MONOCULTURE | A Recent History

In their most recent works such as Das Loch, de Gruyter & Thys have replaced actors with mannequins that have limited features, inhuman computerised voices and a certain emptiness at their core. Das Loch describes the complex rivalry that exists between two characters – Johannes, who believes in the universal expression of painting, and Fritz, a little red macho-man in possession of an HD camera. Johannes's empathic wife Hildegard, in a role that reduces her to the female stereotype from film history, acts as the linchpin for her husband’s emotions. Within the OPTIMUNDUS exhibition, the characters present from this work are Fritz wearing his sunglasses behind a fence, Hildegard, Ricco & Rocco, Tommy The Singing Trumpet, and Johannes amongst an expansive display of his paintings.