GUILT is a term with many associations that subjectively evokes thoughts of a prohibited or reprehensible act, and objectively of the violation of moral or legally prohibited limitations. It is pramount to conceptualise it in relation to society, since avowing oneself guilty challenges communal life and simultaneously calls for communication with others when it comes to remorse and forgiveness.
In the past decades, the term was detached from the ecclesiastical and theological context and moved towards the field of popular culture and psycho-coaching. "Guilt" is the title of several films, music albums and a US American television series.
Confession, remorse and forgiveness are increasingly outsourced to talk shows and social media, and commercial service providers offer ways to free oneself from the feeling of guilt. A culture of guilt is most certainly also related to power since the creation of an exaggerated sense of guilt leads to power over people and their behaviour. This is where Bonvicini's interest begins: In her cross-media works, the artist repeatedly deals with power structures and examines the complex relations between physical and social space and the historic, political and economic imprints that influence these spaces.
