MARC BIJL
(The Netherlands, 1970)


Group Mechanism, 2006
showroom dummies, leather jackets, spray paint
and white enamel paint, 166 x 76 x 48 cm each,
dimensions vary, Courtesy private collection,
The Netherlands, The Breeder, Athens



The installation consists of ten showroom dummies dressed up with leather jackets that the artist spray-painted with single letters composing the word INDIVIDUAL. The faceless dummies, intended to display clothing in shop windows, are devoid of any personal identity. The leather jacket in turn stands for a very specific form of identity – modern heroes such as Marlon Brando and James Dean turned it into a symbol of rebellion and individual freedom from the rules and the restrictions of society. Marc Bijl makes use of symbols, logos and labels as instruments to critically explore social rules and their emblematic manifestation in our society. In Group Mechanism he focuses on one of the fundamental contradictions of consumer culture: the mass produced symbols of individuality and the impossibility to define individuality by becoming part of a group.


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