THE COMEL AWARD FINALISTS

Maria Elena Bonet

Minsk, BELARUS / Sant’Elia Fiumerapido (FR), ITALY
www.maria-bonet.com

THE COMEL AWARD FINALISTS

Maria Elena Bonet

Minsk, BELARUS / Sant'Elia Fiumerapido (FR), ITALY
www.maria-bonet.com
BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES

Maria Elena Bonet is a multidisciplinary artist whose path explores themes of transition, historical continuity, and personal freedom. Born in Minsk in 1986, and having studied design and photography at the Belarusian State Art Academy, Maria honed her skills under the guidance of mentors like Albert Tsehanovich and Andrei Voskresenski. Since 2007, she has specialized in analog photography and alternative photographic techniques, such as gum bichromate, in-process, and cyanotype. Recognized for her dedication and innovation, Maria has created over ten art projects and exhibited extensively across Europe. Lives and works between Italy and Poland.

ARTWORK IN CONTEST

13° Bozzolo, 2024

SCULPTURE - Assembly of aluminium, natural fibers, leaves, and roots
50 x 100 x 50 cm

The work 13° Bozzolo by Maria Elena Bonet characterizes the counterpoint between randomness and design, which alludes to the vital forces of existence in a sign of symbolic naturalism. An aluminium egg, with a vague alchemical reference, is placed in the center of a hollow root, symbolizing life’s hidden and mysterious perfection.

AWARDS

SPECIAL MENTION OF THE JURY 2024

With the following motivation:

The counterpoint between randomness and idealistic drive characterizes the work of the Belarusian artist Maria Elena Bonet, part of the project “Tu sei il giardino” (You are the garden), in which, in the sign of a symbolic realism, she seems to interpret the vitalistic secret of nature. An aluminum egg, with a vague alchemical reference, is placed in the center of a hollow root, symbolizing the hidden and mysterious perfection of the world.

by Dafne Crocella

In the alchemical tradition, aluminium is associated with transformations and metamorphoses, as well as possessing a high reflective capacity, symbolising clarity and the light of truth - a perfect metaphor.

With your artwork XIII Bozzolo, you received a special mention from the Jury of the Comel Award, which recognises a skilful balance between randomness and design. Do you feel that this is a characteristic of your work?

Creativity is a process that allows you to go beyond any construction, but only if you allow chance, providence, the fathomless miracle to enter the work of art.
Total control of the creative process through rationality leads to an incomplete result. For this reason, yes - the combination of an idea (the content), the form chosen to express it and the free presence of a force, which one can call spirituality, intuition or the source of creativity - is characteristic for my way of working.
In this way, the artist's path is constructed as a form of knowledge: perceiving life through art. Furthermore, I believe that creativity is a natural process, which defines the human being as a spiritual creature. Through the artist, creativity is revealed as an idea of co-creation with that force one might call ‘randomness’, the possibility of finding an invisible reality beyond the visible image. In seeking contact with the creator, the author establishes a connection with the material - his or her own artistic tool - and creates by transforming his or her own spiritual experience and growth into a work of art.

The work is a representation of a cocoon. What value does this form have for you?

This symbol was formed in the last years of my life and runs like a red thread through my creative work - a state of transition, transformation and metamorphosis in the quest for growth, personal freedom, spiritual evolution and understanding the mysteries of the movement of life.
My previous projects, which reflect the milestones of my journey, contributed to the shaping of this symbol:
Before creating the cocoons, I spent two years working on the art project "Fidanzamento don il mare" (‘Engagement with the Sea’ on the Baltic Sea), developing the idea of the cycle of birth - death - rebirth. It is a project that visually expresses this idea - obtaining freedom through creativity, as a transformation of reality.
After these two years, which I could define as a metamorphosis with the Baltic Sea, for me it was like physically coming out of the cocoon, out of the chrysalis shell, a concept that guided me towards a new image, the image of the ‘Garden’ in which I am the gardener and at the same time the garden itself.
From my experience, I realised that the development through life - death - rebirth is infinite, but that I can influence my own representation of myself in this world, as well as being able to participate in the co-creation of a design that was not made by me.
Thus the idea of the cocoon form was born. During a residency in Krakow, at the Villa Decius, a beautiful Renaissance villa surrounded by a luxurious park, I discovered the ‘Garden’ as a concept of life. I had the desire to create a large-scale project that would express the complexity of the human being and the maturation of the personality on different perceptual planes. When I was still living in Minsk, butterflies often came into my flat to spend the winter or die. I remember how moved I was by this trust placed in me by these little creatures. And so, in my attic in Krakow, a butterfly flew in and landed on my hand. With the feeling of the skin peeling off, like that of a cocoon, for the first time I began to think that I had to represent this.


