In this video we go to Biel/Bienne in Switzerland for the opening of the exhibition ‘Impressions de Biel’ by the Belgian artist duo Jos de Gruyter & Harald Thys. De Gruyter and Thys represented Belgium at the 58th International Art Exhibition, La Biennale di Venezia, in 2019.

For almost forty years, the Belgian duo Jos de Gruyter and Harald Thys (*1965 and 1966) have been exploring the darkest corners of the human psyche. Using video, photography, sculpture and drawing, they bring to life marginalized figures struggling with their neuroses. The works are both tragicomic and caricaturistic portraits of a human condition alienated by social conformism and driven by sad passions.

The exhibition in Biel shows an ensemble of sculptures that the duo describes as follows: “These newer or less new creatures spring from a parallel world. Many of them are embodiments or mutations of characters that have been wandering through our work for many years. Some figures are very heavy and far too big, while others have become so small that they are in danger of disappearing. Some of them have appeared so recently that it seems as if the population of this universe could suddenly grow at unexpected times. Whether human, half-human or beast, they are characterized by their fixed, slightly psychotic gaze. Their eyes are wide open. They are in a state of trance. They are intoxicated and, as it were, petrified by existence itself. This existence is determined by human decisions, ideologies, projections, but also by fate, which has escaped the mills and lies somewhere to the side until it crumbles into dust. The sculptures, on the other hand, are condemned to a static, immobile existence that lasts forever.” The “animations” of the sculptures are coordinated with each other and give the Salle Poma as a whole the appearance of an old Swiss clock. (exhibition text, translated from German)

Kunsthaus Biel Centre d’art Bienne (KBCB), Vernissage, September 14, 2024.