Dutch artist Marc Bijl (b. 1970) is a highly versatile artist who switches as effortlessly between anarchism, Gothic culture, art and life as he does between the media of image, text and music.
In his early work Marc Bijl reacted to global themes and to popular fascination with symbols of political power, globalization of the economy and nationalism. This resulted in interventions in public space, videos, sculptures and installations that underscored or undermined world views. Whether addressing politics, religion, globalization and its backlash, or the art scene, Bijl endeavours to expose superficialities and myths via his work. To do this he employs visual elements borrowed from punk and Gothic subcultures and from anarchism. These elements can also be discerned in his later work: the philosophical quotes in graffiti on walls, flags in various renderings and with various texts, and the black sculptures of dark knights on horseback, eagles and Lara Croft.
Dutch artist Marc Bijl (b. 1970) is a highly versatile artist who switches as effortlessly between anarchism, Gothic culture, art and life as he does between the media of image, text and music.
In his early work Marc Bijl reacted to global themes and to popular fascination with symbols of political power, globalization of the economy and nationalism. This resulted in interventions in public space, videos, sculptures and installations that underscored or undermined world views. Whether addressing politics, religion, globalization and its backlash, or the art scene, Bijl endeavours to expose superficialities and myths via his work. To do this he employs visual elements borrowed from punk and Gothic subcultures and from anarchism. These elements can also be discerned in his later work: the philosophical quotes in graffiti on walls, flags in various renderings and with various texts, and the black sculptures of dark knights on horseback, eagles and Lara Croft.
His most recent work is more abstract and minimalistic, exemplifying a shift in approach, by which he pares down different perspectives and methodologies to a new essence. The crux is no longer the ‘symbolism’, but what that symbolism represents and signifies.
This publication presents the most important works realized by Bijl over the last decade, and contains artist’s pages into which Bijl himself has injected his creative verve.