Thomas Bayrle : 40 Years of Chinese Rock 'n' Roll

Thomas Bayrle's unorthodox and intensive preoccupation with China has already begun very early: 'It began with a 'whim' that I can no longer explain today; in 1964, I built/made/painted a 'machine' behind which hundreds of athletes performed exercises behind the portrait of Mao Zedong (...) I hardly pay any attention to ideological differences and - against the protests of my leftist friends - mixed communist and capitalist elements and contents together (...) According to the motto 'technical patterns there/organic ornaments here' I weave together warp and weft of my idea of East and West to one and the same fabric (...) Irreconcilable, ideological contraries came to resemble each other even more - and over the years fused - up to Global Rock'n'Roll which is playing momentarily.' This book features large-scale reproductions, an interview with the artist by Daniel Birnbaum, Udo Kittelmann, and Hans Ulrich Obrist, and accompanies an exhibition of Bayrle's work at Museum Moderner Kunst, Frankfurt.