Lecture: Somewhere between Beuys and Broodthaers and what all this has to do with Cosima von Bonin.

Lecture by Bettina Steinbrügge

In her artistic practice, Cosima von Bonin (born 1962 in Mombasa, Kenya) combines textiles, sculptures, installations, and music to create colorful, complex works that are rich in references to pop culture and consumer worlds. With subversive humor, she appropriates symbols from advertising, music, comics and everyday culture in order to playfully question and shift their meaning. Her often anthropomorphic figures move between activity and passivity and open up spaces for reflection on existential questions as well as expectations of art and society.

In 2024, the Musée d’Art Moderne Grand-Duc Jean (MUDAM) in Luxembourg presented a comprehensive monographic exhibition of Cosima von Bonin’s works under the title Songs for Gay Dogs. Works from the last ten years were presented, which impressively illustrate her characteristic visual and formal language. In her lecture, MUDAM director Bettina Steinbrügge will offer an in-depth insight into Bonin’s diverse oeuvre and make references to the 7000 Palmen project.

Bettina Steinbrügge is director of Mudam Luxembourg – Musée d’Art Moderne Grand-Duc Jean. From 2014 to 2022, she was the director of Kunstverein in Hamburg. She has directed Halle für Kunst Lüneburg, was curator at La Kunsthalle Mulhouse, and senior curator and collection director at Belvedere Museum Wien, Vienna. She has taught at Leuphana University Lüneburg and HEAD in Geneva. From 2014 to 2022 she was Professor of Art Theory at the Hochschule für Bildende Künste (HfbK) in Hamburg. From 2007 to 2017 she was a member of the program team of the Forum Expanded at the Berlin International Film Festival. Steinbrügge has contributed to and edited numerous publications, most recently A Model (Roma & Mudam, 2025), the first volume of a series she edits, what looks good today may not look good tomorrow: The Legacy of Michel Majerus (Mudam & Sternberg Press, 2023); Korakrit Arunanondchai: Songs for Living Songs for Dying (Mousse Publishing, 2023) and Proof of Stake: Technological Claims (Lenz Press, 2022). Bettina Steinbrügge is a member of the board of directors of Villa Romana e.V. in Florence, the advisory board of the museum of progress in Vienna, and the Saarland Cultural Heritage Foundation in Saarbrücken, as well as the acquisition committee of the Fundación Bancaria “la Caixa” in Barcelona.

The lecture will be held in German. Admission is free. Registration is not required.