Description de l’oeuvre :

Il y a quelque chose de très vivant chez Olivia De Bona. Elle parle avec les mains, peint avec le corps et ne fait pas vraiment les choses à moitié. Solaire, entière, elle a cette énergie de celles qui ont appris à prendre leur place dans un milieu qu’elles connaissent depuis longtemps, avec du caractère, du travail et une parole qui ne cherche pas tellement à contourner les choses. Et puis il faut la regarder peindre. Olivia de Bona peint vite. Le pinceau tourne dans sa main, le poignet s’articule joyeusemet, le geste se répète sans tout à fait se répéter. Il y a du rythme, presque une chorégraphie. À COLORS, la musique accompagne le mouvement et la peinture semble suivre le flow : écraser le pinceau, le faire glisser, chercher une transparence, revenir, repartir. La couleur s’apprend aussi comme cela, à force de la pratiquer jusqu’à la sentir dans son essence. Pour cette nouvelle édition de COLORS Urban Art Festival, Olivia De Bona avait envie de peindre pour les gens. Le mur se trouve au Neuhof, dans un quartier très minéral, où elle a ressenti un manque de végétal. Alors, plutôt que d’en parler, elle a choisi d’en déposer : un immense bouquet de fleurs offert au quartier. Longtemps, elle s’est méfiée du « joli », de la fleur, de ce qui pouvait sembler trop décoratif ou trop sage. Aujourd’hui, elle l’assume autrement ! Dans une époque qui en manque parfois cruellement, le beau et la joie peuvent aussi être utiles. Chez elle, le joyeux n’est pas factice. Cet orange immense est presque physique : de la chaleur, de la lumière, une sorte de gros câlin posé sur un mur. Ses fleurs renouent avec cet « Art Nouveau Nouveau » qu’elle développe aujourd’hui avec conviction : des lignes organiques, une nature généreuse, des courbes et une sensualité qui peuvent parfois évoquer Georgia O’Keeffe (un rapprochement qu’Olivia accueille volontiers :-)). Mais ici, il s’agit surtout d’Allumer le mur. De faire vibrer la couleur et, durablement, de laisser quelque chose aux personnes qui passent devant. Finalement, offrir des fleurs sans attendre qu’elles fanent ! 

Olivia De Bona apportera également son témoignage vidéo lors de la rencontre « Pourquoi encore parler d’art au féminin ? », le 13 septembre, de 14 h à 16 h. Avec les années de pratique et le recul nécessaire pour regarder aussi ce que signifie être une femme dans ce milieu.

Bio :

ENGLISH : 

Artwork Description : 

There is something incredibly vibrant about Olivia De Bona. She speaks with her hands, paints with her whole body, and doesn’t really do things by halves. Radiant and wholehearted, she has the energy of someone who has learned to take her place in a world she has known for a long time — with character, hard work, and a voice that doesn’t particularly try to beat around the bush.

And then you have to watch her paint. Olivia De Bona paints fast. The brush spins in her hand, her wrist moves with joyful precision, and the gesture repeats itself without ever quite being the same. There is rhythm to it, almost a choreography. At COLORS, music accompanies the movement and the painting seems to follow the flow: pressing down the brush, letting it glide, searching for transparency, coming back, starting again. Colour is learned in much the same way — through practice, until you can feel it in its essence.

For this new edition of the COLORS Urban Art Festival, Olivia De Bona wanted to paint for the people. The wall is located in Neuhof, in a highly mineral, concrete-heavy neighbourhood where she felt a lack of vegetation. So rather than simply talking about it, she chose to bring some into the neighbourhood: an immense bouquet of flowers offered to the community.

For a long time, she was wary of the “pretty”, of flowers, of anything that might seem too decorative or too well-behaved. Today, she embraces it differently. In a time when it can sometimes be desperately lacking, beauty and joy can also be useful. With her, joy is never artificial. This immense orange is almost physical: warmth, light, a kind of giant hug painted onto a wall.

Her flowers reconnect with the “New Art Nouveau” aesthetic that she is now developing with conviction: organic lines, generous nature, curves and sensuality that can sometimes evoke Georgia O’Keeffe — a comparison Olivia is more than happy to embrace :-).

But here, above all, the goal is to light up the wall. To make the colour vibrate and, in a lasting way, leave something behind for the people who pass by.

In the end, it’s about giving flowers without waiting for them to fade.

Olivia De Bona will also share her story through a video contribution during the discussion “Why Talk About Women in Art Again?”, on September 13, from 2 pm to 4 pm. With years of experience behind her and the perspective needed to reflect on what it means to be a woman in this field.

Bio : 

Paris-based artist, born in 1985, Olivia De Bona has been developing, for more than 15 years, a poetic visual language made up of images that blend her personal imagination with collective imagery. She explores this language across a wide range of media and materials, guided by a creative curiosity that constantly leads her towards new techniques and possibilities.

Graduating in Applied Arts and Animated Film in 2005, Olivia De Bona quickly moved away from digital media in pursuit of her fascination with craftsmanship. Unable to separate a work from its physical medium, she approaches each creation as a whole, and it is often a technical curiosity that inspires a new project.

In recent years, she has devoted particular attention to the almost-forgotten technique of straw marquetry. This involves meticulously assembling genuine strands of straw — individually pressed and coloured — one by one, onto a wooden surface using adhesive, in order to create the patterns and scenes that make up her works. It is an extremely time-consuming technique requiring great patience and skill; Olivia estimates that she can produce a maximum of 10 cm² per day…

While Olivia De Bona’s technical mastery enhances her figurative universe, the narrative dimension of her work remains the most important, bringing her practice into the realms of storytelling and intimacy. Nature, animals, dreams, the nude, women and body hair are recurring motifs that allow her to structure her artistic mythology and lose herself in the representation of materiality, which is so dear to her.

Olivia De Bona was recently exhibited at the prestigious Beers Gallery in London, and was also an artist-in-residence as part of the Parcours d’Art Contemporain in Amiens.