Cyprien Gaillard
Cities of Gold and Mirrors, 2009
Cyprien Gaillard (1980)
Cities of Gold and Mirrors, 2009
16mm film, transferred to video
8 min 56 sec
Shot in Cancun, a city developed as a tourist resort in the 1970’s, the film combines scenes that document uncanny culture clashes between different times. Spring breakers drinking, dolphins swimming past Brutalist architecture, and a gang member in bright red performing a ritualistic dance atop a Mayan archeological site are among the scenes shot in a nostalgic, archival style. The soundtrack is taken from Mysterious Cities of Gold, an animated series from 1982 about Spanish conquistadors, distorted to appear as an old science fiction movie. Through compressing these different times in the space of the present Gaillard presents us with a ruin of the future.