Posts by Florence Andoka

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.