MoCA Museum of Contemporary Art

Cosima von Bonin

16 Sep 2007 - 07 Jan 2008

Installation view of COSIMA VON BONIN: ROGER AND OUT at MOCA Grand Avenue, 2007, photo by Brian Forrest
Installation view of COSIMA VON BONIN: ROGER AND OUT at MOCA Grand Avenue, 2007, photo by Brian Forrest
COSIMA VON BONIN
ROGER AND OUT
09.16.07 - 01.07.08

One of the most influential and compelling artists working in Germany today, Cologne-based artist Cosima von Bonin (b. 1962, Mombasa, Kenya) has, over the last 15 years, worked in a wide range of media—including sculpture, photography, textile “paintings,” installation, performance, film, video, and music—often combined together in large-scale installations. Drawing freely from a broad range of sources—such as the work of other artists, popular and vernacular culture, television, fashion, and Hip-Hop and Techno music—her art explores these different forms of cultural expression in an open, fluid approach that embraces both relationships and contradictions. Von Bonin constructs a community of social relations in her artwork using role-playing, collaboration, appropriation, and the transformation of the commonplace. Her works touch upon ideas of play and indoctrination, structure and improvisation, cultural and gender representations, identity, and self-reflection—with both absurdity and humor. Organized by The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, and curated by MOCA Senior Curator Ann Goldstein, this is the artist’s first solo museum exhibition in the United States. It will present a survey of work created since 1990, including new pieces produced on the occasion of the exhibition.
 

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