Screening Room: Monica Bonvicini
The eleventh and final chapter of Screening Rooms is devoted to Berlin-based Italian artist Monica Bonvicini (Venice, 1965). Her multifaceted practice—which investigates the relationship between architecture, power, gender, space, surveillance and control—is translated into works that question the meaning of making art, the ambiguity of language, and the limits and possibilities attached to the ideal of freedom. Dry-humored, direct, and imbued with historical, political and social references, Bonvicini’s art never refrains from establishing a critical connection with the sites where it is exhibited, the materials that comprise it, and the roles of spectator and creator.
The video work Slamshut (2016) shows an open door that, after remaining motionless for a few minutes, is suddenly slammed shut, producing an ear-piercing noise. Total darkness takes the place of the light passing through the door slit; an entryway thus becomes a wall. The word Bonvicini chose for the title, ‘slamshut’, describes both the film’s action (a door being slammed shut) and an argument so witty and well-defined that no further discussion is needed.
“You can avoid people but you can’t avoid architecture.”
– Monica Bonvicini
Monica Bonvicini often incorporates elements of architecture and industrial materials such as chains, scaffolding, and iron pipes in her sculptures and installations. Works from the Diener series, which the artist presented in her 2017 solo exhibition at the gallery, Our House, transform scaffolding props into eccentric design objects by coating them with luxury materials.
In her drawing practice, Bonvicini explores themes closely related to her work at large. In 2008 she started a series of large black-and-white tempera and spray paint drawings that show the remains of typical North American family homes after the destruction caused by natural disasters; the work above, realized in 2016, shows damage from the April 27, 2011 tornado that devastated Alabama. The Hurricanes and Other Catastrophes series aims to raise awareness on the ever so urgent issues of Capitalocene and climate change.
Tempera marker on Fabriano paper
150 × 130 cm; 160 × 141 × 5,5 cm framed
Tempera marker on Fabriano paper
150 × 130 cm; 160 × 141 × 5,5 cm framed
The drawings from the series Places of ID (2002) explore and expose the strong and intrinsic connections between architecture and our body with evocative erotic features. Architecture and art history become a medium to read social dynamics of power, gender and justice.