Monica Bonvicini already dealt with the architecture of the Neue Nationalgalerie in Berlin more than twenty years ago - but from a social perspective. Today, she exposes and unmasks the building's entrenched gender relations. The special attraction: Bonvicini's works are intended to change the perception of space. The works can be seen starting November 25 in the exhibition I do You.
With I do You, starting on November 25, the Neue Nationalgalerie honors Monica Bonvicini as one of the most important and influential contemporary artists - not only for Berlin. The exhibition could certainly be described as unique: Visitors will be able to view site-specific architectural installations, as well as sculptural objects, performative and sonic works. The compilation works its way into the architecture of the museum, engaging all the senses and evoking a new perception of space while visiting the exhibition. The announcement of direct physical interaction thus draws interested visitors to the upper hall, where the solo exhibition runs through May 7, 2023.
Bonvivini forged a close bond with Berlin more than twenty years ago. Back then, she approached the immense structural transformation of the cityscape with her sculpture 2 Tonnen Alte Nationalgalerie (2 Tons Old National Gallery, 1998). In the current exhibition, she again refers to the building of the Neue Nationalgalerie in Berlin Mitte. She incorporates its architecture in an unusual way, ironically and playfully unmasking the gender relations that have been enshrined in the museum - unmasking and destabilizing the building's inherent semantics. The artist brings to light »the hidden mechanisms of Western modernism, its sexual charges, and the exaggerations and mythifications that accompany them,« thereby replacing Mies van der Rohe's architecture »with a radical feminist vandalism.«
She is a national heroine in Finland, but has only become known internationally in recent years: Helene Schjerfbeck fascinates with her original, simple style. For the first time, a major museum in the USA is presenting her work: Seeing Silence: The Paintings of Helene Schjerfbeck opens on December 5 at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
From November 13 to 30, the Fremantle Biennale took place in Australia near Perth, focusing on site-specific contemporary art. Among the exhibiting artists was Raki Nikahetiya with a sensory installation about the intertwining of identity, displacement, and home.
