Cosima von Bonin: 2 Positions at Once

essay by Manfred Hermes

This book documents three installations; Capitulation, Dog Training School and The Haven of Cowards, all featuring a catamaran made by Cosima Van Bonin and placed in specified scenarios with colleagues and friends.

Bonin enjoys permitting subtle connotations as well as colourful allusions. She combines fashion and science fiction, Bernhard Willhelm and Yves Saint Laurent, Paul Gernes and Phantom/Ghost, Hape Kerkeling and the animosity between the influential ‘Dynasty’ ladies Krystal Carrington and Alexis Colby.

Textiles play an important role, with the usurpation of the home sphere, the decorative and the crafted present in her soft, floppy or firmly upholstered works.

Her works show how art space can be transformed into a place of highly mobile elements and a wide range of possibilities, which are not concerned with positioning but with production; that is gaining a capacity to act and sovereignty.

English and German text.

Published on the occasion of the exhibition 2 Positions At Once at the Kölnischer Kunstverein, October – January 16, 2005.

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