Cyprien Gaillard KOE

In Cyprien Gaillard’s large-format video work KOE, the camera meditatively follows a flock of exotic rose-ringed parakeets through a major European city. This green-feathered bird originated in Africa and Asia and was brought to Europe to be kept as a pet. While the small population that settled in Vienna’s Türkenschanzpark in the 1970s no longer exists, this parrot species was able to find a niche in Düsseldorf’s ecosystem, where it has been breeding successfully ever since. In the evenings, the parakeets gather to sleep, their most popular spot being the plane trees located on the luxury retail street Königsallee.

In his works, visual artist Cyprien Gaillard examines the emergence and decay of architecture and nature, scenes of ruin, erosion and evolution. Against the backdrop of the cool, urban, once visionary buildings, the birds’ unfaltering passage seems to signify nature reclaiming the urban terrain.