Nightlife

An immersive, psychedelic work whose sculptural properties are enhanced by 3D, Nightlife is the latest film from Berlin-based French contemporary artist Cyprien Gaillard, whose work in sculpture, film, and photography often focuses on architecture, evolution, and entropy. Plunging us into the nocturnal landscapes of three cities — Cleveland, Los Angeles, and Berlin — Nightlife unfolds like a dance/trance film devoid of people as it sets the swaying of lush trees to the rhythms of a dub soundtrack created from a nine-second sample of Alton Ellis' rocksteady classic "Black Man's Pride." Opening with a close-up of a vandalized replica of Rodin's The Thinker, which was partially blown up by the Weather Underground in Cleveland in 1970, and coming full circle in the same city on the sole remaining oak tree from the four planted in honour of Jesse Owens' triumph at the 1936 Berlin Olympics, Gaillard's film creates a kind of hallucinatory rebellion of urban botany, forging mysterious yet suggestive links of resistance and resolve across time and space. With hypnotic allure, Nightlife reconfigures two time-based mediums — music and film — into sculpture to create a palpable illusion of space.

ANDRÉA PICARD

Nightlife will be shown for free at TIFF Bell Lightbox on Friday, September 9. Time TBC.

Produced with the support of Cine Project.

Image and artwork: Copyright Cyprien Gaillard. Courtesy of the artist and Sprüth Magers.

Soundtrack © BLACK MAN’S WORLD Performed by Alton Ellis, (P) 1970 Sanctuary Records Ltd., a BMG Company, Courtesy of BMG Rights Management GmbH. Written and composed by Alton N. Ellis, published by Haka Taka Music, Courtesy of Melodie der Welt GmbH & Co. KG. © BLACK MAN’S PRIDE featuring the performance of Alton Ellis is licensed by Jamaica Recording and Publishing Studio Limited, 13 Studio One Boulevard, Kingston 5, Jamaica Written and composed by Alton Ellis, published by Third Side Music o/b/o Jamrec Music, Courtesy of Rückbank Musikverlag Mark Chung.