The installation “True Love will find you in the End (Sermon for the Birds)” by the artist Cyrill Lachauer launches a new series of commissioned works, which will be presented for one year in the corridor of Haus der Kunst’s staff entrance. The commission is awarded to an up-and-coming, locally-based artist. The works aim is to create a new environment for the museum employees who pass through this space on daily basis. At the same time, the commissioned works are to be created in an interdisciplinary collaboration with local institutions with an international scope, such as the Biotopia Natural History Museum, the Art and Nature Foundation, and the Max Plank Foundation.
Two months ago, Cyrill Lachauer mounted his sound and mural installation “True Love will find you in the End (Sermon for the Birds)” at the staff entrance of Haus der Kunst. A corridor is concealed behind the two cast-iron French doors, each weighing 1,500 kilos. Enveloped in a dawn-like atmosphere, this corridor is used daily by staff, suppliers, and museum guests. With this new work designed expressly for this space, visitors to the exhibition "Cyrill Lachauer. I am not sea, I am not land” from the Sammung Goetz can now also be transported into a daybreak-like moment, filled by an abundance of birdsong at dawn.
In collaboration with Moritz Stumm, Lachauer created a composition from the songs of the birds depicted in the frescos “St. Francis of Assisi Preaching to the Birds,” located in the Basilica of San Francesco and painted by the early Renaissance artist Giotto di Bondone. Lachauer has been familiar with Christian images of the mendicant friar since his childhood. The individual bird vocalizations were collected as part of the “Dawn Chorus” project organized by the Biotopia Naturkundemuseum Bayern and the Stiftung Kunst und Natur and then recorded in a joint sound map. When the man-made noise of everyday urban life fell silent last spring and the unique soundscape of nature became more audible, the global sound map was conceived to draw attention to the extinction of species, environmental destruction, and the dangers of climate change. The polyphonic concert is interrupted every 30 minutes by a 17-minute sequence of electronic sounds and effects, before the harmonies of the bird calls sound again.
In addition to the acoustic dimension, the work also includes a mural that extends the entire length of the corridor. The dark, powder-like pigment refers to the blue tones of the frescoes in the Basilica of San Francesco.
A horizon is indicated by the transition from a dark to a pale blue. It recalls the setting of a sky at dawn, when the concert of the morning birds reaches its full majesty of sound. In a niche along the opposite wall is a bench with four cardinal-red pillows. The dye used to create this color, carmine, was traditionally extracted from the cochineal, a species of Mexican louse imported to Europe by earlier colonial powers. Above the pillow is a handwritten letter addressed to Gianni Nevada, whose identity remains a mystery: “Earth – this damaged place in the endless space of Universe – needs totally new forms of coexistence. So long my friend, Yours Cyrill. PS: True Love will find you in the end.” These words serve as an appeal to the viewer to appreciate and preserve nature.
The directly adjacent canvas object “Zinken” resembles an eagle’s head. As Lachauer’s personal signature and an encrypted code, it acts as a connecting element to the exhibition of the Sammlung Goetz. The atmospheric impression of dawn is enhanced by a door glazed with buttermilk. When leaving the building, it is possible to see the mural through the glaze: its contours are blurred, and the objects appear almost foggy, a further way of transporting visitors into an early morning setting, when the cold of night gradually gives way to the warmth of day.
By referencing the corridor’s architectural orientation towards the adjacent English Garden, the installation by Lachauer renders the demarcation between inside and outside permeable.
Information on the exhibition can be found on "Cyrill Lachauer. I am not sea, I am not land“.
Listen to a sequence of the composition by Cyrill Lachauer and Moritz Stumm in the video "Meet the artist - Cyrill Lachauer" and follow the exhibition with the artist in Talks & Tours mit Cyrill Lachauer.
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