Milena Bonilla

Milena Bonilla was born in 1975 in Bogota. She lives and works in Amsterdam.

After studying visual arts at the Universidad Jorge Tadeo Lozano in Bogota, she studied at the Rijksakademie van beeldende kunsten in Amsterdam (2009-2010).

Milena Bonilla’s discursive practice explores connections among economics, territory, transit, and politics through everyday interventions. Her drawings, sculptures, installations, videos, texts, public interventions, and photographs are active investigations into our often-fallible notions of history. The artist’s current practice involves explorations of knowledge interpreted as a work force, and of nature as an entity colonized by language, consumed on a massive scale through images. Another interest is the way societies represent and consume themselves, taking advantage of the different ways in which the body is controlled.

Her work has been presented in several international institutions and events, such as Framer/Framed, Amsterdam (2019); Garage, Rotterdam (2018); The Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam (2018); Ar/Ge Kunst, Bolzano (2017); Kadist, San Francisco (2018); The Jewish Museum, New York (2017); MAMM, Medellín, Colombia (2015-2017); Spring Workshop, Hong Kong (2015); The Mistake Room, Los Angeles (2015); CA2M, Madrid (2015); MNBA, Buenos Aires; The Photographer’s Gallery (2013); The International Institute of Visual Arts, London (2010); Witte de With, Rotterdam (2010); Konstall C, Stockholm (2009); Marrakech Biennale (2014);  9th Shanghai Biennale (2012); 12th Istanbul Biennale (2011); 10th Havana Biennale, Cuba (2009) and 3rd Bucharest Biennale (2008).

In 2017, Milena Bonilla received The Work Award Proven Talent, awarded by the Mondriaan Fonds.