MONICA BONVICINI / SAM DURANT

EXHIBITION PROGRAM 2003

Break it / Fix it
28. Nov. 2003 – 1. Feb. 2004
Main Hall



Monica Bonvicini / Sam Durant, Break it / Fix it, Secession, 2003


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.



Monica Bonvicini / Sam Durant, Break it / Fix it, Secession, 2003


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.



Monica Bonvicini / Sam Durant, Break it / Fix it, Secession, 2003


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 / Sam Durant, Break it / Fix it, Secession, 2003


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.



Monica Bonvicini / Sam Durant, Break it / Fix it, Secession, 2003


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.)



Monica Bonvicini / Sam Durant, Break it / Fix it, Secession, 2003


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.



Monica Bonvicini / Sam Durant, Break it / Fix it, Secession, 2003


PUBLICATION
A text anthology is published for the exhibition, which not only functions as a catalogue, but also assembles various essays and poems by authors that are important to the artists for their manner of working.

MONICA BONVICINI / SAM DURANT 126 pages, 36 colored illustrations, 11 b/w illustrations authors: Rebecca Gordon Nesbitt, Jennifer González, Hou Hanru, Jörg Heiser, Matthias Herrmann, Leslie Kanes Weisman, Chris Kraus, John Miller/Frank Lutz/John Sinclair, Roberto Ohrt, Patrizia Valduga, Kevin Young Secession 2003, ISBN 3-901926-64-X Distribution: Revolver ___________________ available in the shop

Monica Bonvicini / Sam Durant, Break it / Fix it, Secession, 2003


MONICA BONVICINI, born 1965 in Venedig, lives and works in Berlin
Solo Exhibitions (Selection): 2003 Anxiety Attack, Modern Art Oxford; Shotgun, Tramway, Glasgow; 2002 Monica Bonvicini, Palais de Tokyo, Paris; Add elegance to your poverty, Anton Kern Gallery, New York; 2001 Damaged, Galerie Krobath Wimmer, Vienna; Stonewall, Chouakri Brahms Berlin; Scream & Shake, Le Magasin, Grenoble; Eternmale, Galleria Emi Fontana, Milan / Group Exhibitions (Selection): 2003 Living Inside the Grid, New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York; Bewitched, bothered and bewildered, migros museum, Zurich / Laznia Centre for Contemporary Art, Gdansk; Somewhere Better Than This Place: Alternative Social Experience in the Spaces of Contemporary Art, The Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati; 8. Istanbul Biennale; 2002 Out of Place: Contemporary Art and the Architectural Uncanny, MCA, Chicago / Samuel P. Harn Museum, University of Florida; Public Affairs, Kunsthaus Zurich; 2001 Angst, Ursula Blicke Stiftung, Kraichtal / Grazer Kunstverein; Quobo, Waikato Museum of Art and History, Hamilton, NZ / Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin / Museum National Jakarta



Monica Bonvicini / Sam Durant, Break it / Fix it, Videostill, 2003


SAM DURANT, born 1961 in Seattle, lives and works in Los Angeles
Solo Exhibitions (Selection): 2003 Upside Down: Pastoral Scene, Union Projects, London; Sam Durant, Kunstverein für die Rheinlande und Westfalen, Dusseldorf; 2002 Sam Durant, Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; Color Pictures, Blum & Poe, Santa Monica; 2002 Sam Durant: Matrix 147: 7 Signs; removed, cropped, enlarged and illuminated (plus index), Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford, CT; 2001Southern Tree, Tree of Knowledge, Dead Tree (part one), Galleria Emi Fontana, Milan / Group Exhibitions (Selection): 2003 Baja to Vancouver: The West Coast and Contemporary Art, Seattle Museum of Art; Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego; Vancouver Art Gallery; CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts, San Francisco; Somewhere Better Than This Place: Alternative Social Experience in the Spaces of Contemporary Art, The Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati; Dreams and Conflicts, Biennale Venedig; 2002 A Country Lane, Kerstin Engholm Galerie, Vienna; Out of Place: Contemporary Art and the Architectural Uncanny, MCA, Chicago / Samuel P. Harn Museum, University of Florida; From the Observatory, Paula Cooper Gallery, New York



Monica Bonvicini / Sam Durant, Break it / Fix it, Secession, 2003



The exhibition has been supported by:

Pagitz Metallbau GesmbH
Fritsch Stiassny Glastechnik
Funder Industrie GesmbH
IFA, Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen



Monica Bonvicini / Sam Durant, Break it / Fix it, Secession, 2003

JOKE ROBAARD

EXHIBITION PROGRAM 2003

For further information and photographic material please contact:
 
Urte Schmitt-Ulms
Secession, Association of Visual Artists Vienna Secession
Friedrichstraße 12, 1010 Vienna
Tel: +43-1-5875307-21, Fax: +43-1-5875307-34
presse@secession.at