Monica Bonvicini
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Biography
Born 1965 in Venice, Italy
Lives and works in Berlin, Germany
Monica Bonvicini is one of the most influential artists of her generation, well-known for her sharp and provocative artworks spanning sculpture, installation, drawing, video, and public projects. Her artistic exploration centers on the intersections of architecture, gender dynamics, and power structures, with a unique focus on both the built environment and the concept of destruction as a transformative agent. In her distinctive style, enriched with a dry and trenchant wit, Bonvicini's art remains unapologetically forthright, consistently forging a critical connection with the environments in which it is displayed, the very materials that constitute it, and the dynamic roles assigned to both the viewer and the artist.
Over the last three decades, Bonvicini's innovative practice has made her a prominent figure in the global contemporary art world. Her practice has remained steadfast in delivering incisive critiques of entrenched patriarchal and socio-cultural conventions, reshaping contemporary art discourse and practice. She is also a well-regarded scholar, having held a professorship in Sculpture and Performative Arts at the Vienna Fine Arts Academy from 2003 to 2017. Since October 2017, Bonvicini assumed the professorship for Sculpture at the Universität der Künste in Berlin. She has also been a guest lecturer at major universities in Europe and abroad.
Monica Bonvicini has held solo exhibitions at major institutions including Pinacoteca Agnelli, Lingotto, Turin (since 2024); Neue Nationalgalerie, Berlin (2022–2023); Kunst Museum Winterthur (2022); Kunsthaus Graz (2022); Bauhaus Dessau (2022); Kunsthalle Bielefeld (2020); Belvedere 21, Vienna (2019); Berlinische Galerie (2017); Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead (2016); Deichtorhallen, Hamburg (2012); and Museum Abteiberg, Mönchengladbach (2012). Her works have been featured in numerous institutional group exhibitions, including at the Centre Pompidou, Paris (2025); Kunstmuseum Bonn (2023); Kunsthaus Zürich (2023); Art Sonje Center, Seoul (2022); Castello di Rivoli, Turin (2021, 2005); National Gallery, Copenhagen (2019); MAXXI, Rome (2024, 2018); Zachęta – National Gallery of Art, Warsaw (2017); MAMBO, Bogotá (2016); Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C. (2013); Fridericianum, Kassel (2011); MoMA PS1, New York (2009); and Lenbachhaus, Munich (2009). Bonvicini has also participated in major biennials including Busan (2020), Istanbul (2017, 2003), and Venice (2015, 2011, 2005, 2001, 1999).
Bonvicini has been honored with various awards: most recently, she received the Oskar Kokoschka Prize in 2020; in 2013, the Roland Prize for Art in Bremen; in 2005, the Nationalgalerie Prize for Young Art in Berlin; and in 1999, the Golden Lion at the Venice Biennale.
Since 2003, she has taught sculpture and performance art, first at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna and, since 2017, sculpture at the University of the Arts in Berlin.
Bonvicini's artworks are permanently installed in Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, London; on the waterfront at Bjørvika, before the Den Norske Opera & Ballett House, Oslo; and in the Weserburg Museum of Modern Art, Bremen. In 2012 Bonvicini was appointed Commander of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic.
Bonvicini’s work is included in the permanent collections of Museum of Modern Art, New York; Centre Pompidou, Paris; Museum Kunstpalast, Düsseldorf; Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; Istanbul Museum of Art; Museo d’Arte Moderna di Bologna; MAXXI, Rome; Castello di Rivoli, Turin; Jumex Museum, Mexico City; Migros Museum für Gegenwartskunst, Zürich; Museion, Bolzano; Neue Galerie, Graz; Neue Nationalgalerie Berlin; Sammlung Hoffmann, Berlin; Städtisches Museum Abteiberg, Mönchengladbach; Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus und Kunstbau, Munich; Kunst Museum Winterthur, among others.
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Since the mid-1990s Monica Bonvicini has been exploring political, social, and institutional situations and their impact on society, as well as on the conditions of artistic production. Her work is direct, merciless, political, and not without a dry sense of humor. In the process, she focuses on the relationship between architecture, gender roles, control mechanisms, and devices of power.
– Axel Köhne, Curator, Belvedere 21
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Ph: Simon Vogel
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Installation view, Monica Bonvicini, & Liberation, Galerie Gisela Capitain Petzel, Cologne, 2024
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Installation view, Monica Bonvicini, & Liberation, Galerie Gisela Capitain Petzel, Cologne, 2024
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Ph: Simon Vogel
Monica Bonvicini
Fleurs du Mal (un couple), 2024Bronze, glass60 x 60 x 60 cm
23.6 x 23.6 x 23.6 inchesB-MBONVICINI-.24-0004Further images
Monica Bonvicini's Fleurs du Mal (un couple) engages in a dialogue with Marcel Duchamp's iconic Bottle Rack (1914), creating a witty and provocative counter-vision. By casting her sculptures in bronze...Monica Bonvicini's Fleurs du Mal (un couple) engages in a dialogue with
Marcel Duchamp's iconic Bottle Rack (1914), creating a witty and provocative
counter-vision. By casting her sculptures in bronze and pairing them with
handmade glass objects, Bonvicini reinterprets Duchamp’s readymade and
its Freudian implications of male potency and masculinity. This approach
challenges traditional notions of desire, pleasure, and control.
In Bonvicini's oeuvre, the interplay of words is crucial to their conceptual
impact. The expression „on the rack“ conjures images of suffering and
anxiety, while the sculpture Fleurs du Mal (un couple) introduces a wry
connection. This wordplay highlights the afflicted status of the glass objects,
suspended from spikes like wilted flowers or mollusks, symbolizing the
decay of contemporary society. These objects symbolize not just physical
decay but also a deeper societal malaise, including the notion of fractured
masculinity.Exhibitions
Monica Bonvicini, & Liberation, Galerie Gisela Capitain Petzel, Cologne, 2024ExhibitionsExternal ExhibitionsNewsPressPublicationsVideoAnd Rose – Monica Bonvicini's solo show at San Carlo Cremona
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