Women in Art, from the Biennale to Bolzano

The countdown is well under way: on 9 May the 56th Venice Biennale opens its doors, and on 18 June it’s time for Art Basel. Two events of international prestige that are also a perfect opportunity to visit Museion, conveniently located en route!

The artists invited by curator Okwui Enwezor to appear in the Biennale include the Italian Monica Bonvicini, who, we are pleased to recall, had her very first solo show in an Italian museum right here in Museion in 2009. Bonvicini’s work engages irreverently with contemporary legends and exposes the relationships between power structures, architectural scenarios and exhibition venues. The exhibition currently on in Museion, entitled “Collecting for the Future”, features her work Leather Tool (small straight ax), 2009. Acquired on occasion of her show in Bolzano, this piece is part of the series Leather Tools, the artist’s tribute to the tools of the trade. The axe references a concrete action, but once wrapped in soft leather and presented on a pedestal, it loses any semblance of its original function. Also in the same exhibition devoted to Museion’s collection are works by other Biennale habitués, from Philippe Parreno’s light work “Marquee” to Peter Friedl’s videos Tiger oder Löwe, 2000 and Bilbao Song, 2010, and Allora & Calzadilla’s pieces A Man Screaming Is Not a Dancing Bear, 2008, and There’s More than One Way to Skin a Sheep, 2007. The latter are on long term loan from the Enea Righi Collection.