Pictured Maria Bonomi.Brazilian artist Maria Bonomi will be the guest of honor at the unveiling of the much-anticipated 'Abstract Mind Mural: Art Exploring Individuals with Mental Illness' on April 20. The mural explores the depths of mental illness through 69 panels created by artists from all over the world.
'Abstract Mind Mural' is a collaboration between the Aldo Castillo Arts Foundation and the Neumann Association. The mural will run through May 15 at the Museum of Science of Industry.
Bonomi is internationally known for her monumental engravings, which typically show conflict between straight and curved lines. For this particular project, Bonomi donated a woodcut titled, 'Signy-image.'
The artist took time out of her busy schedule working on a project in her hometown ( São Paulo, Brazil ) and moving to chat with Windy City Times.
Windy City Times: Could you explain 'Signy-image' to me?
Maria Bonomi: It means 'a world apart or invented,' I think. I think the problem of mental illness is never complete. Sometimes you are able to capture it.
WCT: Can you explain to me a little bit of what your work symbolizes? I see a lot of conflict, but also centrality, in the piece.
MB: It symbolizes all the frictions and all the situations that someone who has the problem lives with inside of them. At the same time, I believe that spiritually, it can move and react to all these things because of an unexpected quality here. That's why there's the color white over all other colors. It looks like a person, it looks like a brain, it looks like an image, no? The white is full of the rest, but at the same time, on top. Like a survivor. That's very much the spirit of the piece.
WCT: Can you explain a little bit to me about how art, as a practice, is a healing tool?
MB: I think they can explore their limits and the freedom that art proposes as an experience. It's an experience of complete freedom. You can see that with a child. Even primitive people practice art. They don't have any known limits. It's the only moment, the only place where a person is completely free. I think that when someone is ill, if he can practice art, I think he can go very deep inside of himself and face the world outside at the same time.
It's a very intimate experience that goes much deeper than words and much deeper than—only music can also explain that. Music can treat people. It can give them emotions and help very much. I think visuals can also create the same behavior. ...
We have an experience here [ in Brazil ] with people working in simple places where they have a problem in schools learning mathematics. So we put them in contact with [ musicians and artists ] and they went into mathematics much better. That is an experience we've had here with very simple people in the country.
On the other hand, I think we have a separation in the world with artists. You have two movements. And I think artists, to produce some kind of image, they only have to have some kind of very abnormal experience to feel. A normal experience for an artist is something more. It's an illumination. I believe that some people have illuminations that we don't have.
WCT: Why is it important to have an exhibit such as the 'Abstract Mind Mural?'
MB: It's to let normal—when I say normal, I mean sane people—know the experience and the proposal is very challenging because it occupies our mind as artists to go deeper inside and try to understand that we can understand more with image than with words. It's like a big conversation with many new voices—voices we didn't know we had. We have to talk in a language we all understand.
WCT: Personally, why did you want to be involved?
MB: I'm always searching and looking for this kind of experience on the limits. We have some artists some groups doing that here in Brazil. … I was always interested in the similarity of invention and madness.
WCT: How has mental illness either touched your life personally, or someone close to you?
MB: I have a cousin. He was mongoloid and I used to stay with him. He was more or less my age, a little younger. Then, he died. He was a very special person. I have a little granddaughter that is now four years old who had some problems with trauma. She's practically normal. She's improving very much. I hope to be with her because I've heard she's moving in a big, visual way.
WCT: Is there anything else you'd like to add about the mural?
MB: I think the experience that Aldo Castillo proposes is very, very moving, and is very intelligent to propose at the moment because the culture of disability is a big portion of knowledge. He had the courage to go inside something that is not commercial, that is much more than that. And I think it's a real treat to work with him and people from different countries. I'm very happy to be a part of the mural and come to Chicago. It's a new world there. Perception is the best part of America. My friends from New York would kill me. [ laughs ] . You [ Chicago ] are searching for something else. We feel that in the air. You have a beautiful brotherhood that's looking out for the best of the future. I'm very happy to participate.
