Monica Bonvicini, Retrospective

ITALIAN version

GERMAN version

MONICA BONVICINI

Retrospective

2022

Sound installation

1:46:20, loop

Courtesy the artist & Galleria Raffaella Cortese, Milan

The eclectic but rigorous practice of Monica Bonvicini (Venice, 1965) explores the relationship between architecture, power, gender and sexuality, space and time. This results in works that question the meaning of art-making, the ambiguity of language, and the limits and possibilities associated with the ideal of freedom. Bonvicini’s art is sarcastic, upfront and full of historical and socio-political references; it never refrains from establishing a critical connection with the places where it is exhibited, the materials that constitute it and the roles of spectator and creator.

In Retrospective, a voice recites around 2000 titles of the works made by the artist from the beginning of her practice in the 1990s until today, questioning the possible forms of presentation that a retrospective exhibition can take. In her multimedia practice, Bonvicini critically confronts conventions and social standards related to power structures, architecture, space and gender. Language in its various forms is an essential conceptual tool and manifests itself at the same time as a pragmatic and poetic message in Bonvicini’s work titles. Thus, the sequence of titles timed in Retrospective takes the form of a poem, a konkrete poesie, a surrealist composition that, with the recurrence of specific terms and the consistency of the themes tackled, opens up to new potential meanings.