Art in the air raid shelter: Cyrill Lachauer moves with a strong solo exhibition

In the former air raid shelter in the Haus der Kunst, new works from the Goetz Collection have been presented in group exhibitions since 2011.

Now a solo show can be seen for the first time: Cyrill Lachauer's moving installation “I am not Sea, I am not Land”.

Justin is dancing.

The bear is dancing.

The accordion player is dancing.

But everyone dances by himself.

Art is often most impressive when you know something about its origins.

We really want to know: What was the artist thinking?

Instead of looking for yourself and feeling what the work is doing to us.

The former air raid shelter of the Haus der Kunst alone does a lot to you.

Since 2011, works from the Goetz Collection have been presented in group exhibitions.

From today on, with Cyrill Lachauer's installation collage of films, photos, letters, poems, music and a not so small green cactus, the work of a single artist can be seen for the first time.

“I am not Sea, I am not Land” is a commissioned work for this oppressive shelter, which always reminds of the destructive bombs it was supposed to protect from.

Lachauer does not differentiate between man and landscape - everything is one

So this is where Cyrill Lachauer, born in Rosenheim in 1979, takes us on a journey.

For example in the USA.

Not in the vigorous “great” America that Trump and all the other established old men rave about.

Lachauer, who always critically questions his role as a white European artist and traveler, looks at the cracks that run through this country like every other.

To the people, animals, places whose American dream seems to have been over.

Or not?

“Even if they have something broken about them, they have something very resistant about them.

They are not just the victims that you see them as, ”says the artist.

He sees them in their respective landscapes, which - that is his philosophy - are part of them.

We inside, the landscape outside, he doesn't know such constructs.

Everything is one and interwoven.

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Oppressive, unsettling, moving - and yet: with the slightest hope that there will be a way out of the worst.

“There has to be a way for it to get better.

That it becomes clear: You can fly even if you are on the ground, "says #cyrilllachauer.

His impressive show in the equally impressive former air raid shelter of @haus_der_kunst tells about it.

An exhibition that starts with a small green cactus can only be a win!

Up, up there!

Until April 11th 2021 👌🏻 #hausderkunst #sammlunggoetz #kunst #art #photography #installation #installationart #museum #münchen #munich #ausstellung # münchentipp #exhibition #luftschutzbunker #cyrilllachauer @haus_der_kunst @sammlunggoetz

A post shared by Kultur Münchner Merkur (@kultur_muenchnermerkur) on Oct 22, 2020 at 8:22 am PDT

A film projector hums in the first room of the air raid shelter.

He throws a sequence from “Man of Aaran” (1934) edited by Lachauer on the wall.

Water lashing on land.

Over and over again.

A border - here the sea, there the land - can no longer be made out.

Just as for the artist the boundaries between nature and humans are always blurred.

Couldn't the photograph of the two children, their heads in the sun, their bare chests smeared in wet earth, also show a rock?

“I like that twist.

That at second glance it becomes clear that nothing is one to one as it first seems. "

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Justin is dancing.

A scene from a film that Lachauer shot in Yosemite National Park.

© the artist, Courtesy Sammlung Goetz, Medienkunst, Munich

Justin is still dancing.

Maybe not now, at this moment, but on the video that Lachauer shot of the queer man in Yosemite National Park.

And in Lachauer's memory.

For him, the place is forever associated with Justin's dance.

Behind him is the mountain where climbers outdo each other with daring maneuvers.

So this film is also a sounding out of different ideals of masculinity.

Lachauer is convinced: "You can fly, even when you're on the ground."

How do we want to live?

What do we want to leave behind?

How do we shape our environment?

Lachauer raises many questions.

And hopes for a good outcome.

“There has to be a way for it to get better.

That it becomes clear: You can fly even when you're on the ground. ”Dancing helps.

Until April 11, 2021