Massimiliano Gioni: Your work is always aggressive, kind of in your face. Is your work hostile?
Monica Bonvicini: I do not find my work to be particularly aggressive and I suspect this is an aspect of my work that has been overemphasized. Through the years, I have been offered spaces in galleries or institutions, or even works of other artists, to be destroyed… I haven’t accepted any of these offers yet. I am not interested in works as ‘ruins for entertainment.’ The act of destruction is often seen as a violent one, but it is sometimes necessary. Of course I do not destroy to feel better: I do not do art instead of yoga or therapy. Daniel Buren once said, “I use my work generally, I try to use it like a tool or like a gun” and I do not think his work has ever been received as particularly aggressive. I do like some works from the ’70s that were very much “in your face,” like some performances by Valie Export or Allan Sekula, installations by Matta-Clark, Michael Asher, works by Lee Lozano, Lawrence Wiener or Adrian Piper… I could go on.
