Thomas Bayrle & Helke Bayrle

Since mid ‘60s he has been creating manually and through the use of the modest means, such as drawing and collage, complex visual and graphic patterns denominated “Superstructures”: images of strong, almost hypnotic and dizzying visual impact which he constructed through the process of obsessive repetition of motives taken from the popular and commercial visual vocabulary. Very involving and seductive, on the closer look his works not only reveal strong sense of humour, but also deep involvement in political and social problematic. As witness of frenetic post-war economic boom of the West, of absurdness of the Cold and Vietnam War, or of bitter disillusion with leftist ideologies, since the mid ‘60s till today Bayrle has been depicting the contemporary world underlining its most common, and at the same time, its most insane features: overproduction, overconsumption, overpollution, overpopulation, overexploitation…

In CoCA Torun will be presented selection of prints from early ‘70s till the most recent ones, together with some of the early animated films and installations with PVC “raincoats”, as well as a new and especially realised work for this occasion.

In concomitance and in dialogue with Thomas’s work will be presented series of art-documentaries that Helke Bayrle has been doing over the years. She has been documenting activity of Portikus, one among most experimental art institutions, connected with art academy (Städelschule - Staatliche Hochschule für Bildende Kunste) in Frankfurt and out of this involvement she edited a film-series entitled “Portikus Under Construction” featuring artists like Francis Alÿs, John Baldessari, Janet Cardiff, Maurizio Cattelan, Olafur Eliasson, Michael Elmgreen & Ingar Dragset, Yona Friedman, Gilbert & George, Pierre Huyghe, Gordon Matta-Clark, Cildo Meireles, Paulina Olowska, Yoko Ono, Philippe Parreno, Tobias Rehberger, Jason Rhoades, Martha Rosler, Tomas Saraceno, Simon Starling, Rirkrit Tiravanija and many others. This films will be presented within the exhibition and selection of them will be screened within PRZEProject events.

Thomas Bayrle & Helke Bayrle
Kurator: Dobrila Denegri