2 Positions at once is what Cosima von Bonin calls her exhibition at the Kölnischer Kunstverein – her first major solo show at a Cologne art institution. 2 Positions at Once is actually 300 positions or more: the exhibition brings together installations, paintings, objects, performances and films of equal value, and is about a multitude of stories and social relationships with other artists and musicians, about individual memories and the rejection of the idea of the isolated artist subject.
Together with friends, Cosima von Bonin used an object-like space she designed during the exhibition setup as a set for performances and photo shoots. The artist conceived this space as a wooden container and strange-looking receptacle for living environments, in which during a performance people wearing animal masks, their dogs, a cloth-covered catamaran and a group of young people were involved with each other in improvised but also in previously determined scenes. All actors wear fashion designed by Kazu Huggler from the upcoming spring/summer collection chidori. The music is by the group Phanom/Ghost (Dirk von Lowtzow and Thies Mynther).
The performative staging has given the place a narrative charge, although the traces of the actors seem to be wiped away after the performance. The result is a film that is shown in the exhibition and reunites the processes of the performance.
The pictures and works in the other exhibition space also function like allusions, providing a comprehensive insight into Cosima von Bonn’s working methods of recent years. It seems as if they too are part of a plot and tell of various individual and collective stories. At the same time, however, the individual objects also claim their autonomy through their strong pictorial qualities detached from the context of the installation. Model-like, poetic spaces emerge, full of references and complex systems of relationships made up of memories and associations, which Cosima von Bonin constructs at the Kölnischer Kunstverein and in which her own social framework also becomes the subject of the art.
In addition to the Zurich fashion designer Kazu Huggler and the music group Phantom/Ghost, other artist friends of Cosima von Bonin are involved in the exhibition, including Ulla von Brandenburg, Nina Braun, Julia Horstmann, Tellervo Kalleinen, Annette Kelm, Almut Middel, Thomas Ritter, Roman Schramm, Hanna Schwarz, Dejan Mujicic, Jörg Schlürscheid, Akiko Bernhöft, Manfred Hermes and Da Group.
A catalogue designed by Cosima von Bonin and Yvonne Quirmbach is published by Buchhandlung Walther König. In a loose sequence of scenes, he documents in numerous large-format illustrations the installation and performance that took place during the construction of the exhibition. The illustrations are accompanied by a text by Manfred Hermes. The catalogue, with approx. 140 pages, is published in German and English and contains approx. 200 colour illustrations.
During the exhibition, the Cologne fashion store “Heimat” shows films from Parisian fashion shows in the cinema in the “Brücke”. On show will be “the quintessence of fashion, beyond the usual catwalks. Ten designers, ten shows. In unabridged form and otherwise reserved for a professional audience…” (Andy Scherpereel and Andreas Hoyer).
