Copyright © Hideki Inaba, 2013
For this show, Espace Louis Vuitton Tokyo has given Thomas Bayrle carte blanche. Curator of his own exhibition, the German Artist has conceived a minimalist, though humorous setup, where an automated conductor orchestrates a landscape full of highways leading to nowhere…
Revolving around a newly-commissioned piece Conducteur, this show revisits and reorganizes well-known pieces from the distant to the more recent past.
While monitors play Sunbeam (1994) on the gallery floor and a newly-edited version of Gummibaum movie at ground level, visitors can see a third of the elements composing the gigantic Carmageddon which created an impact at the last dOCUMENTA(13)(Kassel, 2012). In front of this field of motorways, inherited from a time when daily traffic jams were the norm, visitors are confronted by the leftovers of a bygone era…
All over these items dapples a sound collage – composed of the “furniture music” by Erik Satie (1917), mixed with the original windshield-wiper sound of a car. This collage of minimal music will run all day long – only being interrupted, once in a while, by the screening of the Film Sunbeam.
For this amazing installation, mixing various media, Espace Louis Vuitton Tokyo wishes to express its gratitude to Thomas Bayrle and his studio, Galerie Barbara Weiss, Johann Widauer, the Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany in Japan and the Goethe-Institut for their kind and renewed support during the whole exhibition preparation.
Thomas Bayrle
Thomas Bayrle, born in 1937 in Berlin, was first trained as a weaver which fundamentally influenced his artistic reflection on patterns, surfaces and grids. From 1958 to 1961 Bayrle studied at the Werkkunstschule Offenbach.
For over 30 years, he taught at Städelschule, Frankfurt where he influenced three generations of young artists. Since the 1960’s he has created a substantial body of work, including objects, graphics, drawings, collages, films and sound installations.
Bayrle’s works have been shown at international museums and institutions such as Portikus, Frankfurt /Main (1990, 1994); Museum für Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt/Main (2002, 2006); Museum Ludwig, Cologne (2008); Museu d’Art Contemporani, Barcelona and Musée d’art Moderne et Contemporain, Geneva (2009). In 2013, WIELS Contemporary Art Centre, Brussels held a large retrospective of his works which will also travel to the Museo d’arte contemporanea Donna Regina, Naples. Thomas Bayrle participated in numerous group exhibitions such as documenta, Kassel (1964, 1977, 2012); von hier aus, Düsseldorf (1984) as well as Biennales including Venice (2003, 2009), Guangzhou (2005), Berlin (2006), Gwangju (2006, 2010), Tbilisi (2007), Sydney (2008) and Busan (2012).
Thomas Bayrle received the Arnold-Bode prize for his participation in dOCUMENTA (13), 2012 in Kassel.
He lives and works in Frankfurt/Main.
Conducteur, 2012/13
Audi wiper, steel column, sound components
Sound collage in collaboration with Bernhard Schreiner
190 x 150 x 60cm
Courtesy of Galerie Barbara Weiss, Berlin
Work with the support of
Espace Louis Vuitton Tokyo
As the centrepiece of the exhibition, this object kind of dominates the room with its presence. The object is composed of an Audi windshield wiper standing on a fragile steel column. Two small loudspeakers and a DVD player are installed at the engine, while all functions of the engine are made visible. The movements of the Wiper are clock-pulsing to a sound collage occurring by its own sound and Erik Satie’s “furniture music”. Through the interconnection of movement, sound and rhythm, the sculpture appears as the conductor of the entire space.
Carmageddon / Motorway, 2012
30 modules of 3-dimentional cardboard elements
each 90 x 150 x 4 cm
Courtesy of the Artist, Galerie Johann Widauer, Innsbruck and Galerie Barbara Weiss, Berlin
This Carmageddon field represents one third of the enormous wall piece which was shown at dOCUMENTA (13) in Kassel, Germany 2012. Constructed as cardboard modules – established of motorway fragments – intersecting in two slide different model directions. The viewer experiences a large grid of hundreds of aborted motorways covering the floor, not leading to anywhere.
Mountains on Motorways, 2012
Three silkscreen printed compositions on cardboard elements
90 x 150 cm / 180 x 150 cm / 180 x 300 cm
Courtesy of the Artist, Galerie Johann Widauer, Innsbruck and Galerie Barbara Weiss, Berlin
Printed in silkscreen upon Carmageddon elements, the three Swiss mountain landscapes are representing assorted blends of mountain landscapes with motorways. They might provide an indication of the rather fragile environmental conditions in mountain areas, such as the Alps where millions of vehicles are driving on motorways cutting through these sensitive landscapes.
Trashcar on bent motorway, 2008/09
Cardboard, burned plastic vehicle, dust stemming from garbage incineration
150 x 100 x 80 cm
Courtesy of Galerie Barbara Weiss, Berlin
Trashcar refers to a scene which could occur anywhere at any time. In this case it was not thrown away: a burned plastic vehicle on a crooked piece of highway. The bent cardboard motorway is a piece of the sculpture, Autobahn, 2003, while the burned car stems from a “car killing happening” in cooperation with Tue Greenfort / 2008.
Sunbeam, 1994
Film loop on 4 monitors, 1-channel video 6:00 min, b/w, DVD, sound
Courtesy of Galerie Barbara Weiss, Berlin
The film collage, Sunbeam, was realized in 1994 by Thomas Bayrle in cooperation with his son Yong Chul Singer-Bayrle. Produced in black / white on an Atari Computer, it shows the leaves of a rubber tree serving as a parking space for a Sunbeam sports car, famous in the early 60’s. Through the entire film, the viewer watches a couple driving into and out of various leaves. The amount of leaves increases and the day by day parking terror appears to culminate in a strange parking nightmare.
Gummibaum, 1993/94
Thomas Bayrle and Daniel Kohl
35 mm film transferred onto DVD, 5:30 min loop, b/w, without sound
Courtesy of Galerie Barbara Weiss, Berlin
Gummibaum (rubber tree plant) is a finished puzzle. The rotating rubber tree plant is filled with a texture derived from a playground filled with intersecting children. In the rubber tree's leaves, the children appear like a colony of ants, endlessly going about their business. The creation process of the looping film was, in a way, like its manifestation, a meticulous dissection and reassembling of many small pieces, repeating and changing through repetition. Gummibaum is a mantra, and a playground, it is meant to be watched, and looked away from, and watched again. It changes and stays the same, it is shuffled, inverted, stretched and squeezed. It is a rubber tree plant.
