Monica Bonvicini's Fleurs du Mal (un couple) engages in a dialogue with
Marcel Duchamp's iconic Bottle Rack (1914), creating a witty and provocative
counter-vision. By casting her sculptures in bronze and pairing them with
handmade glass objects, Bonvicini reinterprets Duchamp’s readymade and
its Freudian implications of male potency and masculinity. This approach
challenges traditional notions of desire, pleasure, and control.

In Bonvicini's oeuvre, the interplay of words is crucial to their conceptual
impact. The expression „on the rack“ conjures images of suffering and
anxiety, while the sculpture Fleurs du Mal (un couple) introduces a wry
connection. This wordplay highlights the afflicted status of the glass objects,
suspended from spikes like wilted flowers or mollusks, symbolizing the
decay of contemporary society. These objects symbolize not just physical
decay but also a deeper societal malaise, including the notion of fractured
masculinity.