Bianca Bondi: The Daydream

Bianca Bondi’s artistic practice combines method with material experimentation. She selects these materials according to their intrinsic properties or their potential for transformation, seeking possible ways to combine them to create strange new surfaces. Inspired by the occult sciences, her work process may be compared to a ritual practice or an instinctive alchemy. By fostering potential mutations among the elements, she brings slow conceptual performances to centre stage on both macroscopic and microscopic levels. The artist draws parallels between her organic encounters and current-day situations or the history of the venue, while endeavouring to reveal the intangible.

For Open Space #8, and her first personal museum exhibition in France, Bianca Bondi transforms the Galerie 8 into an artificial landscape composed of natural elements: The Daydream. This interior garden—inspired by sacred springs, such as Mexican cenotes—suggests a multisensory experience. Influenced by offering rituals and occult practices, Bianca Bondi invokes here the act of “scrying,” an ancient art of divination that connects us to the invisible world. A place of meditation, conducive to reflection and reverie, The Daydream invites the visitors, according to the artist, to “a surreal experience anchored within the real.” 

Bianca Bondi (1986, South Africa) lives and works in Paris. Her works have been exhibited at Fondation Carmignac (Porquerolles, 2021), Le Parvis (Tarbes, 2020), Bozar (Brussels, 2019), Het HEM (Amsterdam, 2020), MO.CO Panacée (Montpellier, 2018), and as part of the Lyon Biennale of Contemporary Art in 2019 and the Busan Biennale in 2020. Bianca Bondi is represented by the Mor Charpentier gallery in Paris.

Bianca Bondi, The Daydream, 2021
Sound design: Jenn Hutt
Floral design: Tata Msellati
Olfactive ambiance: Yann Vasnier, parfumeur (GIVAUDAN)

Curated by Ludovic Delalande et Claire Staebler, Open Space is a program dedicated to the most contemporary artistic expressions. National and international artists are invited to create a specific project for the Fondation Louis Vuitton. Open Space takes place regularly in different settings around Frank Gehry’s building. Between 2018 and 2021 this programme has hosted solo exhibitions of Jean-Marie Appriou (1986, France), Matt Copson (1992, UK), Anna Hulačová (1984, Czech Republic), Hoël Duret (1988, France), Lauren Halsey (1987, US), Meriem Bennani (1988, Morocco), Jean Claracq (1991, France).