2025
Bianca Bondi Earth, Coral, Clouds
curated by Fiammetta Griccioli and Cloé Perrone
On the occasion of the fourth edition of CORTEMPORANEA, May 17th 2025 sees the opening of “Earth, Coral, Clouds”, the first solo exhibition in Italy by the South African artist Bianca Bondi, currently a scholarship holder at La Villa Medici in Rome 2024-25 and nominated for the Prix Marcel Duchamp 2025. Bianca Bondi transforms the courtyard and rooms of the eighteenth-century Palazzo Chigi Zondadari into a dynamic interweaving of ever-changing organic and inorganic forms. The title of the exhibition, "Earth, Coral, Clouds" is inspired by "Dark Ecology" by philosopher and theorist Timothy Morton, a text that challenges conventional ecological thinking and invites us to confront the dark, the unknown and the uncomfortable truths of our existence in the natural world.
Following this philosophy, Bondi presents a series of site-specific interventions that engage with the cyclical nature of time through processes of crystallization, oxidation, and chemical transformation. In dialogue with the frescoes and decorations of the palace—which evoke a coexistence between the natural, mythical, and human worlds—the artist reinterprets the power of ancient rituals and materials laden with memory, giving life to fragile ecosystems in which elements accumulate and transform over time, challenging the very idea of stability. In the context of Palazzo Chigi Zondadari, the exhibition amplifies the contrast between human endeavor and the natural world, raising urgent questions about preservation, loss, and the future of our planet. In Siena, where history is etched into the material—from the underground aqueducts (bottini) to the timeless façades of the palaces—Bondi’s work resonates with a layered and living past. Here, her pieces interact with the architecture not as inert objects, but as evolving systems. The palace itself, steeped in memory, absorbs and reflects the materials introduced, reinforcing the idea that space, like nature, is never static.
Video intervista
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Browse gallery
Bianca Bondi, Earth, Coral, Clouds, installation view of Procession for the Lost and Found at Palazzo Chigi Zondadari, Siena. Credits: Ela Bialkowska, OKNO studio.
Bianca Bondi, Earth, Coral, Clouds, installation view of Procession for the Lost and Found at Palazzo Chigi Zondadari, Siena. Credits: Ela Bialkowska, OKNO studio.
Bianca Bondi, Earth, Coral, Clouds, installation view of Procession for the Lost and Found at Palazzo Chigi Zondadari, Siena. Credits: Ela Bialkowska, OKNO studio.
Bianca Bondi, Earth, Coral, Clouds, installation view of Procession for the Lost and Found at Palazzo Chigi Zondadari, Siena. Credits: Ela Bialkowska, OKNO studio.
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The artist
Bianca Bondi
Bianca Bondi (Johannesburg, South Africa, 1986) lives and works in Paris. Her multidisciplinary practice involves the activation or transformation of common objects through the use of chemical reactions, mainly through salt water. The materials she works with are chosen for their potential for mutation or for their intrinsic and symbolic properties. Her aim is to promote experiences that go beyond the visual and support the life of matter with an emphasis on interconnectivity, transience and cycles of life and death. With a passion for ecology and occult sciences, Bianca Bondi combines the two, resulting in multidisciplinary works of a transformative nature through which the aura of objects is fundamental. Often site-specific, her poetic installations engage in a profound dialogue with the places in which they come to life. Bianca Bondi graduated from the Ecole Nationale Supérieure d'Arts de Paris-Cergy in 2012, having previously studied at the WITS School of the Arts in Johannesburg.
