Looking back: book launch "MARC BIJL THE WORKS 1984-2084"
At the beginning of this month MARC BIJL THE WORKS 1984-2084 launched, designed by Studio Remco van Bladel i.c.w. Ismael Abderrahim Arribas, Alym Zhai, and Danique Merkestein.
What will the world look like 100 years from now?
In Marc Bijl's catalogue for a fictional survey exhibition in the year 2084, time comes to us from the future. Bijl considers himself an observer of society, of everyday conditions and contemporary culture. In a society structured by narratives and fictions, by immaterial scripts that insinuate themselves into lifestyles, institutions, and ideology, he turns his attention to concealed myths, codes and structures that order everyday life. He leads us into the year 2084 and from there, back to the aesthetics of the 1980s. In a body of work that forms a critically purposeful montage of observations, Bijl playfully combines methods of appropriation and deconstruction, drawing from counter-cultural traditions and the real-time iconography of "high" and "low" cultures alike. The works that result from the appropriated and manipulated sources are unfailingly eventive within the artist's unique stylistic idiom, which wears the influence of pop, punk, and goth culture.
Made possible with the support of Mondriaan Fund, Stiftung Neustart Kultur Bonn, Researchstipendum Senat Berlin.