Construction, deconstruction and reconstruction: the Italian-German artist redefines the architecture of Ludwig Mies van der Rohe’s symbol of modernism
Lampoon: Monica Bonvicini
With an over twenty-year career in the art world, Monica Bonvicini is today one of the most renowned contemporary female artists. Over the years she has particularly stood up for her dry, scathing sense of humor and biting criticism of society and dynamics of power, resulting in a large and varied body of work.
Thought-provoking and straightforward, Bonvicini’s works aim at forging a connection with the audience, often resorting to language and written word. On occasion of her third solo show, Pleasant (March 30-September 10, 2022), in the premises of Galleria Raffaella Cortese, the artist presented a series of mirrors depicting quotes and edited texts by female writers who investigate the way domestic space affect women’s daily life and their role in society.
«As a woman artist, I think it is crucial to make sculptures which say something directly. Indeed, making oneself heard has always been something relevant for many minorities. Let’s think, for example, of Jenny Holzer or Barbra Kruger who have made language their trade-mark».
Monica Bonvicini : Sexuality, gender and dynamics of power
In her multifaceted practice, Bonvicini explores the relationship between architecture power and gender in a critical way. This interest stems from the belief that each space has a distinctive character which triggers in people different reactions, based on everyone’s sensitivity and receptiveness.
«Everyone can make the associations they want – Bonvicini says – For me, sexuality is a way of expressing in an ironic and reckless way what I want to say about issues which perhaps I could not talk about in any other way. There is something fundamental, and still complex, in sexuality which I have also found in architecture».
However expressed, dynamics of power, gender and sexuality are a constant in our lives. Sculpture and large-scale installations – the most recurring artistic languages in Bonvicini’s practice – demand a deep reflection on the role of the human body, and where, when and how body and space meet.
The material aspect of Bonvicini’s sculptural works is a fundamental element in the fight against socio-cultural conventions which the artist has been carrying out since her first exhibition at the California Institute of the Arts in 1991. Never random, bricks, plasterboard, glass and metal allow the artist to approach sculpture through the themes and languages of architecture.
Human bodies in the domestic space –Destroy She Said
In artworks such as Destroy She Said (1998) or The Fetishism of Commodities (2002), as well as in the renowned series Italian Homes (2019), Bonvicini tackles the relationship between architecture and gender from different angles. Destroy She Said consists of a double video projection made of excerpts from films shot between the 1950s and 1970s.
An archive of images of women holding onto or leaning against a wall, perhaps seeking shelter, support or comfort. The physical relationship of the protagonists with the domestic architectural structures within which the films are set is the visual representation of the stereotyped portrayal of women, often depicted by the grandmasters of arthouse cinema as disturbed, anxious and lost people seeking external support.
The Fetishism of Commodities and Italian Homes
«Other works such as Wallfuckin’ (1995/96) or The Fetishism of Commodities are installations which deal with the theme of sexuality with an ‘I don’t give a damn’ attitude towards large structures, such as theory and architecture. With its metal, chains and leather, The Fetishism of Commodities for example, confronts Marx’s ideas about work with the architect’ s fetishism for pure materials, which of course involve power relations».
Finally, Italian Homes is a photographic documentation of two family houses built at the beginning of the 1970s located around the city of Brescia, where the artist was raised. Architectural representations of the ‘traditional Italian families’ in which women played a specific, standardized role, these houses differ only in the way their inhabitants have modified and customized their appearance.
Contradicting the basic idea behind the social claim of this type of architecture, which should create the same living conditions for homogeneous social groups, this project aims at investigating how the reappropriation of architecture and the role of buildings in our society can be a tool of social critics, and to identify houses as signifiers of social change and the passage of time.
I do You – Neue Nationalgalerie, Berlin
After more than twenty years since the unveiling of 2 Tonnen Alte Nationalgalerie (1998), the Neue Nationalgalerie is currently hosting the work of Bonvicini in a solo show featuring two large-scale installations designed specifically for Ludwing Mies van der Rohe’s famous building.
«I have always been, and still am, interested in confronting the political history of urban centers and architectures in constant transformation, both on a physical and symbolic level. This show certainly makes me think, having worked on these issues for many years, on a certain cycle of time: construction, destruction, reconstruction and so on», Bonvicini claims. According to the artist, with the show I do You she further investigated the relationship between public and private space, as well as the positioning in that context of artistic institutions and the evolving role of artists and spectators.
The invitation of Bonvicini is, in fact, to take all the time necessary to cohabit with the space and the surrounding artworks, which can be perceived only in relation to the viewer’s body. An appeal shouted by the installation placed in front of the museum’s external façade amplifying the active voice of the institution and the people gravitating around it: «That ‘I’ represents the architecture and the museum speaking to the public, who in turn responds, but also the artist speaking to the city and to the institution itself».
A clear plea for an awakening and assumption of responsibility from the cultural world and its institutions, guilty of perpetuating established patterns and power dynamics. There are many artworks in Bonvicini’s oeuvre which require the visitors’ participation in order to be activated, but it is with I do You that the artist managed to take the relationship between audience and art to a whole new level.
According to the artist, You to Me (2022) represents perhaps her most transgressive performing work to date. Whoever wants to become an integral part of the artwork by living an estranging and emotionally challenging experience, has the opportunity to be handcuffed to the work and with it to the museum’s building and experiment the individual-architecture relationship from a new angle.
The transfiguration of space
The space itself is fragmented, manipulated, distorted and reconstituted by Bonvicini. The Neue Nationalgalerie is indeed an architectural project which, with its open plan and large glass walls, aims to dismantle the dividing elements between art and the public. But, according to the artist, the result has actually sharpened the public’s perception of inaccessibility to culture.
«The overall result is quite evocative, a consumerism of art similar to what a shop window represents in the capitalist model», she explains. By installing the longest reflecting surface ever produced – 36 meters – Bonvicini has undermined Mies’ architecture and forced visitors to openly confront the surrounding space
Alongside site-specific works designed specifically for the premises of Neue Nationalgalerie, sculptural works from to Bonvicini’s oeuvre are displayed. This is a typical modus operandi of the Berlin-based artist. A way to recontextualize previous works and provide them with new meanings stemming from the topological and environmental characteristics of the locations in which they are exhibited.
«A new work which is close to my heart, conceived especially for the Neue Nationalgalerie, is a sound piece entitled Retrospective. Around the perimeter of the museum, you can hear a voice listing the titles of the works in my archive, little less than 2000. The sound piece lasts an hour and forty-five minutes. It is an invisible retrospective, but at the same time extremely strong and poetic. Furthermore, I did want to put my retrospective outside the museum».
The feminist reappropriation of institutions
I do You represents in Bonvicini’s career an acknowledgment not only of her ability to constructively criticize obsolete forms of power and socio-cultural norms, but also of the relevance of her languages within the international contemporary art scene, still strongly dominated by the male presence.
«In recent years a lot has changed from an institutional point of view, for example today in Europe there are many more female collectors and museum directors compared to thirty years ago. This is a positive change, and I am happy if some of my works have contributed to growing a consciousness of self-determination. But there is still so much to do! I’m just saying, I am the seventh female artist invited with a solo exhibition at the Neue Nationalgalerie from 1968 onwards».
Monica Bonvicini
Born in Venice in 1965, Monica Bonvicini lives and works in Berlin. She emerged as a visual artist and started exhibiting internationally in the mid-1990s.
