyss, between a heightened reality and the loss of a sense of reality.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe spectral images scrutinise our relationship with public space as a common good, prompting questions about our navigation of the present and the intricacies of the inheritances that surround us. A Burger King occupies a former electric substation for the Nazi rally grounds in Nuremberg; an open-mouthed mascaron on a Weimar Art Nouveau building now crowns a cash machine, creating a jarring portal that connects the digital and physical worlds. Elsewhere, a barely-there glossy cellophane wrapper shimmers, and the sticky tape plastered across an improvised Michael Jackson memorial (originally a statue of Renaissance composer Orlando di Lasso) glistens iridescently, transforming the ethereal into the palpable. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe film’s keen awareness of the interconnectedness of time transforms the settings, phenomena and objects typically regarded as peripheral into mind-bending sculpted light, leaving an indelible impression that continues to reverberate long after it has been experienced.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe film’s score draws from diverse sonic elements, bolstering its exploration of dissonance and synchrony. Indonesian instrumental music is reworked and combined with field recordings of heavy machinery rumbling and strangely melodic retching. The soundtrack also incorporates the opening lines to Werner Herzog’s Aguirre, the Wrath of God (1972), along with its accompanying overture by German band Popol Vuh. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe soundscape of Retinal Rivalry contrasts its images—what we see is often at odds with what we hear. Only one section lets sound and image converge: a fractured leg pumps the pedal of an interactive organ to play a piece by Johann Sebastian Bach that repeatedly falters.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe film Retinal Rivalry will be on view at Haus der Kunst in Munich from October 17, 2025, to March 8, 2026\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eTracklisting:\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eSide A\u003c\/strong\u003e \u003cbr\u003e1. Retinal Rivalry\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eSide B\u003c\/strong\u003e \u003cbr\u003e2. 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Throughout the exhibition, Imhof explores notions of finitude, reality and artifice, chance and fate, absence and presence, set against a backdrop of postapocalyptic isolation.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWish You Were Gay encompasses all-new sculpture, painting, sound, and a series of six never-before-seen video works in which the artist revisits early material from 2001–03, a crucial moment of transition in the artist’s life and work. At that time, Imhof’s life and work were closely linked and at times indistinguishable, imbuing the present exhibition with a distinctly biographical note and touching on notions of chosen family, a reality for many queer people.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWith the advent of handheld digital camcorders – which allowed the screen to be flipped for the first time, an early precursor to today’s ever-present front-facing cameras – Imhof used this nascent technology as a mirror recording device, before which she performed movements and gestures, animating and setting the scene. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eUsing her body as a medium, alongside other makeshift means such as borrowed guitars and amplifiers, and recording songs and her voice as a means of finding it, she created art with her community friends, lovers, collaborators – engaging the raw materials of life as it unfolded. These video works convey an underlying sense of urgency, embodying force through insistence and presence, manifested in continuous rehearsal and improvisation. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eOver the next two decades, Imhof wove these elements – via countless mirrorings, doubles, and variations of the motifs originating from this formative period – into a profound practice of movement that places the body at its center. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eRaw moments are at times slowed down in a surreal manner, brought to a stillness full of tension and potential for explosive action, something that returns in her idiosyncratic performance pieces enacted through others and informs her sculptural and painting practice.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eTracklisting:\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eSide A\u003c\/strong\u003e \u003cbr\u003e1. CLOSER TO GOD \u003cbr\u003e2. ANGELS \u003cbr\u003e3. EMO \u003cbr\u003e4. 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Hecker describes the sprawling, nine-track album as a \"constellation of pieces originating from related investigations\", and the clue's in the title. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eRanging from under a minute to over half an hour, these works have been grouped together because they share very specific properties, using correlated modes of synthesis and approaching timbral metamorphosis in a similar way. Pieces that might seem incongruous at first are united not by one concept, but by a cluster of queries that Hecker has been probing diligently for the last few years, ideas related to automated file selection, database-generating sequencing systems and the prospect of synthetic cognition.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThey were written in parallel with a range of Hecker's recent multi-disciplinary inquiries: 2022's Galerie Neu exhibition TEMPLEXTURES, that examined machine listening and charted uncategorizable auditory sensations; 2021's diffusion of olfactory sonics and evaluation of the perception of space 'RESYNTHESIZSERS'; and 'INSPECTION', an algorithmic reconstruction of sounds that uses human hearing to parse their vital timbral characteristics. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBut 'Natural Selection' doesn't require any rigorous background study. In fact, it's one of Hecker's most playful and approachable sets in years, exhibiting the same balance of intensity, mischief and brain-twisting theory that made albums like 'Sun Pandämonium' and 'Acid in the Style of David Tudor' so enduringly influential. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBeginning with the brief 'f92ex0.03', 40 seconds of heaving synthesized textures and disorienting frozen reverb trails, the album immediately hits a different pace with the lengthy 'Syn 21845 8 J15 Q12', a piece Hecker wrote with the help of his friend Vincent Lostanlen, an applied mathematician who is one of the leading voices in the field of computational auditory analysis. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe track takes microscopic glissandi fragments from a database of source material for Lostanlen's time- frequency scattering process and spatiotemporally reverses them, creating an unsettling, utterly beguiling audio illusion. What sounds like a barrage of whooshing, perpetually reversing acoustic impressions is actually a progressive metamorphosis of both forward and backward time - no audio is actually reversed.