©Jos De Gruyter & Harald Thys
Jos de Gruyter and Harald Thys’s art casts a merciless perspective on reality. Through their numerous artistic approaches – including installations, video, drawing, sculpture, performance and photographs – de Gruyter and Thys visualise their imaginings of the parallel world inherent within the modern human psyche, along with how it manifests itself in the everyday aspects of life and civic conformity. Everything from work, leisure and family, to social class, masculinity and marginalization are envisaged through convening an unlikely cast of non-professional actors, family members, friends, beards, objects and mannequins alike, often in banal, homespun settings that are rife with awkward power dynamics Form balances the work of de Gruyter and Thys on the edge of the idiotic. Ragged mannequins are made to share common space with traced drawings of trams, the cries of animals, polystyrene heads with false facial hair, and monotonous monologues about renovations. The artists are inspired by myriad sources – like key scenes in films by Visconti, Fassbinder, Robert Bresson; reality television; the arsenal of videos at YouTube offers, ranging from Russian road rage to the home videos of Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov; as well as traumatic events the artists have experienced over the years with various people and places.
>'Untitled', Photograph, 60 x 80 cm
>Plexi Gladz "Verveling" Belgian postpunk cold wave 1981 with Harald Thys. Click here to listen to the song.
>Jos De Gruyter & Harald Thys, Mime in de videostudio [Mime in the video studio], 1988.Video, 00:05:00.
>Jos De Gruyter & Harald Thys, ROTV1 Keizer Ro [Emperor Ro], 1993.Video.
>Jos De Gruyter & Harald Thys, De bom [The Bomb], 1995.Video, dvd, digital betacam, 00:05:00.
>Jos De Gruyter & Harald Thys, Parallelogram, 2000.Video, dvd, digital betacam, 00:20:00.
>Jos De Gruyter & Harald Thys, De pot [The Bucket], 2001.Video, 00:18:00.
>Jos De Gruyter & Harald Thys, Het Spinnenwiel [The Spinning Wheel], 2002.Video, dvd, digital betacam, 00:33:00.
>Jos De Gruyter & Harald Thys, Het Geel van Gent [The Yellow of Ghent], 2005.Video, 00:12:00.
>Jos De Gruyter & Harald Thys, Ten Weyngaert, 2007.Video, video, 00:26:00.
>Jos De Gruyter & Harald Thys, Der Schlamm Von Branst, 2008.Video, video, 00:20:00.
>Jos De Gruyter & Harald Thys, Untitled (The Frigate), 2008.Sculpture, ink, paper, wood, mdf, 95 x 34 x 155 cm.
>Jos De Gruyter & Harald Thys, Het Fregat [The Frigate], 2009.Video, single channel hd video, 00:19:00.
>Jos De Gruyter & Harald Thys, About the Relationship Between the Real World and the Parallel World, 2010.Video, 00:30:00.
>Jos De Gruyter & Harald Thys, Im Reich der Sonnenfinsternis, 2010-2011.Installation, mixed media; paintings, variable dimensions.
>Jos De Gruyter & Harald Thys, Ricco & Rocco, 2010-2012.Sculpture, mixed media.
>Jos De Gruyter & Harald Thys, Das Loch [The Hole], 2010.Video, 00:27:00.
>Jos De Gruyter & Harald Thys, Johannes, painter °1947 † 2010, 2011.Sculpture, mixed media.
>Jos De Gruyter & Harald Thys, White Elements, 2012.Sculpture, steel, white marine paint, pencil, paper, 9 x (243 x 82 x 0.8 cm).
>Jos De Gruyter & Harald Thys, Tommy The Singing Trumpet, 2012.Sculpture, mixed media.
>Jos De Gruyter & Harald Thys, Les énigmes de Saarlouis [The Riddles of Saarlouis], 2012.Video, 00:18:00.
>Jos De Gruyter & Harald Thys, Jos De Gruyter & Harald Thys 'Optimundus', 2013.Book, ink, paper, 24 x 18 cm, 67 p., language : English, publisher : Museum van Hedendaagse Kunst Antwerpen/Kunsthalle Wien/Sternberg Press, Berlin, ISBN : 9783943365535.
>Jos De Gruyter & Harald Thys, Der Doktor, 2013.Sculpture, mixed media.
