Bea Bonafini | ALA | Supply Chain Management Solutions

BEA

BONAFINI

- HABITAT

2023

Pastel on inlaid mixed fibers and velvet

418 x 185 cm

From the Latin habitare «to live» – properly «he lives», habitat is a term borrowed from natural science, referring to the set of physical and environmental conditions of a place in which a species finds the best conditions for survival.

For its 2023 edition, the ALA Art Prize invites artists to engage with the idea of habitat, a multilevel concept and metaphor for an ideal physical and relational environment to be investigated in its manifold articulations natural and artificial and in its social and cultural implications.

Bea Bonafini,

Acque, Amare

2023
Installation view
© Amedeo Benestante

Bea Bonafini,

Acque, Amare

2023
Installation view
© Amedeo Benestante

Bea Bonafini,

Acque, Amare

2023
Installation view
© Amedeo Benestante

Bea Bonafini,

Acque, Amare

2023
Installation view
© Maurizio Esposito

Bea Bonafini,

Acque, Amare

2023
Installation view
© Maurizio Esposito

Bea Bonafini,

Acque, Amare

2023
Installation view
© Amedeo Benestante

Bea Bonafini,

Acque, Amare

2023
Detail
© Amedeo Benestante

Bea Bonafini,

Acque, Amare

2023
Detail
© Amedeo Benestante

Bea Bonafini,

Acque, Amare

Bea Bonafini,

Acque, Amare

SCIENTIFIC COMMITTEE X

BEA BONAFINI

The Mediterranean Theatre inside Mostra d‘Oltremare seems to be the ideal architectural context for the work of Bea Bonafini, adding a new chapter to the amazing iconography featured in the ALA headquarters. Indeed, the imagery evoked by the artist adapts marine themes to the aesthetic and philosophical ideals of the 21st century, suggesting, for example, the idea of fluidity as the central pivot of our society.

In this work, Bonafini operates a twofold modernization: one linked to the ancient tapestry technique, the other combined with a long-term iconographic reflection, which, from the legacy of a mythological past, results in the current post-human present.

A Modern Penelope, Bea weaves stories of women and sea, mythologies of wars and loves, narrated and handed down orally for ages, which in her work become silk, bamboo and wool threads, to remind us that the Mediterranean has always been a place of exchange of techniques and knowledge.

Bea Bonafini (b. 1990, Bonn, Germany) lives and works between London and Barcelona. She received her MA from the Royal College of Art, London, in 2016.

Solo exhibitions of her work have been held at Museo di Roma in Trastevere, Rome (2022); Setareh, Berlin (2022); Bosse & Baum, London (2022); Nosbaum Reding, Luxembourg (2022); LAAA, Mexico City (2022); Renata Fabbri, Milan (2021); Eduardo Secci, Florence (2021); Operativa, Rome (2019); Chloe Salgado, Paris (2018); Lychee One, London (2018); and Zabludowicz Collection, London (2017).

Bonafini’s work has been featured in numerous group exhibitions, including Triennale, Milan (2023); Palazzo Abatellis Museum, Palermo (2022); Fondazione per l’Arte, Rome (2022); Kristen Hjellegjerde, London (2022); The Artsy Vanguard Fourth Edition, Miami (2021); Fondazione Sandretto, Guarene (2020); The British School at Rome (2019, 2020); Palazzo Reale, Milan, (2019); and The Italian Cultural Institute, London (2018).

Large-scale commissions include site-specific works for Jonkoping Council, Sweden; Meta HQ, UK. La Berlugane-Maleki residence, France; and Maison Estelle, UK.