Monica Bonvicini

28/02/11

‘I hate to do any sort of best lists, but for tonight… Best cover: issue 22, but I also like #32 and #134. The one I love as the most ugly is #63. Best ten articles: this is quite a ridiculous task to ask for. My choices are a little random, since I didn’t want to choose the ones about, or by, friends of mine … of course I love all articles about my works, especially the first one back in issue #41. In the picture that appeared in the magazine I am wearing a leather coat that belonged to my mother and that got stolen in a Berlin’s club years ago. If I ever see a woman wearing it, I am not going to be nice to her. At all.’

  • 1

    Beyond Control by Stuart Morgan

    Issue 23, June–August 1995

    An interview with Susan Hiller. 'What a nice example of innocent arrogance.'

  • 2

    High Anxiety by Jerome Boyd-Maunsell

    Issue 66, April 2002

    Tripping through the history of narcotics. '"Tripping through the history of narcotics" is always fun.'

  • 3

    Molotov Cocktails by Michael Bracewell

    Issue 87, November–December 2004

    Tom Wolfe’s 1970 essay ‘Radical Chic’ explores the decadent relationship between wealth, glamour and extremist politics – and is as relevant today as it was 34 years ago. 'I actually not so much like the text but the title and the picture accompanying the article.'

  • 4

    Life Class by Chrissie Iles

    Issue 100, June–August 2006

    An interview with Yvonne Rainer, one of the most influential artists of the past 40 years. 'I love it: "… a score for screen door, flashlight and dancer.'"

  • 5

    Adrian Piper

    Issue 116, June–August 2008

    Ideal Syllabus. 'Just an example of how interesting this ongoing series can be. How insulated as well as cinemascope the answers can be.'

  • 6

    Allan Kaprow by Olivier Debroise

    Issue 117, September 2008

    The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, USA. 'A good short text on a good artist.'

  • 7

    Music by Anwyn Crawford

    Issue 133, September 2010

    The evolution of the male falsetto. 'I had such fun reading this article!'

  • 8

    As We Speak by Jörg Heiser

    Issue 134, October 2010

    Christopher Williams and Willem de Rooij discuss whether referentiality in art, if once polemical, has become an orthodoxy and if so, is there is a way out? 'In this interview there is one of the best quotations of 2010, which I am not going to write down now.'

  • 9

    A Kind of Faith by Dan Fox

    Issue 135, November–December 2010

    Simon Critchley talks about community, collaboration, avant-garde rituals and being ‘religious without religion'. 'When I was in elementary school I refused to use the word "faith" and used "to believe" instead. My teacher was not happy at all and I had to write on the blackboard "faith" many times. Some years later in high school the German teacher order me to stay in class after the lesson to write 50 times the word "klein" (small) on the blackboard, which I could not remember during a quiz: my "nicht groß" (not big) was not enough for her… Somehow I like to think about "faith" and "klein" together and I can identify with the article. Though I do not trust the idea of truth.'

  • 10

    Barthes After Barthes by Sylvère Lotringer

    Issue 136, January–February 2011

    Mourning, fiction and love: the final thoughts of a great writer. 'Since 1991 I have been sort of wondering about Barthes’ relation to his mother, which I of course find kind of odd. It would have been better if he hadn’t have had a mother. Maybe.'

About the contributor Monica Bonvicini

Monica Bonvicini is an artist who lives and works in Berlin. She studied at the Hochschule der Künste Berlin and at the California Institute of the Arts, Valencia. Since 2003 she teaches Performative Art and Sculpture at the Akademie der Künste in Vienna. In 2010 she realized She Lies, a major permanent sculpture in the waterfront of The Norwegian National Opera & Ballet in Oslo. As the winning artist of the Light Art Competition for the London Olympic Park, she is currently working on a large-scale lasting sculpture, due to be finished in 2011. She was subject of numerous solo and group exhibitions in museums and institutions such as Museum Fridericianum Kassel (2010); The Art Institute of Chicago (2009); Museion, Bolzano (2009); Lenbachhaus Munich and Museum für GegenwartsKunst, Basel (2009); Bonniers Konsthall, Stockholm (2007); 27th Sao Paulo Biennial (2006); Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin (2005); 51st Venice Biennale (2005); Berlin Biennale (2005); Secession, Vienna (2003); Aarhus Kunstmuseum (2002); Palais de Tokyo, Paris (2002); Le Magasin, Grenoble (2001) and 48th Venice Biennale (1999). Bonvicini was awarded the Nationalgalerie Prize for Young Art, Berlin, in 2005 and she has been invited to participate in the Venice Biennale in 2011.

Favourite cover

Frieze Issue 22 cover

Issue 22, May 1995 – by Ricard J. Burbridge