Milena Bonilla

Milena Bonilla was born in Bogota, Colombia, in 1975. She graduated in visual arts at Universidade Jorge Tadeo in Bogota, Columbia, in 2000, and continued to the post-academic course at Rijksakademie van beeldende kunsten, in Amsterdam, in 2009-2010. The artist, who lives and works in Amsterdam, is dedicated to projects with a strong research component, focusing on the political complexities between man and nature and on the important role of the word in the cognitive system and in western logic, outlining omissions within specific historic narratives. The epistemological colonialism and its various consequences in the way we relate organisms, language and social structures are a strong thematic basis for her work.

Her works frequently include explicit literary references to political figures such as Rosa Luxembourg or Karl Marx, but also to writers like Franz Kafka or Francisco de Quevedo, among others. With these connections, the artist explores biographical facts related to these personalities as well as concepts and ideas they introduced, and which are relevant in the society where the artist navigates.

These conceptual exercises are presented through the multiple manifestations of her work, including installations, video, performance, drawing, text, public interventions and photography. With a strong narrative component, Bonilla involves us in plots that defy our prejudices, making us rethink the dichotomy nature-reason and introducing poetic and moving gestures.

Some of her most important solo exhibitions are The Hour Before Sunset at the Oporto Municipal Gallery in 2021; Malware Made Riddles at Jeannine Hofland Contemporary Art, Amsterdam in 2016); Third at Mor Charpentier, Paris in 2015; An Endless Present at Galeria Marilia Razuk, São Paulo in 2013; 12^th Instambul Biennale in 2011. Her works were shown at institutions such as Manifesta 13 in Marseille (2020), Framer Framed in Amsterdam (2019, Museo d’Arte Contemporanea Roma (2019), Kadist São Francisco (2018); The Jewish Museum in New York (2017) and Witte de With in Rotterdam (2010).

Bonilla’s work is represented in various private and institutional collections all over the world.

 

DC, April 2021