Marc Bijl is a leading proponent of a ‘hardcore’ aesthetic which
provocative and interventionist at the same time. A John Osborne-like angry young man, he belongs to the new generation of creative artists who have risen alongside the no-global movements of the late 1990s and early 2000s. Instead of using violence and direct action, he has chosen to make his art visible in public spaces, squares, subway stations, on
billboards, and among other signs produced by so-called ‘corporate
culture’. Employing a “Sex Pistols-style” and admitting his debt to ‘70s counterculture, his imagery is involved with the illegal practices of social activism and with the strategies of urban guerrillas. Bijl places at the
center of his art a discussion on the given idea of public space,
denouncing the insecurity which threatens our daily lives behind the smoke screen of the media world. Seen from this point of view, different icons express the same function: Nike’s swoosh as well as Che Guevara’s portrait, Beuys with his felt hat, national flags, Warhol and his Olympus, the bronze cross of the Wehrmacht. These all provide life-savers through the mediatic filter, concealing truth and making reality look artificial. Graffiti, slogans, flags, controversial performances, and the hijacking of industrial logos (following Guy Debord’s lesson), of names and authorship — all this constitutes part of Bijl’s catalogue.
— Marco Scotini

Selected solo exhibitions: 2003: Bergman, Frankfurt; Artra, Milan; 2002: Kapinos, Berlin; Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin; Projektraum K&S, Berlin; 1999: Dutchbed, CBK Nijmegen, Hollsnd; Filmstad, The Hague.
Selected group exhibitions: 2003: Nation, Frankfurter Kunstverein, Frankfurt; 2001: Neighbours/Buren, Stedelijk Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven, Holland; 2000: M_ARS, Landesmuseum, Graz; Jahresgaben, Kunstverein Arnsberg, German; Married by Powers, Tent, Rotterdam; Microjam influenza, De Appel, Amsterdam; Manifesta 4, Frankfurt; Commitment Fonds, BKVB Amsterdam and Las Palmas , Rotterdam; Jeune Creation, Grande-Halle de la Villette, Paris.