Cosima von Bonin
10 Oct 2010 - 09 Jan 2011
Cosima von Bonin / Witte de With 2010
Cosima von Bonin / Witte de With 2010
Cosima von Bonin / Witte de With 2010
Cosima von Bonin / Witte de With 2010
COSIMA VON BONIN’S FAR NIENTE FOR WITTE DE WITH’S SLOTH SECTION, LOOP # 01 OF THE LAZY SUSAN SERIES, A ROTATING EXHIBITION 2010 – 2011
At Witte de With, Center for Contemporary Art, the German artist Cosima von Bonin will present an exhibition featuring new works around the notion of sloth and fatigue.
Cosima von Bonin’s first major solo presentation in the Netherlands will occupy the entire Witte de With. With her typical laconic humor, von Bonin will create a constellation of new and existing works. From oversized stuffed animals to sewn paintings, from pastiches of minimalist sculptures to recreations of shop display systems, her work blends formalism and Pop, oscillating between seriousness and fun, weighed down with melancholy or fizzing with critical wit.
The exhibition’s title quotes the Italian expression dolce far niente that suggests the sweetness of doing nothing, a pleasant relaxation in carefree idleness. Here the expression takes on a certain irony, as this is in fact the first show in a sequence of major institutional exhibitions, which means that the artist herself will be doing quite the opposite of nothing. The sequence of exhibitions is subtitled: THE LAZY SUSAN SERIES, A ROTATING EXHIBITION. This refers to the tabletop appliance, the Lazy Susan or rotating disk that appears in many restaurants and is used to present an array of dishes. The idea of a rotating exhibition differs from a traditional traveling show in that despite certain similarities, with each rotation or loop visitors are served a slightly different dish.
Loop # 01: Witte de With, Rotterdam (9 Oct 2010 – 2 Jan 2011)
Loop # 02: Arnolfini, Bristol (Feb – Apr 2011)
Loop # 03: MAMCO, Geneva (Jun – Sep 2011)
Loop # 04: Museum Ludwig, Cologne (Sep – Nov 2011)
The exhibition at Witte de With is curated by Zoë Gray & Nicolaus Schafhausen.
Publication
The exhibition at Witte de With will be accompanied by a monographic publication, Cosima von Bonin, Source book 9 by Witte de With Publishers. It will feature an extended introduction by Zoë Gray; a text by Nicolaus Schafhausen; an installment of a science fiction story by Mark von Schlegell; an interview between Cosima von Bonin and Daffy Duck scripted by Dirk von Lowtzow; a text by Mami Kataoka about animals, idlers and tricksters; photographs from the exhibition; and the re-print of Cabinet magazine’s Sloth Section from their Spring 2008 issue, featuring texts by Daniel Rosenberg, Christopher Turner, Laura Nahmias & Nicholas Nauman, Marina van Zuylen, William Justice, and an interview with Pierre Saint-Amand by Sina Najafi.
Design by Kummer & Herrman, Utrecht. Language: English. Release date: November 2010.
At Witte de With, Center for Contemporary Art, the German artist Cosima von Bonin will present an exhibition featuring new works around the notion of sloth and fatigue.
Cosima von Bonin’s first major solo presentation in the Netherlands will occupy the entire Witte de With. With her typical laconic humor, von Bonin will create a constellation of new and existing works. From oversized stuffed animals to sewn paintings, from pastiches of minimalist sculptures to recreations of shop display systems, her work blends formalism and Pop, oscillating between seriousness and fun, weighed down with melancholy or fizzing with critical wit.
The exhibition’s title quotes the Italian expression dolce far niente that suggests the sweetness of doing nothing, a pleasant relaxation in carefree idleness. Here the expression takes on a certain irony, as this is in fact the first show in a sequence of major institutional exhibitions, which means that the artist herself will be doing quite the opposite of nothing. The sequence of exhibitions is subtitled: THE LAZY SUSAN SERIES, A ROTATING EXHIBITION. This refers to the tabletop appliance, the Lazy Susan or rotating disk that appears in many restaurants and is used to present an array of dishes. The idea of a rotating exhibition differs from a traditional traveling show in that despite certain similarities, with each rotation or loop visitors are served a slightly different dish.
Loop # 01: Witte de With, Rotterdam (9 Oct 2010 – 2 Jan 2011)
Loop # 02: Arnolfini, Bristol (Feb – Apr 2011)
Loop # 03: MAMCO, Geneva (Jun – Sep 2011)
Loop # 04: Museum Ludwig, Cologne (Sep – Nov 2011)
The exhibition at Witte de With is curated by Zoë Gray & Nicolaus Schafhausen.
Publication
The exhibition at Witte de With will be accompanied by a monographic publication, Cosima von Bonin, Source book 9 by Witte de With Publishers. It will feature an extended introduction by Zoë Gray; a text by Nicolaus Schafhausen; an installment of a science fiction story by Mark von Schlegell; an interview between Cosima von Bonin and Daffy Duck scripted by Dirk von Lowtzow; a text by Mami Kataoka about animals, idlers and tricksters; photographs from the exhibition; and the re-print of Cabinet magazine’s Sloth Section from their Spring 2008 issue, featuring texts by Daniel Rosenberg, Christopher Turner, Laura Nahmias & Nicholas Nauman, Marina van Zuylen, William Justice, and an interview with Pierre Saint-Amand by Sina Najafi.
Design by Kummer & Herrman, Utrecht. Language: English. Release date: November 2010.