When examining the visual representation of the city of Split and the modern promotional and propaganda materials associated with it, it becomes apparent that everything is oriented towards presenting the city as a male-centric environment. For example, the rivalry between the Roman Emperor Diocletian and the Salona martyr Domnius is prominently featured throughout the city, the carved signatures of Zotikos and Philotas are attributed to the emperor’s presumed stonemasons, and the contributions of various other notable men from different historical periods and urban layers are highlighted. Moreover, modern monuments are being erected and unveiled for some of these figures, sparking ongoing debates about how to best integrate them into the city’s established cultural milieu.

The woman is omitted. She is completely absent from the public spaces of Split’s historical core. Her presence in the local cultural history is barely discernible from the cityscapes. I am thus reminded of Sherry B. Ortner’s essay Is Female to Male as Nature Is to Culture?, written over half a century ago. In this essay, with its highly stimulating question in the title, Ortner argues for the urgent need to change social institutions in order to truly transform the entrenched stereotypes about gender roles and positions, and ultimately, their perception. In fact, everything has remained exactly as if the waves of feminist demands from the past century for the recognition, valuation, and inclusion of the female entity in various spheres of history, culture, and life had never occurred, including in the contemporary understanding and interpretation of the city. The overtly masculine discursive framework is highly problematic in Croatia and elsewhere, as society is regressing towards oppressive frameworks of patriarchal domination (and the revival of male spiritual authority – whatever this empty syntagm may mean!) and a restrictive concept of heteronormativity.

The Berlin-based Italian artist Monica Bonvicini presents a floor installation of entirely divergent nature in the monumental yet small-scale “Kula” (Eng. tower) Gallery, which is the original basement of the north-western defensive tower of the late antique imperial palace (interestingly, the symbol of the tower holds importance in both female literary discourse and children’s literature). The artist juxtaposes the impressively tactile stone ashlars and the entire construction of the gallery space, which appears to be built for eternity (and its age is indeed not insignificant), with a carpet that covers up the entire floor, and offers a visual and somehow familiar disarray.  The piece features a mosaic of different photographic perspectives of floors with parquet or tiles, covered with rugs of various patterns on top of which a discarded garment takes centre stage; trousers that are crumpled or turned inside-out, recently removed in a hurry. The old-fashioned role of a woman would likely involve tidying up the living space and picking up scattered clothes, but not in this case, where a disordered domestic sphere clashes with the robust “male” stone architecture. In Breach of Decor the artist portrays aspects of her personal life, turning them into a work that subverts stereotypes about design, domestic and public sphere. Over the course of several years, Bonvicini photographed her own trousers after removing and discarding them on the floor. Thus, visitors walk across Monica Bonvicini’s floor work, engaging with it in various ways and interpretations. It is worth noting that she titled the work after reading an account of Philip Johnson’s life, in which Andy Warhol recounts his surprise at finding a pair of panties on one of the chairs during a visit to Johnson’s apartment. Warhol commented on what a breach of decorum that was!

Direct feminist discourse and questioning of gender roles – especially in relation to architecture and the power structures it reveals – have consistently been central to Monica Bonvicini’s artistic research and reaction. With each new intervention and exhibition, she addresses these themes in relation to the specific characteristics and context of the space (and wider environment!) she engages with. She now literally occupies the gallery space, advocating for the necessary articulation of female and queer presence in the public sphere of the city that conceals it. By repeatedly depicting the disorder typical of a teenager’s home, often unseen and far from desirable, Bonvicini softens the representative and static decor of the historical space and ironizes the entrenched narrative of the dominant and pompous man. (text Dalibor Prančević)

Monica Bonvicini
Among the most important artists of her generation, Monica Bonvicini’s (*1965, Venice) practice investigates the relationship between architecture, power structures, gender and space. Her research is translated into works that question the meaning of making art, the ambiguity of language, and the limits and possibilities connected to the ideal of freedom. Dry-humored, direct, and imbued with historical, political and social references, Bonvicini’s art never refrains from establishing a critical connection with the sites where it is exhibited, its materials, and the roles of spectator and creator.

Since her first solo exhibition at the California Institute of the Arts in 1991, her approach has formally evolved without betraying its analytical force and inclination to challenge the viewer’s perspective while taking hefty sideswipes at patriarchal, socio-cultural conventions.

Her works have been featured in many prominent biennials, including Busan (2020), Venice (2015, 2011, 2005, 2001), Berlin (2014, 2004, 1998), Istanbul (2017, 2003), New Orleans (2008), Gwangju (2006), Shanghai (2002), Santa Fe (1999). They have also been presented in major museums around the globe, such as MAXXI, Rome (2024, 2018),  Kunsthaus Zürich (2023), Deichtorhallen, Hamburg (2023, 2019, 2017, 2012, 2010), Nationalgalerie, Berlin (2022), Kunst Museum Winterthur (2022), Art Sonje Center, Seoul (2022), Neue Castello di Rivoli, Turin (2021, 2005), Belvedere 21, Vienna (2019), National Gallery of Denmark, Copenhagen (2019), BALTIC Center for Contemporary Art, Gateshead, Newcastle (2016), Kunsthalle Fridericianum, Kassel (2011), Art Institute of Chicago (2009), MoMa PS1, New York (2009), Kunstmuseum Basel (2009), Sculpture Center, New York (2007), Secession, Vienna (2003), Palais de Tokyo, Paris (2002).

Bonvicini has earned several awards, including the Oskar Kokoschka Prize, Austria (2020), the Rolandpreis für Kunst for Art in Public Space from the Foundation Bremen, Germany (2013), the Preis der Nationalgalerie für junge Kunst, from the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin (2005) and the Golden Lion at the Biennale di Venezia (1999). Her artworks are permanently installed in Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, London; on the waterfront at Bjørvika, before the Den Norske Opera & Ballett House, Oslo; and at the Weserburg Museum of Modern Art, Bremen.

Monica Bonvicini studied art at Universität der Künste in Berlin and at the California Institute of the Arts, Los Angeles. As a professor at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna, Bonvicini led the Performative Arts and Sculpture courses from 2003 until 2017. In October 2017, she assumed the professorship for Sculpture at the Universität der Künste, Berlin. Monica Bonvicini lives and works in Berlin.