| ISBN : | 978-3-03764-630-4 |
|---|---|
| Publication : | October 2024 |
Published to accompany the German artist’s comprehensive exhibition at Mudam Luxembourg – Musée d’Art Moderne Grand-Duc Jean (October 2024–March 2025), Cosima von Bonin’s new monograph Songs for Gay Dogs is a book spanning her work of the last decade, and a personal journey into her private world and references, designed by her long-time friend and collaborator Yvonne Quirmbach.
Introduced by Mudam Director Bettina Steinbrügge, it assembles a play by Australian writer and art critic Estelle Hoy that brings to life Cosima von Bonin’s recurring characters, an essay by the exhibition’s curator Clémentine Proby about the carnivalesque in her work, a contribution by Pop journalist and Cologne figure Clara Drechsler, and a “Privato” chapter comprising images, texts by the artist, Dirk von Lowtzow, Mary Messhausen, and proddy produzentin alongside documentation from the artist’s personal archive. The book includes 200 illustrations, previously unseen images, and pictures of Cosima von Bonin’s newly commissioned installation in Mudam’s Grand Hall.
Cosima von Bonin (b. 1962, Mombasa; lives in Cologne) began her career in the vibrant Cologne art scene of the early 1990s, building significant relationships with artists such as Martin Kippenberger. A prolific artist, she produces installations and sculptures often including oversized stuffed animals and other fantastical creatures, using comedy, cartoons, and pop culture to question social constructs. She explores the relationship of the individual to labor, the capitalist production system, and leisure society employing knitted and woven fabrics to create objects by which she mocks industrial means of production. By advocating a life of carefree, almost provocative idleness, Cosima von Bonin is proposing a form of resistance against the consumerist regime. Her most recent exhibitions were held at Mudam Luxembourg and Schirn Kunsthalle, Frankfurt (both 2024); Magasin III Jaffa, Tel Aviv (2019); CCS Bard, Annandale-on-Hudson (2018); and Sculpture Center, New York (2016). She participated in the 59th Biennale di Venezia (2022); Skulptur Projekte Münster (2017); Glasgow International (2016); and documenta, Kassel (2007 & 1982).
Published with Mudam Luxembourg – Musée d’Art Moderne Grand-Duc Jean.
