De Schilder

Jos de Gruyter and Harald Thys have been collaborating together as artists since the end of the 1980s. Through the media of video, installation, drawing, sculpture, performance, and photography, the duo creates portraits of the human condition that are at once tragic, comical, and silent. The protagonists in their works are often imaginary people, embodied by dolls, mannequins, or plush animals, and sometimes by amateur actors. They invent fictions from a reality that is, on occasion, “too real”.

De Schilder is an extract from a video entitled ROTV 3, which itself is a part of the Emperor Ro installation. The artists narrate De Schilder thus: “A painter (De Belder Guido) is struggling like never before to find inspiration for a new canvas. He takes leave of his oppressive apartment in town and sets out into nature in search of the ultimate idea. After many, many cigarettes and a long walk, he finds it.”