4° Bozzolo: Memoria (from the project “Tu sei il giardino”)

This cocoon, according to the title, is the 13th in a series. Are you working on a project related to this emerging life form?

Yes, my Garden is expanding into a large multidisciplinary project called Tu sei il Giardino (You are the Garden), my most interesting creative experience, made possible only by the experiments and expertise accumulated in previous projects. In this project there is chaos as potential for birth, there is pure water, will, memory... there is despair, complexity and the beauty of being human.
The project explores the theme of transformation and self-fulfilment through the metaphor of the garden. Within the project, I tell how I can transform my life experience into fertile ground for personal growth and improvement. The entire project takes a physical form, embodying this inner growth through various artistic media, such as sculpture, video art, sound installation, analogue photography and graphics.
The central visual motif is a series of sculptures I created in Italy representing cocoons of butterflies, symbolising individual metamorphosis and the transition from one state to another.

The work consists of an aluminium part and others made of natural fibres, leaves and roots. How do you conceptually place metal among other elements of the plant world and what value do you give it in this connection?

In the alchemical tradition, aluminium is associated with transformations and metamorphoses, as well as possessing a high reflective capacity, symbolising clarity and the light of truth - a perfect metaphor. Inside my sculpture is an aluminium egg, a symbol of potential, which this specific cocoon, the ‘XIII’ represents, being associated with the concept of ‘Name’.

The work is designed to be hung outdoors in a land art project. How much do you feel the outdoor environment is part of the project? And how did you choose where to place your installation?

I have always considered nature as a book of metaphors, which I can draw on. The olive grove, with its ancient trees, full of thirst, wisdom, patience and a tenacious will to live, has become my main gallery for the works. The idea of placing the cocoons there seemed natural to me from the first moment I arrived, as did all my artistic work in Italy.
The exhibition of the project could be presented in an indoor exhibition space, with video projections of the olive grove on the walls.

5° Bozzolo: Intuizione (from the project “Tu sei il giardino”)

Several artistic expressions come together in your work: video art, music, installations... What is your background? What studies do you come from?

I finished the Academy of Fine Arts, where I studied mainly design and photography, obtaining a diploma in graphic design. My years at the academy also included interdisciplinary training: graphics, painting, drawing, philosophy, etc. In general, my training was like a map-navigator, equipping me with practical and theoretical knowledge to understand which discipline I wanted to develop the most. Since 2010, I have been working professionally in analogue photography and design and have started working with video art. Working for a while as a marionette puppeteer, I started to integrate the idea of performance into my projects. So, I started to include my poetic texts in the works and to cooperate with musicians. For me, cross-art represents the ideal path to complete artistic expression. Also, in the project Tu sei il Giardino (You are the Garden), different artistic expressions compete with the participation of professionals from all over Europe.

You were born in Belarus and you are carrying out a project in Italy, what artistic relationship do you feel there is between these two lands?

I combine the spirit of both North and South, balancing the oppositions in nature and within myself, turning roots into wings and exploring the concept of home as an inner space. This way, I experience opposite poles and at the same time build bridges between Belarus and Italy, perceiving their closeness in the deep connection with mother nature.

from the project “Il mio fiume”

Are there artists from the past that you feel have influenced your work?

At every stage of my life there have always been artists who have guided me. Today they are close to me among writers: Hermann Hesse, Dante Alighieri, Czesław Miłosz; among musicians: Johann Sebastian Bach, Nina Simone; among painters: Paul Gauguin, Marc Chagall; among directors: Tarkovsky, Bertolucci. The artworks, sculptural and pictorial, from the excavations of Pompeii in the Archaeological Museum in Naples deeply affect me.

What are the future stages of your ‘You are the Garden’ project?

I am working on preparing the premiere.

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