>Jos De Gruyter & Harald Thys, So ist das, 2013.Sculpture.
>Jos De Gruyter & Harald Thys, Twee Vagebonden, 2013.Sculpture.
>Jos De Gruyter & Harald Thys, De Droom van Klottemans, 2013.Sculpture.
>Jos De Gruyter & Harald Thys, De Drie Wijsneuzen, 2013.Sculpture.
>Jos De Gruyter & Harald Thys, Kitty & Katty, 2013.Sculpture, mixed media.
>Jos De Gruyter & Harald Thys, Hildegard, 2013.Sculpture, mixed media.
>Jos De Gruyter & Harald Thys, Fritz, 2013.Sculpture, mixed media.
>Jos De Gruyter & Harald Thys, Columbus offering gifts to Native Americans [from the series 'Fine Arts'], 2015.Drawing, 81 x 121.5 cm.
>Jos De Gruyter & Harald Thys, A day trip in Lombardia [from the series 'Fine Arts'], 2015.Drawing, watercolour on paper, 31 x 41.5 cm.
>Jos De Gruyter & Harald Thys, Animals on a small farm [from the series 'Fine Arts'], 2015.Drawing, aquarel, pencil on paper, 31 x 41.5 cm.
>Jos De Gruyter & Harald Thys, White Suprematism, 2016.Drawing, ink, wood, cardboard, plexi, 147 x 147 cm.
>Jos De Gruyter & Harald Thys, The Fool, 2019.Installation, 3d-printed head coated in plaster, gypsum, aluminium, clothes, umbrella, varnish, acrylic paint with sound, 120 x 80 x 200 cm .
>Jos De Gruyter & Harald Thys, Flap & Flop, 2019.Installation, 3d-printed head coated in plaster, gypsum, aluminium, textile, clothes, wooden cart, varnish, acrylic paint, 120 x 80 x 180 cm .
>Jos De Gruyter & Harald Thys, Improvised Explosive Device, 2021.Multiple, cardboard, tape, keyboard, led light, toggle switch, batteries, 20 x 30 x 11 cm.
>Jos De Gruyter & Harald Thys, Micro Mundo 3, 2023.Sculpture, assemblage van vezelmateriaal, plastic, metaal, glas, hout en verf, 92 × 61.5 × 46.5 cm (terrarium), 98.4 × 61.5 × 46.5 cm (sokkel).
>Jos De Gruyter & Harald Thys, ROTV3 (humorkanaal).Video.
> Exhibition: Jos De Gruyter & Harald Thys. 24 October 2009 - 23 December 2009.
> Exhibition: Jos De Gruyter & Harald Thys - Das Loch. 27 May 2011 - 10 July 2011.
> Exhibition: Jos de Gruyter & Harald Thys – Optimundus. 07 February 2013 - 19 May 2013.
> Exhibition: MONOCULTURE | A Recent History. 25 September 2020 - 25 April 2021.
> Exhibition: Museum E!: Els Vanden Meersch – Storyboard. 28 January 2017 - 25 February 2017.
> Exhibition: Museum in Motion. 16 September 2022 - 08 January 2023.
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> Exhibition: Museum in Motion - Jos De Gruyter & Harald Thys. 16 September 2022 - 08 January 2023.
> Exhibition: Projekt 13. 16 January 2010 - 14 March 2010.
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> Ensemble: Action in the Extreme.
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> Ensemble: An Architecture for Art - Jos De Gruyter & Harald Thys.
> Ensemble: ARCHIEF JEF LAMBRECHT.
> Ensemble: Collectie Vlaamse Gemeenschap.
> Ensemble: ESTATE JEF LAMBRECHT.
> Ensemble: M HKA_DEFAULT_PUBLICATIONS.
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> Ensemble: M HKA_DEFAULT_WORKS.
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> Ensemble: MONOCULTURE - ARTWORKS.
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> Ensemble: MONOCULTURE - Modernism .
> Ensemble: NUCLEUS.
> Ensemble: Personages, Poppen en Mannequins [Characters, Puppets & Mannequins].
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> Ensemble: UNIVERSALISM.
> Ensemble: Video's uit de Parallelle Wereld [Videos of the Parallel World].
> Ensemble: Video's van Jos de Gruyter & Harald Thys [Videos of Jos de Gruyter & Harald Thys].