Structural Psychodrama #2, 2017
Monica Bonvicini
Installationview: Mitchell-Innes & Nash in New York, 2017 Photo: Adam Reich
Collection
Aluminum frame, drywall, paint, Murano glass
23 x 13 x 10 (each glass object)
Overall dimensions variable
Structural Psychodrama #2 represents the second in a series of three works by the Italian artist Monica Bonvicini. Made in 2017 and first exhibited that year as part of her solo at Mitchell-Innes & Nash, entitled RE pleasure RUN, the work develops the artist’s primary concerns, summarised as “the relationship between architecture, power, gender, space, surveillance and control” through a temporary reconstruction of the gallery space.[1] The work is made up of a number of constructed walls, each of which hovers a small distance from the gallery floor, supported by phallic Murano glass sculptures which rest beneath. The work points to the power dynamics which govern the art world, and the world at large, combining a history of institutional critique with material conceptualism and a form of dry humor that is typical of the artist’s approach, in a way that hints at their immanent destruction. The theme of destruction, which is also integral to Bonvicini’s work, is developed both materially and conceptually in this sense. Her selection of Murano glass for the small-scale sculptures which support the walls of the work contains both a suggestion of insecurity, derived from the material’s breakable properties, and also an ironic tension which underlies the relation between the material’s history and Bonvicini’s chosen formation of it. Indeed, Structural Psychodrama #2 is a good example of how Bonvicini reinforces her ideas through her material choices. Her ongoing investigation of the social implications of architectural space here carries a visceral suggestion of potential collapse, the kind that might eventually redress the structures of power that she critiques. It is in this way that “the artist uses the walls of institutions and galleries to undermine the structural functionality of such places, while also prescribing them with an open possibility for an imaginary performance.”[2] –Elsa Gray
[1] http://monicabonvicini.net/info/bio/
[2] Exhibition press release available at https://www.miandn.com/attachment/en/
57f5103384184e06458b4568/TextOneColumnWithFile/
589cad55ced750ab65dee3f0
23 x 13 x 10 (each glass object)
Overall dimensions variable
Structural Psychodrama #2 represents the second in a series of three works by the Italian artist Monica Bonvicini. Made in 2017 and first exhibited that year as part of her solo at Mitchell-Innes & Nash, entitled RE pleasure RUN, the work develops the artist’s primary concerns, summarised as “the relationship between architecture, power, gender, space, surveillance and control” through a temporary reconstruction of the gallery space.[1] The work is made up of a number of constructed walls, each of which hovers a small distance from the gallery floor, supported by phallic Murano glass sculptures which rest beneath. The work points to the power dynamics which govern the art world, and the world at large, combining a history of institutional critique with material conceptualism and a form of dry humor that is typical of the artist’s approach, in a way that hints at their immanent destruction. The theme of destruction, which is also integral to Bonvicini’s work, is developed both materially and conceptually in this sense. Her selection of Murano glass for the small-scale sculptures which support the walls of the work contains both a suggestion of insecurity, derived from the material’s breakable properties, and also an ironic tension which underlies the relation between the material’s history and Bonvicini’s chosen formation of it. Indeed, Structural Psychodrama #2 is a good example of how Bonvicini reinforces her ideas through her material choices. Her ongoing investigation of the social implications of architectural space here carries a visceral suggestion of potential collapse, the kind that might eventually redress the structures of power that she critiques. It is in this way that “the artist uses the walls of institutions and galleries to undermine the structural functionality of such places, while also prescribing them with an open possibility for an imaginary performance.”[2] –Elsa Gray
[1] http://monicabonvicini.net/info/bio/
[2] Exhibition press release available at https://www.miandn.com/attachment/en/
57f5103384184e06458b4568/TextOneColumnWithFile/
589cad55ced750ab65dee3f0
Monica Bonvicini is an Italian artist. She lives and works in Berlin since 1986. In 2003, Bonvicini was appointed as the Professor of Sculpture and Performance at the Akademie der Bildenden Künste in Vienna. Starting in 2017, she is the new Professor of Sculpture at the Universität der Künste Berlin. In her work Bonvicini investigates the relationship between power structures, gender and space. Bonvicini works intermediately with installation, sculpture, video, photography and drawing mediums. She has installed permanent artworks at the Queen Elizabeth II Olympic Park in London, the harbour at the Oslo Opera House and the Istanbul Museum of Modern Art. Bonvicini was appointed Commander of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic in 2012.
This biography is from Wikipedia under an Attribution-ShareAlike Creative Commons License.
This biography is from Wikipedia under an Attribution-ShareAlike Creative Commons License.