Monica Bonvicini

Born 1965, Venice, Italy.
Lives and works in Berlin.

In spring 2004, a public toilet with a difference appeared on the street outside Tate Britain in London. Monica Bonvicini’s Don’t Miss a Sec consisted of a fully functioning, stainless steel prison-style toilet contained within a cubicle of one-way glass: onlookers couldn’t see in, but to the intrepid user of the toilet, the glass walls were completely transparent. Bonvicini’s work is all about our use of public spaces and buildings, and what she sees as the often hidden politics (especially machoism and sexism) of architecture. She makes us feel the spaces she creates: whether we find ourselves enclosed in a completely black room, struggling to stand upright in an empty gallery turned into a wind tunnel, or braving that glass-walled toilet, Bonvicini makes sure that we are involved, not simply passive spectators.

Laureate of Preis der National Galerie für Junge Kunst 2005, Berlin

Selected solo exhibitions

2007 Monica Bonvicini, NY Sculpture Center, New York, USA
Monica Bonvicini, Bonniers Konsthall, Stockholm, Sweden

2006 Monica Bonvicini, Kunstraum Innsbruck, Austria
Monica Bonvicini, West of Rom/Galleria Emi Fontana, Los Angeles, USA

2005 NEVER AGAIN, Museum Abteigberg, Mönchengladbach, Germany

2004 Monica Bonvicini, Galleria Emi Fontana, Milano, Italy
Monica Bonvicini: Elmgreen und Dragset, Sprengel Museum, Hannover, Germany

2003 Anxiety Attack, Modern Art Oxford, Oxford, UK
Shotgun, Tramway, Glasgow, UK
Break it/Fix it, Wiener Secession with Sam Durant. Vienna, Austria

2002 Add Elegance to your Poverty, Anton Kern Gallery, New York, USA
Monica Bonvicini, Palais de Tokyo, Paris, France

2001 Scream & Shake, Le Magazine, Grenoble, Switzerland

2000 Run. TAKE one SQUARE or two, Salzburger Kunstverein. Austria


Selected group exhibitions

2006 How to live together, XXVII Bienal de São Paulo, Brazil
Taipeh Biennale, Taiwan

2005 51st Venice Biennale, The Experience of Art, Venice, Italy
Center of Gravity, Istanbul Modern, Istanbul, Turkey

2004 Performative Architektur, Galerie für Zeitgenossische Kunst, Leipzig, Germany
3 Berlin Biennale, Berlin, Germany
L’air du Temps, Migros Museum, Zurich, Switzerland
Art & Industry Biennial, Christchurch, New Zealand

2003 Poetic Justice, 8th Istanbul Biennial, Turkey
Living Inside the Grid, New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York, USA

2002 Public Affairs, Kunsthaus Zürich, Switzerland
Arte in Video, Castello di Rivoli, Turin, Italy
2001 Inside Space: experiment in redefining rooms, MIT List Visual Arts Center, Cambridge, USA
2000 HausSchau – Das Haus in der Kunst, Deichtorhallen, Hamburg, Germany

Further reading

Jäger, Joachim (ed.), Preis der Nationalgalerie für Junge Kunst, Berlin: Verein der Freunde der Nationalgalerie, 2005, pp. 37-56, ill. (exh. cat.)

Monica Bonvicini. Anxiety Attack, Oxford:Modern Art Oxford / Glasgow: Tramway, 2003 (exh. cat.)

Wiener Seccesion (ed.), Monica Bonvicini / Sam Durant: Break it/Fix it. Vienna: Wiener Secession/ Frankfurt: Revolver, 2003 (exh. cat.)

Monica Bonvicini. Scream & Shake, Grenoble: Le Magasin, 2001 (exh. cat.)

Bonvicini, Monica, What does your wife / girlfriend think of your rough and dry hands?, Los Angeles: SITE Sante Fe’ Museum of Contemporary Art, 1999