I first encountered Bona’s work a long time ago while reading André Pieyre de Mandiargues’s Bona l’amour et la peinture, so it was through the famous writer, whom she married in 1950, that I discovered Bona’s work. And then I forgot that work, which had nevertheless immediately moved me, no doubt because I came across no news concerning it until this film featuring her drawings: L’escargot de Vénus, made by Walerian Borowczyk in 1975 and recently programmed by the Institut National de l’Audiovisuel on its online platform. Even though encountering a work is a singular experience, it seems to me that the years that have passed are not insignificant, beginning with Bona’s name, sometimes given simply as Bona, or as Bona Tibertelli de Pisis, Bona Pieyre de Mandiargues, or Bona de Mandiargues, depending on the periods of her life, the acts of creation, and the voices that speak of her. It therefore seems to me that Bona’s identity and singularity are illuminated (sometimes obscured) by a constellation of artists. Bona’s work thus exists within the Surrealist fold; its dreamlike and erotic motifs are readily apparent, as is the variety of its forms: drawing, painting, textile collage, poetry, narrative, autobiography, translation, elegant appearances, as well as a taste for collaboration. Bona notably illustrated writings by André Pieyre de Mandiargues, posed for Man Ray, and made portraits of André Breton and Unica Zürn. At a time when international art scenes are once again bringing the works of Leonora Carrington, Ithell Colquhoun, Valentine Penrose, Toyen, Leonor Fini, and Frida Kahlo to the fore, it seems important to me to look at Bona’s work. Yet to look, in my view, is to interact with the work, to dream from it, which is why Bona Bona Bona is intended as a playful invocation with a hagiographic dimension, like a cast shadow inspired, among other things, by the Portrait of Unica Zürnand L’escargot de Vénus.
AN EYE IS A MOUTH IS A SEX A SPIRAL A LABYRINTH WHERE MAGIC IS A FACE A MEMORY OF AN INFINITE FUTURE TO DISMEMBER RE-MEMBER REMEMBER RICORDATI LIFE IN THE BUD FOR THE LADY WITH THE SNAILS THE TIME OF FAIRIES IS NOT FORBIDDEN BONA BONA BONA TIBERTELLI DI PISIS BONA DE MANDIARGUES BONA PIEYRE DE MANDIARGUES BONA BONA BONA LOVE OR PAINTING BONA BONA VENTURE BONA THE BODY AT WORK THE PORTRAITS WITH THE WORK OF THE CREOLES WITH EARS TO SEW AND TO FIGHT IT OUT HEAR THE SPIRAL RATHER THAN MAKE IT SEEN SPIRAL THE TEXT TO INVOKE YOU BONA BONA BONA IT GOES ROUND AND ROUND WITHOUT END UNICA ZÜRN IS IN THE SONG THE TEMPTATION OF SUICIDE YOU SAY IT YOU REPEAT IT PAINT SO AS NOT TO DIE GET OUT AND ESCAPE THE ACCEPTED LIMITS OF THE BOURGEOIS FAMILY CHOOSE YOURSELF ANARCHO-ARISTO-PUSSY THE SNAIL IS BISEXUAL LEAP-YEAR HERMAPHRODITE EVERY FACE IS A SEX FROM WHICH SERPENTS EMERGE THE SNAIL HALF SEX HALF SERPENT EXHAUSTS ITSELF FORGETTING THE TIME OF FINGERS AT THE TIPS OF THE EYES THE DREAM DOES NOT REVERSE TIME NOT THE WIND NOT THE REAL NOT THE UNREAL IN THE PRESENT THE CROW IS ALWAYS WATCHING THE SNAIL OF VENUS IN FOUR MINUTES GLANS TONGUE FOOT EVERYTHING CAN COME OUT AND THEN GO BACK IN PASTEL BUTTOCKS WITHOUT GREEN BOROWCZYK BEHIND THE CAMERA THE GROTESQUE SAUCINESS OF UNDULATING BREASTS THE EYE AT THE FLUTE THE EYE ON THE BRAKE EVERY CROTCH IS A MAGICAL SPIRAL LIFE FLOWS WHEN WE EXCHANGE OUR RECIPROCAL ORIFICES WHEN WE MAKE OURSELVES EQUAL IN MOBILE TURNS IN THE VESTIBULE EVERYTHING THAT COMES OUT CAN GO BACK IN BONA BONA BONA THE TRICK IS DONE VENUS DID NO BETTER YOU SAY WE MUST FAST BRUSH AGAINST EACH OTHER PUT MAKEUP ON OUR EYEBROWS OUR MOUTHS OUR EYES TO LUBRICATE THE DAYS THAT STRETCH OUT IN LITTLE STRIPED STOCKINGS ABOVE ALL PLAN NOTHING NOR GIVE IN TO AUTOMATISMS IN THE STUDIO CHAMELEON ON THE BRANCH AM I YOUR MALE OR YOUR FEMALE NO MATTER SINCE WE ARE THREATENED TOGETHER BY THE LAUGHING BIRD WITH THE EYE OF GESTURE FOR HIM TOO DEATH WILL COME TO STRADDLE HIM EMBRACE HIM IN PINK ON HIS SLIPPERY GROUND NO DEBAUCHERY FOR THE ONE WHO KNOWS EVERYTHING BONA BONA BONA