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHecker's more succinct diversions are just as energizing and, inserted between his durational experiments, necessarily palate cleansing. On the jackhammer 'm syn 260e 2402', he turns an analysis tool into a synthesizer, rooting out spectral phantasms from runaway code, and on 'Layer', coaxes a digital reverb unit into shaping its \"infinite space\" into criss- crossing synthetic whirrs. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThere's even a move towards technoid cohesion on the hallucinatory 'm syn bold heuristic driver', that uses a revised and extended model of Lostanlen's time-frequency scattering process developed by members of the mathematician's team. Hecker transforms harsh digital noise into an emergent rhythm, scanning the detritus until it turns into a an unintentionally dubwise sequence of undulating pulses.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eA variation of this process is also used to drive the album's extended closer 'M 35\/36', a symphonic 35-minute blur of ghost frequencies and nebulous textures that's accented with kaleidoscopic xenharmonic iridescence.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eTracklisting:\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e1. f92ex0.03 \u003cbr\u003e2. Syn 21845 8 J15 Q12 \u003cbr\u003e3. nat. sel. 260e I \u003cbr\u003e4. m syn 260e 2402 \u003cbr\u003e5. nat. sel. 2015 \u003cbr\u003e6. Layer \u003cbr\u003e7. m syn bold heuristic driver \u003cbr\u003e8. seg rev c \u003cbr\u003e9. 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Their tracks, pieced together from the vapors of contemporary club music, baroque pop, and experimental sound design, are a way for Manji to examine their relationship with the world at large and within, disassembling systems of control and highlighting interconnectedness.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eManji has been an ethereal presence on the scene for the last few years, collaborating with numerous artists as both a sound artist and a creative director. Last year, they launched their own platform myxoxym, where they debuted two singles from \"Spandrel?\" and assembled an ambitious fundraiser compilation featuring Rainy Miller, Palmistry, Cecile Believe and others, raising money for Greek wildlife fund ANIMA. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003ePerforming across the world at festivals such as Unsound, Lunchmeat, and Rhizom, Manji has also appeared at clubs in Berlin and London, and was picked to represent the Shape+ platform in 2022. These experiences teem through \"Spandrel?\", helping them weave a complex artistic tapestry that seeks to look far beneath the surface of existence, attempting to balance the doom of global climate meltdown with themes of self-actualization, love, and bodily autonomy.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe album opens on the title track, an introductory précis that prepares listeners for what they're about to hear. Manji's vocals hum with a plugged-in sense of cybernetic melancholia, filtering the world's barrage of rhythms and harmonic themes into lithe, clubwise pop that's buoyed by their advanced sonics. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFrom there, we’re wrenched into the sadness of atmospheric lament 'Pitch Black', a meditation on death that submerges deep bass beneath layers of choral bliss, evoking the church and the dancefloor without sacrificing the power of each polar element. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eTheir darkness is pushed from the inside to the outside on ‚Oil Too Much’, a commentary on the oil industry from the perspective of the animal kingdom that doubles as a neon-hued expression of contemporary depression. But it's on 'Body\/Prison’ where Manji sounds most naked, speaking honestly about their life’s darkest moments and confessing their deepest feelings over searing trance-inspired synths and grotesque percussion. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Spandrel?\" is an album that takes time to unravel, and Manji's themes resonate through history that's older than pop music. It's tragic, romantic, and poetic, and resolutely refuses to turn away from the era's most urgent concerns.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eTracklisting:\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eSide A\u003c\/strong\u003e \u003cbr\u003e1. Spandrel? \u003cbr\u003e2. Pitch Black \u003cbr\u003e3. Oil\/Too Much \u003cbr\u003e4. Closer to Midnight \u003cbr\u003e5. Body\/Prison \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eSide B\u003c\/strong\u003e \u003cbr\u003e6. Lies? \u003cbr\u003e7. Eyes\/Not Enough \u003cbr\u003e8. The Lungs of a Burning Body \u003cbr\u003e9. XYZ\/Labyrinth \u003cbr\u003e10. 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This was just the starting point, though; as Magaletti and upsammy began performing together, the project evolved and 'Seismo' began to take shape. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe duo had struck on a salient aesthetic concept, using mostly digital and acoustic mallet instruments to blur the boundary between their roles and create friction between the synthetic and the authentic. And the finished record is a phantasmagoric push-and-pull between its various conflicting elements: harmony and dissonance, randomness and predictability, openness and constraint.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e'Seismo' isn't the first time that upsammy has studied her environment in search of revelation. On her acclaimed second album, 2024's 'Germ in a Population of Buildings', the Amsterdam-based DJ, producer and multidisciplinary artist erected her complex, unorthodox rhythms and eerie melodies around a modernist frame of field recordings collected in various cityscapes, countering heavyweight basslines with subtle, microscopic sounds. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLondon-based Italian vanguard Magaletti, meanwhile, has applied her unique logic to innumerable projects at this point, working with everyone from batida icon Nídia and hardcore-dub outfit Moin to French writer Fanny Chiarello and British bass scientist Shackleton. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFor years she's approached the drums with criticism, attempting to challenge any preconceptions, something that's most visible on 2020's 'A Queer Anthology of Drums'. And both artists' thoughtful perspectives are welded together seamlessly on 'Seismo', a dizzying suite of eight eccentric statements that's fragile but never insecure, gauzy but not indistinct.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAn unnerving sense of space characterizes 'It Comes to an End' as Magaletti's in situ improvisations herald for upsammy's microscopic glitches and chiming pitch-bent melodies. It's almost unbalancing to witness the track's impossible dimensionality, the interplay between reverberant marimba hits and bone-dry synths, or percussion that's been recorded and processed in consciously different settings. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eA new architecture emerges in the sound itself that the two artists scan and explore meticulously, testing its boundaries with undulating hybridized rhythms on the invigorating 'Superimposed' and offsetting the powdery drums with liquified smacks and alien voices. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe duo's vibrations are knotted with piano flourishes on 'Hyperlocalize', balanced with artificial clanks and clangs that disappear into the track's sonorous atmosphere, replaced by whispers and half-hallucinated insectoid chirps. 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