Monica Bonvicini/Sam Durant, Break It / Fix It: Secession, Wien
The exhibition Break it / Fix it is the first collaboration between Monica Bonvicini and Sam Durant and reflects the interest in architecture and art that they have shared since they met in 1991. In her video works Monica Bonvicini investigates gender relations and the power parameters of architecture at the political, social and historical level. Sam Durant deals with popular culture, particularly emphasizing the historical reception of architecture in his works.
Both artists share an interest in demystifying modernism. Their works stimulate critical reflexion by using language and other means. The works 7 signs by Sam Durant and the installation I believe in the skin of things as in that of women by Monica Bonvicini, for example, form the basis for their collaborative work. What they have in common is especially evident in their paper works, taking up and reproducing images and quotations from various literary and cultural sources. The theme of destruction illustrating the vulnerability of existing structures characterizes the work of both artists.
Their work Break it / Fix it for the Secession is an architectonic intervention in space consisting of various building materials. Instead of an open space, visitors enter an installation of wood, metal and glass. Starting from the reflection that the Secession is historically the first white cube in the history of exhibitions, the artists counter the original exhibition space with a spatial construction consisting of the word CAGE. The installation is based on two aphorisms from Ludwig Wittgenstein: “Running full tilt against the limits of language? Language is not a cage.” “This running against the walls of our cage is perfectly, absolutely hopeless.”
Monica Bonvicini and Sam Durant take up the metaphorical positioning of language in relation to spatial constructions and to the experience of boundaries and the hermetical, translating this into an installation. With their installation they limit the visitor’s view and guide it through the architecture with a few permeable places at the same time.
Break It / Fix It is a closed corridor-system that visitors cannot step out of, although it allows repeatedly for looking out and looking through: sometimes upwards to the grid-like structure of the glass ceiling, sometimes towards the walls that are partially manipulated and perforated. In four places the corridors lead into rectangular glass cubes, which are also opened upward. These cubes consist of discarded panes of glass that were previously used for the glass ceiling of the main room. In the video Break it / Fix it that is situated within the installation, the artists address language as an object. “The tautological game is humorously revealed: a sculpture depicting the word ANGST is shattered and rebuilt into a new sculpture.” (M.D. and S.D.)
In the combination of the view of a sculpture from the inside (installation) and outside (in the video), Bonvicini and Durant address the relationship between sculpture and movement. At the same time, though, this arrangement also illustrates playing with the concept of work in visual art, which is actually coupled with manageability.
Images:
Courtesy of the artist
© Monica Bonvicini and VG-Bildkunst, Bonn 2022, Photo: Matthias Herrmann
