On Thursday 8 February, 2024 Quartz Studio is pleased to present a special project conceived as a dialogue between Isabell Heimerdinger (Stuttgart, Germany, 1963) and Jonathan Monk (Leicester, UK, 1969).

Heimerdinger and Monk, partners in life and art, reflect on Italy, starting from their experience in Rome several years ago to create an exhibition where their memories mingle with visions of grand tour travelers. A multitude of inspirations and techniques pile into the space: the Le Silence neon, Heimerdinger's mosaic diptych, Monk's collection of magnets, a boot-shaped wooden board, après Luciano Fabro (which becomes a base for Heimerdinger's ceramic works). 

 Themes of sacredness and irreverence, play and death are sparked by the powerful intersection of Heimerdinger and Monk's work in this two-person show at Quartz in Turin.

Isabell Heimerdinger (Stuttgart, Germany, 1963) lives and works in Berlin. The central theme of her work is the cinema and the condition of its production. In photographic, sculptural as well as cinematic works, she inquires the subtle differences between acted and authentic behavior, between role and identity. While the settings of her films are always real, the various characters keep their secrets well to themselves. In 2020, she received an award for her experimental short film SOON IT WILL BE DARK at the FIDMarseille International Film Festival. Since 2016, Heimerdinger has also been running a ceramics studio in which she explores the tightrope walk between functional ceramics and art.

Her works have been shown in solo shows at the Berlinische Galerie, Berlin (2016), MNK Museum für Neue Kunst, Karlsruhe (2008), Western Front, Vancouver (2007), Swiss Institute, New York (2003) und FRAC Fonds régional d’art contemporain Pays de la Loire, Nantes (2000). Screenings of her films have taken place at Videoart at Midnight (a project by Olaf Stüber and Ivo Wessel) #59, Isabell Heimerdinger, Kino Babylon (2014), Art Film / Art Basel, Stadtkino Basel CH (2012), Experimental Shorts, Short Experiments, Kino Arsenal, Berlin (2011), Centre Pompidou, Paris (2010), Rencontres Internationales Paris/Berlin, Louvre Auditorium & Haus der Kulturen der Welt (2021), Soon It Will Be Dark, Belvedere 21, Wien (2021). In addition, the artist has taken part in numerous group shows, including Daimler Collection, Berlin (2021), Kunsthalle Erfurt (2017), Kunstmuseum St. Gallen (2013), MNK Museum für Neue Kunst, Frankfurt (2012), Malmö Konsthall (2005), and at Bergen Kunsthall (2003). The artist is represented by Mehdi Chouakri gallery, Berlin.

Jonathan Monk (Leicester, UK, 1969) lives and works in Berlin. Monk often appropriates ideas, works, and strategies from Conceptualist and Minimalist artists of the ’60s and ’70s. With photographs, sculpture, film, installation, and performance, his works recontextualize and rework these quotations, often infusing them with Monk’s personal history and working-class family upbringing. These aspects add a humanizing and down-to-earth sensibility to the original works’ utopian ideals and notions of artistic genius. Monk’s reinterpretations of seminal works by John Baldessari, Ed Ruscha, and Sol LeWitt, among others, challenge authenticity, authorship, and value in art with quirky humor and wit. Monk’s work has been exhibited extensively throughout the world, including in solo shows at CAC Malagá, W139 in Amsterdam, Artpace in San Antonio, the Palais de Tokyo in Paris, Tramway in Glasgow, Centre for Contemporary Arts in Glasgow, Centre d’Art Contemporain in Neuchatel, Museum Kunst Palast in Dusseldorf, Institute of Contemporary Art in London, and Kunstverein Hannover. Group exhibitions are numerous and include the Taipei Biennial, Berlin Biennale, Venice Biennale, Whitney Biennial, Prague Biennale, and Panama Biennial. In 2012, Monk was honored with the Prix du Quartier des Bains in Geneva. His works have been exhibited in many museums and international collections, including Los Angeles County Museum of Art, LACMA, Los Angeles, CA; Moderna Museet, Stockholm, Sweden; MMK Museum für Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt am Main, Germany; Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY; Norton Collection, Santa Monica, CA; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY; Statens Museum für Kunst, Copenhagen, Denmark, and Tate Modern, London, England.