We are happy to announce that Monica Bonvicini has been awarded of the Nationalgalerie Prize for Young Art 2005 for the installation Never Again.
The jury, composed by Dan Cameron, Erika Hoffmann-Koenige and Angela Schneider, explains the choice underlining “the forceful use of unusual materials in a work that satisfies all the formal criteria of constructed sculpture… Bringing the previously isolated imagery of the S&M subculture into a highly public framework, Bonvicini invites us to ponder the unfinished business of the 1960s counterculture”.
Monica Bonvicini, born in Venice in 1965, since 1986 lives between Berlin, Los Angeles and Vienna.
Dealing with the construction of sexual identity through the system of architecture has been a topic of her work, which is always connected within the relationship between space, gender and power. One of the most interesting aspects in Bonvicini’s work is her formal exploration of sculpture and its environmental display.
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 humor, her work addresses the issues of “building”, both architectural and social.
Her work has been shown and collected by prestigious institutions including Castello di Rivoli (TO); XLVIII Biennale di Venezia, Venezia (1999); Kunsthaus Glarus, Glarus; Salzburger Kunstverein, Salisburgo (2000); Magasin, Grenoble (2001); Palais de Tokyo, Parigi; Shanghai Biennial, Shanghai Art Museum; Kunstmuseum Aahrus (2002); New Museum, New York; Museum of Modern Art, Oxford; Tramway Glasgow; Secession, Vienna (with Sam Durant); 8th Istanbul Biennial (2003); Migros Museum, Zürich; (2004); CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts, San Francisco; Museum Abteiberg, Mönchengladbach; Istanbul Modern (2005).