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Presenting the thought of a Visual Artist, as we do it in this episode, is one thing. But of course, it is Bianca’s Art that will also tell us a lot about herself and her way of seeing the world. Therefore it seems crucial to present to you also a little insight into that Art of hers.
If you click anywhere in this text box, this will bring you to a special page with seven views on Art presented in installations by Bianca Bondi.
Otherwise you can watch the eight-minute video below, showing those same pictures accompanied by a soundtrack for one of her shows, written by composer Jennifer Hutt especially for this exhibition.
Please welcome my next guest, visual artist, Bianca Bondi, who is just taking the world of art by storm. She defines herself as a multidisciplinary artist while her speciality is creating very specific installations with occult references.
Born in 1986 in South Africa, Bianca grew up within a South African/Italian family in an urbanised area with her father attending Catholic Church and her mother having developed her own spirituality.
When Bianca was just about to start primary school, her father suddenly passed away. After this tragedy she became rather introverted and used to go on imaginary travels where she tried to separate her body into layers and meet her deceased father at some point. Actually she later recognised these (successful) efforts as induced out-of-body experiences.
As for her art career, actually Bianca wasn’t showing much interest in art first but when she was working on her Master of Sciences she took up art as kind of a non-serious subject designed to give her a break from the more intensive parts of her studies. However she soon discovered that not only did she take in everything that was taught about art extremely easily but more importantly the fact that she loved the freedom and the power of art in itself.
So Bianca reconsidered her original idea to become a pilot and being a firm believer in science she decided to run an art institution after finishing her studies. After 2 years in South Africa and 5 more in France as a graduate Bianca experienced another epiphany, namely that she wanted to create art herself.
In this conversation we dive deeply into the idea of what it means to be a ‘hermeticist by default’, the idea of installations as pieces in space and time and how they tie in with private (or not so private) occult practices and how – and more importantly why – more and more artists decide to make open references to their magical worldview in their artistic work.
We talk about using unstable materials that allow the artist (or the visitor) to exert a certain amount of control but from a certain point they tend to take over and the results may vary. Bianca elaborates on her ‘love affair’ with salt and how she investigates a space that is designed to house an exhibition her works would be part of which and how objects are literally changed by salt.
Bianca kindly offers some personal insights into her practice and on her concepts of art and magic themselves, their relationship and parallels as well as the idea of how activism might or might not be related to art and magic.
Bianca’s most recent project and her advice to young artists interested in showing the influence of the occult within their works is not to be missed.
Music played in this episode
It is already nice when our listeners are musicians and let me play their music. But when the music is inspired by one of our shows here, then it makes me even happier!
One of our listeners, who runs the musical project NOUMENAL VIBES, was impressed by the interview with GIULIA TUROLLA in Season 6, and so he contacted her to create this piece “Diana Nemorensis”. Go to this episode to get more information about that topic. And in the piece you will also hear the speaking voice of Giulia!
More information on Noumenal vibes click here!
The track you are hearing in the break of the interview with Bianca is in fact an exceprt from a soundtrack to an exhibition of Bianca’s. So which better music to accompany the images that we show for YouTubers during that time? It has been composed by JENNIFER ELIZ HUTT.
JENNIFER ELIZ HUTT is a musician, composer and actress from Baltimore living in France. Violinist by training (but also at the machines electronic, voice and electric bass), she records and performs on stage
for 20 years alongside artists such as Will Oldham (Bonnie Prince Billy), Celebration, Tatiana Mladenovitch (Franky Gogo) and Marc-Antoine Perrio. She collaborates with Arthur B. Gillette (Moriarty) on many BOs and his project solo (Mick Strauss) and with Jonathan Capdevielle for his piece “A nous deux.
Her organic and experimental approach to music drives her to write a lot for the cinema, the documentary but also for the theatre or for performance and installations. She works in particular around experimental electronic and electroacoustic music. Her work has been chosen and rewarded several times.
Her compositions, especially for the artist Majida Khattari, were heard
in installations and performances at the Prague Quadrennial, Art Basel, Museum für Moderne Kunst, or the Arab World Institute.
Her composition for Bondi’s “Still Waters” uses essentially sound recordings taken in Tarbes, Ibos and their countryside surroundings.
