Artists

Guillaume Bijl

Press release

Guillaume Bijl (*1946, Antwerp) is known for his large-scale installations and visual realism. Since the late 1970s, Bijl has created realistic decors using found objects. In doing so, he played a pioneering role in the resurgence of the ready-made. Bijl shows the audience various aspects of our Western ‘civilisation’ and consumer society. Using extreme stereotypes, he creates a sort of ‘archaeology of our time’ in a tragi-comedic, alienating way.

After searching for a mode of expression which could enable the audience’s involvement, the young Guillaume Bijl, a self-taught artist, started creating projects on paper in the seventies (Project Pleasures). The most important series comprised nine Treatments. This series exposes various societal determinations and phenomena such as the church, the army, the education system, the holiday business, sex, businessmen or the daily grind of blue-collar workers. In these depictions on paper Bijl draws a trail, accompanied by a step-by-step script, guiding the visitor from room to room to follow the life course of, for example, a soldier.