Is this for you?

Something peculiar is going on at The Shops on Lake Avenue.

Customers grab shopping carts at Trader Joe’s, completely oblivious to what’s happening next door. Organized Living, a store that specialized in home and office storage products, has moved, but its sign still hangs above the doors, and the hours remain posted on the glass.

Mall patrons have no idea that inside the now-defunct store is a mixed-media installation by Monica Bonvicini, one of Europe’s hottest contemporary artists.

Though banners announcing the exhibit adorn lampposts along Colorado Boulevard and South Lake Avenue, there are no signs at the site. With a floor made of sheets of drywall pocked by haphazard holes as if the space were still under construction, passersby who stumble upon the installation are reluctant to step inside. And before crossing the threshold, they must figure out that the automatic doors need to be manually slid open.

Hanging from the ceiling about two-thirds of the way into the cavernous gallery space is a sign: Spelled out with bright, flashing light bulbs in marquee fashion is the title of the show, “Not for You.”

To its right is the most eye-catching feature of the exhibit: what appears to be a “chandelier” of sex swings that periodically shakes without warning.

Black and white ink drawings — many with provocative language or innuendoes — decorate the walls, while the eerie sounds of gunshots and women in distress echo from a video montage.

Nothing is labeled or explained.

Art experts disagree about whether conceptual art needs background research to be understood, or all art has something to offer regardless of theory. Will passersby who aren’t art-educated understand Bonvicini’s confrontational message and humor?

Kathryn Garcia, gallery worker, artist and art writer, said that some people have been offended or just plain confused by the installation. Some enter pushing shopping carts and asking what happened to Organized Living.

“The weirdest thing was when we had a woman come in wearing a cross, and she had a negative view of the exhibit,” said Garcia. “That’s the subversive quality of this space. It’s totally messing with you. Just look at the name, ‘Not for You.’”

Though Bonvicini hadn’t seen the space as a functioning store, when she arrived, there were still posters that advertised organized kitchens and garages. Pictures of women drilling or hanging a shelf immediately fit with her ideas about construction.

“I really love the idea that it’s not happening in a museum,” said Bonvicini. “I didn’t need to work with a curator or whatever, and I am in this funny, crazy mall sort of situation in Pasadena, which is very unusual. It’s a place that has never been used for art and will probably never be used for art again. It has been a challenge. The first time [friend and Milan gallery owner Emi Fontana] sent me some pictures of the place, I was completely shocked; I was like, ‘No, I don’t want to compete with Coffee Bean and Trader Joe’s and all those types of stores.’ The place was challenging that way.”

Invading your comfort zone

The combination of offbeat artwork and its unexpected placement in a public mall — near Macy’s, Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf and other conventional shops and stores — creates an overall sense of ambiguity, making “Not for You” (which opened July 26 and closes Oct. 1) a fascinating draw for art aficionados and museum curators from all over the nation.

This cultural exchange is the second installation of Fontana’s West of Rome series, which pairs renowned contemporary artists with venues that are not typically art-related.

Bonvicini, who currently lives and works in Berlin, is considered to be one of the most important European artists of her generation, having had solo exhibitions and works collected by galleries and museums everywhere from New York to Paris and Vienna.

She has received many prestigious European art prizes, including the Best Pavilion Prize Biennale di Venezia and the Preis Nationalgalerie, Berlin. She attended CalArts in Valencia from 1991 to 1992 and then taught there in 1998 and 1999.

The multimedia works in “Not for You” are almost like a retrospective of Bonvicini’s recent work. Like a lot of contemporary art, her work is conceptual more than aesthetic, more concerned with communicating ideas than with expressing pure beauty.

Museum curators who have visited the installation have remarked that Bonvicini’s work is definitely an example of important contemporary art.

“I think if you sort of define the best qualities of contemporary art as a kind of innovative and challenging practice that continues to pose questions and explore new territory in terms of subject matter and material and approach, then I would definitely say yes, I think that she does all of those things,” said Lisa Dorin, assistant curator of contemporary art at the Art Institute of Chicago, which is planning a solo exhibition of Bonvicini’s work next summer.

Bonvicini’s strengths are rooted in her ability to be confrontational and challenging, all while maintaining an ironic sense of humor.

In a 2001 interview, Los Angeles-based artist Andrea Bowers said that Bonvicini’s work is “always gutsy and pleasurably nasty.”

One example of how she’s good at playing with your expectations and invading your comfort zone is “Identified Protection” (2006). Harnesses painted black hang from chains on a circular track from the ceiling. Every so often, the harnesses start shaking gently as if an earthquake were disrupting the exhibit. They look like sexual apparatus, but the meaning of it all is a bit elusive — until the artist explained that those are actually construction harnesses. The installation then becomes a statement on gender roles by placing decidedly masculine objects in an unexpected sexual context.

“She tends to do a lot with her fascination with construction-site workers, who are really important because without them, a structure would not exist,” Fontana said. “At the same time, construction workers are the prototype for masculinity. In fact, they are a big sex symbol, especially in the gay world. And so I think she really plays on these two aspects.”

Bonvicini combines construction and architecture with gender issues again in a video montage called “Destroy She Said” (1998). Clips from black and white movies with women in various stages of despair, clutching or standing near walls, are projected onto two makeshift drywall screens propped up with 2 x 4s.

