The Neue Nationalgalerie presents a solo exhibition by Monica Bonvicini in the upper hall, honoring her as one of the most important and influential artists of today. In the upper hall, the exhibition “I do You” shows new, site-specific architectural installations, sculptural objects, performative and sound works as well as a selection of well-known works from her internationally renowned oeuvre. The show offers a completely new perception of space, which can be experienced through the interplay of seeing, hearing and direct physical interaction with some of the works.
As early as 1998, Bonvicini addressed the massive urban restructuring process that was taking place in Berlin at that time with the sculpture “2 Tons of the Old National Gallery”. Many of the renovations not only served to repair and renew, but also to address the political history of the growing metropolis. More than twenty years later, the artist is now working on the iconic building of the Neue Nationalgalerie. Bonvicini explores the hidden mechanisms of Western “modernity”, its sexual charges and the associated exaggerations and myths. The gender relations and social orders that are firmly inscribed in architecture and the museum are exposed, unmasked and destabilized by the artist in an ironic and playful way. Bonvicini's sculptures should be understood here as invitations to enter new spaces of experience.
In her exhibition “I do You,” Monica Bonvicini transforms Mies van der Rohe’s modernist architecture through a radical feminist vandalism that is typical of her interventions. The interaction with performative interventions and sculptural works results in a multi-layered narrative that invites us to question outdated categories and examine some previously overlooked aspects of the museum. Bonvicini turns the building and thus the public space into a negotiation level for the private: How do we interact with one another in space? Which structures and power relations are inscribed in the floor, the walls or the transparent glass facade? As so often in her interventions, the space of the Neue Nationalgalerie is fundamentally redefined: worlds of images and sounds, reflections and refractions form an ensemble of different voices. The environment transforms in this multisensory dissonance, a disturbance that asserts itself and destabilizes at the same time.
With “I do You” architecture can be understood like a leading role in a play. The environment becomes a stage on which the architecture can be particularly open and revealing. In this sense, the Neue Nationalgalerie takes on a dual function: it is both an exhibition venue and a theme. By exposing the historically established structural narratives and questioning their legitimacy, Bonvicini opens up a discursive space that blurs the boundaries between inside and outside, private and public.
Curated by Joachim Jäger and Irina Hiebert Grun, Neue Nationalgalerie
The exhibition is made possible by the Friends of the National Gallery.
With the kind support of the Leinemann Foundation for Education and Art.
The exhibition is sponsored by Gaggenau Hausgeräte GmbH, which is continuing its commitment to the Neue Nationalgalerie.