Garnets ooze from the seams of Monika Brugger’s garments, seeping out like blood from the cracks of hands dried from clothes washing. Her shirts are soft, tender and solemn. They make you want to crawl inside of them, to place your chest in the gaping hole of her burned Brandmal ‘Schmück’ dress and to place your arm behind the seam of her Stichwunde, Geschenk der Näherin in order to stop the bleeding. They speak softly of violence and kindness, of scars and mending, of identification and ownership of one’s body, and of quiet endurance, both national and personal. Heimat ou les Ritournelles is a return to home, with all of the tenderness, cloying sweetness and hardship that may result.
CURRENT OBSESSION
What are the intentions of the exhibition in terms of the span of the work you will be showing, as well as presentation?
MONIKA BRUGGER (MB)
I will be exhibiting works that show the extent of my artistic investigations into the questions of both clothing and jewellery.
The presentation will be a kind of echo to the place, to the move to make! And surely, I will take a humorous approach to the way that jewels will be – or are too often – presented! And you will come to the boutique de la Maison Monika Brugger!
CO
Could you tell me about the title and why you chose it?
MB
Heimat is the word that upsets, the word that does not translate, the most complicated German word, but it shows the way I feel when I’m thinking of jewels. Les ritournelles are explained well by Laurence Verdier:
Monika Brugger makes honey from these images by transforming them into jewellery and installations. To wander among the works of Monika is to seize these images – the cherries on the ears of a child, a bead of blood, flies in a summer garden – images which resonate in us so strongly they could be our own. A mischievous novelist who tickles the French language, playing with words, their meanings, their permeability with reality and the images they call to mind.’
CO
Why do you think it’s important to show your work during MJW?
MB
It is not so often that I can show my works in Germany (don’t forget, I speak French when I make my works, but I still have a German background). The occasion of MJW is also the moment where my colleagues are present, so it is the moment to show my works to the jewellery community.
This article was published in the online edition of Munich Jewellery Week 2020
HEIMAT OU LES RITOURNELLES DE MONIKA BRUGGER
Institut Français
Kaulbachstraße 13, Munich, Germany
Welcoming drinks 12.03 17:00-21:00
Tue 14:00-19:00
Wed 11:00-19:00
Thu 11:00-21:00
Fri-Sat 11:00-19:00, Sun 14:00-18:00
13.03, 13:00 artist presentation
14.03, 11:00 Special talk with Julia Wild
