Monica Bonvicini
La Biennale di Venezia 51
2005
Galleria Emi Fontana
Viale Bligny 42 20136 Milano tel. 39 02 58322237 fax 39 02 58306855
We are glad to announce the second participation of Monica Bonvicini at the Venice Biennale 51th, after the edition of 1999 when she won the Golden Lion.
This year in the show “ L’Esperienza dell’ Arte” curated by Maria de Corral
Bonvicini will present two works: in the entrance hall of the Italian Pavilion, a black painted jack hammer will hang from the ceiling, spinning around.
The power tool goes on and out randomly, offering a strong and at the same time pretty pathetic image of a drill unable to “operate”, to “penetrate” anything but air: “Blind Shot.”
Outdoor, on the main avenue of Giardini, near the Spanish Pavilion, a crew of workers will perform on a construction site: a big “Minimalist cube” will be partially transformed, during the opening days, in the Romantic landscape taken from the famous Kasper David Friedrich painting “Das Eismeer”. The work “Minimal Romantik” deals with the heritage of Minimalist aesthetic, questioning at the same time the process of “creation”. Both works were specifically conceived for the show responding and relating literally to what the “Experience of Art” could be today.
Monica Bonvicini’s work has met with international recognition as an important and original contribution to the contemporary art discourse.
Born in Venice in 1965. Since 1986 she lives between Berlin, Los Angeles and Vienna, a condition that gives to her work signs of cultural “melting pot”.
Dealing with the construction of sexual identity through the system of architecture has been a topic of Bonvicini’s 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 (2005).
Short listed for the Price of the Nationalgalerie, Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin (September 2005)
