Galleria Emi Fontana and West of Rome are proud to announce that Monica Bonvicini has been assigned the public commission for HUN LIGGER (SHE LIES), a site-specific sculpture floating in the water in front of the New Opera House in Oslo.
http://www.galleriaemifontana.com
The members of the Art Committee explained the choice of Monica Bonvicini’s proposal on the grounds of its being “…an autonomous artwork which is both disturbing and beautiful- and it clearly bears the artist’s signature. […] The complexity of the sculpture and the active visual statement it makes means it is an interesting formal object in itself, in relation to the Opera House, and in relation to the landscape /seascape of Bjorvika..”
Monica Bonvicini’s winning proposal is a three-dimensional re-visitation of Caspar David Friedrich’s Das Eismeer (The Ice Sea) made of a supporting, steel structure partly covered with translucent diagonal stripes, measuring approximately 17 x 16 x 12 metres and floating in a fiord facing the New Opera House. Following Bonvicini’s project Minimal Romantik presented at the 51st Venice Biennale in 2005 HUN LIGGER (SHE LIES) is “a monument about construction”. Whereas Minimal Romantik is the result of a three-day-performance in which workers followed the artist’s instructions and modified the upper part of a cube structure in order to form a minimal version of Friedrich’s Iceberg – HUN LIGGER (SHE LIES) “remains suspended in a permanent constructing/building state. The parts of the sculpture that are not covered by reflecting material will reveal the construction and the structure of the artwork, allowing the viewer to see through it”.
Monica Bonvicini was born 1965 in Venice. She lives and works in Berlin and teaches sculpture and performative art at the Akademie der bildenden Künste in Vienna.
Monica Bonvicini is one of the most influential artists of her generation. The art of Monica Bonvicini investigates the relationships between space, gender and power. Utilizing different media, including drawing, collage, video and sculpture, her individual artworks are also steps in the process towards creating large-scale installations. The most interesting formal aspect of Bonvicini’s work is her expressive formal exploration of environmental sculpture. Her critique of minimalism focuses on the incorporation of its forms in the bourgeois aesthetic of everyday structures.
Through a reflection on gender issues, often reinforced by biting humour, her work addresses the problem of “building”, both architectural and social.
Her work has been shown at prestigious institutions including the GAM, Turin (1999); Venice Biennial, Venice (1999, 2005); Kunsthaus Glarus, Glarus; Salzburger Kunstverein, Salzburg (2000); Magasin, Grenoble (2001); Palais de Tokyo, Paris; Shanghai Biennial, Shanghai Art Museum; Kunstmuseum Aahrus (2002); New Museum, New York ; Museum of Modern Art, Oxford,; Tramway Glasgow; Secession, Wien (with Sam Durant), (2003); Migros Museum, Zürich; Sprengel Museum, Hannover (2004); Museum Abteiberg, Monchengladbach ; Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin (2005); Kunstraum, Innsbruck; Galerie für Zeitgenössiche Kunst, Leipzig; Kunstmuseum, St Gallen; Museum Ludwig, Cologne; San Paolo Biennale, Brazil (2006); Bonniers Konsthall, Stockholm; Sculpture Center, Long Island City, NY (2007)
She is winner of several prizes including the Golden Lion for the best Pavillon, Biennale di Venezia (1999) and the Preis der Nationalgalerie für Junge Kunst (2005).
Monica Bonvicini is represented by Galeria Emi Fontana, Milan and West of Rome, Los Angeles
