Art Metropole

#11218

The Nation has been flirting with forms of Götterdämmerung

Artist

Marc Bijl

Price

$40.00

Date

1996

Publisher

Casco - Office for Art and Design and Theory

Format

Audio

Size

31 × 31.5 × 0.2 cm

Length

0 

Genre

New Media

12” LP with insert, English text.

In CASCO, Marc Bijl revealed a self-portrait in the shape of an equestrian statue. The monumental sculpture is a reminder of student demonstrations against budget cuts in the early 1990s. During the protests – which got out of hand – Bijl was mistakenly arrested for public disorder and violence. The equestrian statue is the synthesis of the fear and excitement Bijl felt at the time and the powerful seductive image of the mounted police. His images are fed by the language of protest. He prefers subversive expressions and subcultural imagery. But simultaneously Bijl deconstructs this language. He shows how contradictions in society are also part of himself. The work uncovers the fine line between superficiality and profundity. ‘Politics is fiction, art is real’, says Bijl. At the time of the student protests, Bijl was the bass player in the band Götterdämmerung. Especially for this Casco project, the band went back to the studio to record a “best of” picturedisk. The album will be released in a limited edition of 500, including a booklet which examines what is left of the ideals of Bijl’s contemporaries.