Alma Ruiz, associate curator at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, remarked, “I like the combination of the fragility of the materials and the fragility of these women in the situation they found themselves in, and also the contrast between films that are so well-structured being projected on these temporary screens.”

Walls are oftentimes incorporated in Bonvicini’s works due to their symbolic implications. “Wallfuckin’” is a video piece she created in 1995 and 1996 depicting a naked woman rubbing her body up and down a wall. Though that work isn’t on display at The Shops on Lake Avenue, it does demonstrate how provocative her art can get.

“Destroy She Said” also includes haphazardly strewn cords, video equipment and speakers, along with sawdust in front of the screens, creating a feeling of a work still under construction.

Wesley Jessup, executive director of the Pasadena Museum of California Art, said, “I like to see this kind of art in a really unpolished, commercial space. I like that combination and the materials she’s working with, which are kind of cheap; it’s kind of thrown together. I think that whole feel and aura kind of eats away at the high-art mentality or position.”

In her printed works, Bonvicini uses quotes from various architects, poets and songwriters to break down words as constructions. With “Kill Your Father” (2001), aggressive song lyrics taken out of context like “May I fuck your mother?” and “Penile Dementia” are stenciled in felt-tip pen and separated by red frames. That piece is a Freudian take on men loathing their mothers.

Even though Bonvicini says, “I don’t think my work is provocative just for the sake of being provocative,” it still raises the question: Is the mall an appropriate setting for this exhibit?

Location, location, location

According to museum curators, the venue is a crucial aspect of the show. Bonvicini’s themes are reinforced by the commercial space, and overall they found no problem with the public setting.

As Jessup pointed out, it’s a private, not publicly funded, space.

Dorin added, “If you’re old enough to be at the mall by yourself, you’re probably old enough to deal with the themes suggested in her work.”

Of course, this is a select sample of the population — experts in the arts who are, perhaps, accustomed to viewing “shocking” works on a regular basis.

“I would imagine that someone that is not familiar with contemporary art and not familiar with the fact that many artists in contemporary art use that kind of language, and use sex in their work and make very provocative pieces with language or images — that may be difficult to digest for certain people,” Ruiz said.

“I, for one, being a curator, am very used to that,” she added. “I don’t say that I accept everything I see, and I don’t say that I’ll never be offended by something like that because there may be cases in which I do find it offensive. But I am more used to it, and I look at it from a different point of view. But yeah, someone who walks into the space not knowing may be very surprised seeing that.”

This element of surprise is exactly what Fontana was looking for when it came to finding a site for Bonvicini’s installation.

Though she originally envisioned an industrial venue, Fontana was immediately drawn to the 50,000-square-foot retail space after Jonathon Glus, cultural affairs director for the city of Pasadena, showed her the site.

“In Monica’s work,” Fontana explained, “there is this criticism of modernism applied to daily life and consumer culture, so the idea of having the show happen in the mall for me was perfect.”

Bonvicini further toys with consumer culture with “Desire,” a sign that looms from the second story of the mall. In sublime contradiction, the sign not only promotes the exhibit, but also criticizes the consumerism of society. Bonvicini said that she discovered the font when visiting an Orange County sign-maker. She chose the lettering when she found that it was being used for a bank sign.

In addition, Jessup pointed out that the unfinished feel of the installation, with the drywall panels and sawdust, “plays against the idea of these slick commercial spaces that are spaces of total control; there’s not a thing out of place in a chain store; everything is engineered to the millimeter.”

The owner of the property, David Wasserman of Wasserman Real Estate Capital, gifted the use of the space to Fontana, who described him as “open-minded.”

“Public art in all of our projects is an integral part of the design,” said Wasserman, a serious collector of contemporary art who has recently acquired work by Bonvicini. “We will continue to support art in provocative ways here and in other projects.”

Fontana, who has run Galleria Emi Fontana in Milan for 15 years, brought Danish artist Olafur Eliasson’s work to a private, neomodernist residence in Pasadena last year. Fontana was familiar with the area already, having established a residence in Eagle Rock. She moved to South Pasadena a year ago and divides her time between the United States and Italy.

Citing the Pasadena Art Museum’s (now the Norton Simon Museum) retrospectives of artists such as Marcel Duchamp and Andy Warhol in 1963 and 1971, Fontana said, “I realized that what’s important to the history of Pasadena is modern and contemporary art. … It’s definitely a city that has a big tradition for art, but at the same time, it seems that there’s not much contemporary art at the moment. So, in a way, it’s perfect because it’s like virgin territory, but with some tradition behind it. I like the idea that I’m reconnecting with this old tradition.”

Glus acknowledged that Pasadena, despite being a vibrant arts community, lacks galleries that show young and emerging artists, with the exception of HAUS and Bliss. But, he added, “Having an Emi Fontana gallery here for a few months each year which is nationally visible and brings people from all over Southern California to this space [and] will get coverage in art mags across the world, is really a boon for us, for the arts in general, for the arts community here in Pasadena and also for the image of Pasadena as a creative place.”

Curators agree that this international exchange can only be good for the local arts by encouraging new dialogue amongst artists and in the community.

“I think it’s very interesting that Pasadena is becoming this cultural hub with so many museums nowadays,” said Ruiz. “Bringing in this guerilla type of exhibition that shows up in different parts of the area is a brilliant idea.”