4.12.2013
Melanie Bonajo exams the paradoxes inherent in our future-based ideas of comfort. Through her photographs, performances, videos and installations Bonajo examines subjects related to progress that remove from the individual a sense of belonging and looks at how technological advances and commodity-based pleasures increase feelings of alienation within the individual. Captivated by concepts of the divine, she explores the spiritual emptiness of her generation, examines peoples’ shifting relationship with nature and tries to understand existential questions by looking at our domestic situation, idea’s around classification, concepts of home, gender and attitudes towards value.
Melanie Bonajo lives and works in Amsterdam. Her work has been exhibited and performed in international art institutions, such as De Appel Arts Center / Amsterdam, Institute Neérlandais/Paris, Modern Art Museum / Ljubljana, Kohun National Museum of Contemporary Art/ Seoul, Stedelijk museum/ Amsterdam, PPOW Gallery/ New York, SMBA/Amsterdam, Programm, Berlin, Museum of Modern Art / Arnhem and Foam /Amsterdam. She made 7 publications I have a Room with Everything / 2009, Furniture Bondage / 2009, Modern Life of the Soul / 2008, Volkerschau and Bush Compulsion /2009, 1 question 9 possible answers 3 rooms /2012, Spheres / 2012. With her music project ZaZaZoZo she will release the album INUA with tsunami-addiction spring 2013. In 2008 she studied religious science; Mysticism and Western Esotericism at the UVA. She worked as creative editor for Capricious magazine and Mister Motley, taught workshops and lectured on l’Ecal, Rietveld Academie, Aperture, Parsons school of Art, Mediamatic a.o. In 2012 she initiated the collective GENITAL INTERNATIONAL which focusses on subjects around participation, equality, our environment and politics beyond polarity.