Curator’s tour with Maria Arusoo at the exhibition melanie bonajo. When the body says Yes+
Join the exhibition’s curator Maria Arusoo, Director of the Estonian Centre for Contemporary Art, for a tour of melanie bonajo. When the body says Yes+. The event is part of the public programme accompanying the exhibition.
When the body says Yes+ is a solo exhibition of the works of the Dutch artist melanie bonajo (they/them/theirs). The artist is searching for an answer to the question of whether there is still a place for intimacy in our increasingly commercialised and technological world.
melanie bonajo’s work When the body says Yes represented the Netherlands at the Venice Biennale in 2022. In addition to this work, the exhibition brings together three experimental documentaries from the past ten years. The films deal with the subject of intimacy and the search for contact through a very wide lens. The themes represented include the ecofeminist position in relation to the world around us, the issues of ageing and loneliness and the “falling out” of society. In one work, the artist explores children’s understanding of body awareness and gender roles.
melanie bonajo (they/them/theirs) is a Dutch artist, film-maker, somatic sex coach and educator, cuddle workshop facilitator and activist creating immersive queer spaces. They are interested in communities outside the mainstream who live or work on the margins of society, either through cultural exclusion or because they do not belong to a normative system. Issues of ethical and empathic coexistence, body politics, equality and alternative forms of perception of the world and oneself are prominent in bonajo’s work.