Melanie Bonajo

Through videos, performances, photographs and installations, Melanie Bonajo studies subjects related to how technological advances and commodity based pleasures increase feelings of alienation, removing a sense of belonging in an individual. Captivated by concepts of the divine, Bonajo explores the spiritual emptiness of their* generation, examines peoples’ shifting relationship with nature and tries to understand existential questions by reflecting on our domestic situation, ideas around classification, concepts of home, gender and attitudes towards value. Melanie Bonajo (1978) studied at the Gerrit Rietveld Academy and the School of Visual Arts, NYC. Bonajo completed residencies at the Rijksakademie voor Beeldende Kunst in Amsterdam (2009- 10), at ISCP in New York (2014) and holds an MA in »Religious Science: Hermetica; Mysticism and Western Esotericism« from the University of Amsterdam. Bonajo’s work has been shown internationally a.o. in institutions such as FOAM Amsterdam, Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, Bonnefantenmuseum Maastricht, Frankfurter Kunstverein, Kunsthaus Hamburg, MoMA PS1, New York and Tate Modern, London. Melanie Bonajo will represent the Netherlands in the upcoming Venice Biennale with a curatorial team consisting of Maaike Gouwenberg, Geir Haraldseth and Soraya Pol.