Exhibitions

COSIMA VON BONIN’S CUT! CUT! CUT! FOR MUSEUM LUDWIG’S SLOTH SECTION, LOOP # 04 OF THE LAZY SUSAN SERIES, A ROTATING EXHIBITION 2010–2012

LOOPS OF THE LAZY SUSAN SERIES
LOOP # 01: WITTE DE WITH, ROTTERDAM (10 OCT 2010 - 9 JAN 2011)
LOOP # 02: ARNOLFINI, BRISTOL (19 FEB - 25 APR 2011)
LOOP # 03: MAMCO, GENEVA (1 JUN - 18 SEP 2011)
LOOP # 04: MUSEUM LUDWIG, COLOGNE (5 NOV 2011 - 13 MAY 2012)

Cosima von Bonin's (*1962) exhibition at the Museum Ludwig is the final chapter of an exhibition series connecting four European cities. Conceived as a work in progress - similar yet totally different in each location -, the cycle began in Rotterdam, continued to unfold in Bristol and then in Geneva. The cycle ends with a big bang where it all began: in Cologne, the artist's home base. Cologne thus forms the final "loop" in this circular exhibition concept, as indicated in its title. Lazy Susan is a colloquial term referring to a rotating platter centrally placed on a dining table - and particularly common in Chinese Restaurants - enabling easy access to different dishes. The choice of a household accessory that bears a female name is no coincidence. Just as significant is the idea of laziness, a recurring motif in Cosima von Bonin's work. The central new piece of the LAZY SUSAN SERIES, AMATEUR DRAMATICS (2010), was co-produced by the participating institutions and takes the form of the eponymous Lazy Susan: a large rotating disc that looks like a mix between carousel and presentation platform. The artist placed various previously created works from her repertoire on the disc, including the PURPLE SLOTH RABBIT (2010) - a large reclining rabbit figure with the word SLOTH embroidered underneath its feet. With irony and provocation, Cosima von Bonin thus makes laziness - simultaneously a vice and a dream in today's times in which every minute counts - the leitmotif of an exhibition cycle that has more to do with manic production and hyperactivity than with idleness and indolence.

For the Museum Ludwig's vast skylight gallery, Bonin created a spectacular installation that is simultaneously a clever exhibition design. Six oversized tables ranging in height from 2.7 to 5.4 meters fill the space and offer various presentation levels, with the table surfaces as well as the space beneath used for display. Here, the artist actively  incorporates the special features of this high-ceilinged hall with its suspended gallery into her work, offering the visitor a completely new and unaccustomed viewing perspective. Across five rooms and various media settings, the exhibition continues to unfold outside the south entrance of the museum, with the monumental TAGEDIEB (2010) a long-nosed - and hence obviously dishonest - Pinocchio sitting on a towering umpire's chair, acting as both sculpture and streetlight. Altogether, the exhibition unites over 70 works, among them numerous new productions and a few rarely exhibited pieces from private Cologne-based collections.

Cosima von Bonin does not focus exclusively on a specific technique or style. However, she often privileges soft materials and embroidered textiles, which not only summon associations with stereotypical female pastimes, but also express the apparent lassitude of her cast of characters. The artist picks up on a host of references and associations – from Kippenberger to Disney – and mixes them all together, reminiscent of a DJ’s sampling technique.

Collaboration, appropriation and delegation play central and vital roles for the artist. She turns herself into a producer or “Master of Ceremonies,” associating colleagues and friends from a wide variety of disciplines – music, theater, literature, film and art – to take part in her exhibition. They are involved in both the supporting events and the exhibition itself. Thus, for example, the visitor is invited to look at certain works while listening to musical beats by Moritz von Oswald, read a booklet with a fictitious interview by Dirk von Lowtzow and a science fiction story by Mark von Schlegell, and look at films by Frances Scholz (who like Bonin and Schlegell is based in Cologne) inspired by the Schlegell’s “Starlite” story. All of these works were specially commissioned by the artist for her exhibition. These different elements merge in the show, generating a remix that is delightfully absurd and thought provoking, with plenty of surprises in store for the viewer.

WIR SIND VIELE
FRANCES SCHOLZ
DIRK VON LOWTZOW
RENÉ POLLESCH
MORITZ VON OSWALD
MAX LODERBAUER
GEORGE ROMERO
JACQUES TATI
CLAUS RICHTER
PHANTOM GHOST
MARK VON SCHLEGELL
FRIEDRICH W. HEUBACH
PRODUZENTIN
VIOLA KLEIN
WOLFGANG VOIGT
&
ANDREAS DORAU

Kuratorin: Katia Baudin

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Dienstags und donnerstags um 16 Uhr finden regelmäßig öffentliche Führungen statt.

Catalogue

The publication on the LAZY SUSAN SERIES will be published in German/ English by the DuMont Verlag. The book features numerous illustrations and curatorial essays on the four-part exhibition series, as well as all episodes of the story STARLITE by Mark von Schlegell, a text by Friedrich Wolfram Heubach, and a multi-part interview between Daffy Duck and Cosima von Bonin written by Dirk von Lowtzow. This catalogue contains a CD “MORITZ VON OSWALD COSIMO’S SONGS / VOLUME 2”
Ed.: Katia Baudin (curator), Museum Ludwig Cologne.

With kind support of

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Additional current Exhibitions

• Modernist Masterpieces. The Haubrich Collection at Museum Ludwig
• Gerhard Richter. Elbe, November, and Other Works
• Saul Steinberg. The Americans
• Phil Collins. In every dream home a heartache
• Andrea Fraser. Wolfgang-Hahn-Prize 2013
• Kathryn Andrews. Special Meat Occasional Drink
• Jo Baer