Christina Vegh

Monica Bonvicini has created a multi-layered, internationally acclaimed oeuvre of installations, sculptures, and drawings, for which she was ­awarded the Golden Lion at the Venice Biennale in 1999 and, just recently in 2020, the Oskar-­Kokoschka-Prize in Vienna. This volume now ­presents two current series of drawings: one ­continues the series "Hurricanes and Other ­Catastrophes," begun in 2006 on the occasion of the devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina, and expands the scope, initially focused on the sudden devastation following the hurricane in New Orleans, to include views of homes that ­exhibit damage due to ongoing changes in ­climate. The second series--developed during the lockdown--leads into gray and rose-­coloured landscapes defined by fences, chains, and lines of text. The latter are contrasted with smooth backgrounds and appear amazingly real and present. The words that Monica Bonvicini sprayed on are originally by Roland Barthes, Judith Butler, Natalie Diaz, Soraya Chemaly, as well as by Andrea Dworkin, yet twisted, shortened, or otherwise changed, resulting in a completely new, poetic dimension: "Weep Me Crude," "Power Joy Humor & Widerstand."

The work originally conceived by the artist couple Hubbard / Birchler for the Swiss Pavilion at the 2017 Venice Biennale re-constructs the life story of the American artist Flora Mayo. Mayo had a romantic relationship in the 1920s with the Swiss sculptor Alberto Giacometti. While he is now one of the most famous artists of the twentieth century, her work was de-stroyed, and her life forgotten. Hubbard / Birchler reanimate Mayo’s compelling biography from a feminist perspective, combining reconstruction and documentation to create a multilayered form of narrative. The catalogue, produced for the current exhibition at the Sammlung Goetz, elucidates the research the artists engaged in and documents the installa-tion in an impressive manner