Maria Elena Bonet

Artist / Filmmaker / Author

 

Born in Belarus,

Currently based in Poland ⇄ Italy

 

Maria Elena Bonet is a multidisciplinary artist whose work unfolds as rituals of transformation, merging analogue photography, video, sculpture, poetry, and sound.

 

Born in Minsk (1986), she graduated in Graphic Design and Photography from the Belarusian State Academy of Arts. Since 2010 she has developed a distinctive voice working with analogue and historical photographic techniques (gum bichromate, tin process, cyanotype). This approach brought her representation at Galerie Rouge, Paris (2019–2021), numerous exhibitions across Europe and the delivery of author’s master classes in manual photography.

 

Her major project My River (2018–2020) was a turning point in her practice. It grew from childhood memories of a Belarusian riverside village into a multilayered exploration of ancestral memory, historical trauma, and resilience. The project culminated in a large-scale exhibition at the Ujazdowski Castle Centre for Contemporary Art (Warsaw, 2022), received 1st Prize at the Month of Photography in Grenoble (2021) and was screened at the Valdarno Cinema Film Festival in Italy (2021). It has been described as a meditation on history and the fragile relationship between personal and collective memory.

 

Building on this trajectory, Betrothal to the Sea (2021–2023) continued Bonet’s exploration of freedom, emphasizing creation as an act of autonomy and resilience. Developed on the Baltic coast in Gdańsk, the project blends visual, spatial, and textual elements into an alchemical ritual of liberation. The project also extends into music: her Belarusian poetry is featured in the album Zaručyny, created with the Belarusian–Polish band Fantastic Swimmers, where her voice blends with acoustic and experimental sounds.

 

Since 2024, Bonet has been working in Italy on a new project, studying sculpture and founding Fiumerapido Film Studio, while living between Poland and Italy. She is currently developing a large-scale multidisciplinary work, Tu sei il Giardino, which merges sculpture, film, sound, and poetry into a living organism of metamorphosis. Sculptures from Tu sei il Giardino have already been recognized, with one receiving a Special Mention at the COMEL Arte Contemporanea Award (Italy, 2024).

 

Education and Scholarships

2004–2009 / Belarusian State Academy of Arts, Degree in Graphic Design and Photography, Minsk

2008–2011 / Individual training in analogue and alternative photographic techniques in the studios of Albert Tsekhanovich and Andrei Voskresenski, Minsk

2021 / Artist fellow, Gaude Polonia Scholarship Programme, Ministry of Culture and National Heritage of Poland, Warsaw

2022 / Artist fellow, Cultural Scholarship of the City of Gdańsk; Artistic Grant of the Marshal of the Pomeranian Voivodeship, Poland

2022–2023 / Research Fellow, K. Kalinowski Scholarship Programme, University of Warsaw, Poland. Theoretical research project: The Alchemy of Creativity: The Importance of Manual Photography Techniques in Shaping the Author’s Language in the Digital Age.

2023 / Artist fellow, Artistic Scholarship of Villa Decius Institute for Culture, Poland

2024 / Training in sculpture, MOST+ Mobility Programme, Italy

2025 / Artistic Grant of the Marshal of the Pomeranian Voivodeship, Poland

 

Achievements:

2024 sculpture ‘13th Bozzolo’, the COMEL Arte Contemporanea Award, Latina, Italy, finalist and Special mention

2021 the Source series, Month of Photography, Grenoble, France, 1st place winner

2021 video My River, short film competition, Valdarno Cinema Film Festival,  Cinema Masaccio di San Giovanni, Valdarno, Italy

2020 My River project nominated for the National Fine Arts Award: Art Photography, Minsk, Belarus. Maria Bonet withdrew the project from the competition in solidarity with a censored artist and the victims of state violence in Belarus

2020 1st place winner of the National Competition Art of the Book, design of the book Savva Sivko by N. Savchenko, Minsk

2017 Maria's artwork is included in the top 100 original photographs of the 19th–21st centuries, from the 2002-2017 collection of the State Museum and Exhibition Center ROSPHOTO in St. Petersburg. 

2009  2nd place winner of the republican project Minsk Pictures: Private Life,  NOVA Gallery, Minsk

 

 

Solo exhibitions:

Fiori del Nord

2025 / ProLoco, Noto, Italy

2025 / Club Famiglie, Rossolini, Italy

 

Betrothal to the Sea

2024  Chiesa di Santa Maria Maggiore / Sant’Elia Fiumerapido, Italy

2023  Instytut Kultury Willa Decjusza / Krakow, Poland

 

My River

2023  Młyny Rothera / Bydgoszcz, Poland 

2022  Ujazdowski Castle Centre for Contemporary Art / Warsaw, Poland

2022  Instytut Kultury Willa Decjusza / Krakow, Poland

2020  ZAl#2, Palace of Art / Minsk, Belarus  

 

Home

2021  La Chapelle de Rosaire, le festival Promenade Photographique de Yenne / France

2012  National Historical Museum / Minsk, Belarus 

 

There is nothing that could not be a cloud 

2019  ROOMS / Minsk, Belarus  

 

Marionetta 

2017  Gallery "Art-Belarus" / Minsk, Belarus 

 

Night and Day

2015  Museum of Contemporary Art / Minsk, Belarus 

The main collective exhibitions:

 

•  Opposti Paralleli, Rocca Janula, Cassino, Italy / 2025

•  Alluminio, sotto la Superficie, Spazio COMEL Arte Contemporanea / Latina, Italy / 2024

•  Things Take Time, Dark Gallery CPH / Copenhagen, Denmark / 2024

•  Gdansk Biennale of Art, Gdansk City Gallery / Gdansk, Poland / 2023 

•  Video projection of the My River project within OKO orchestra performance – SPRAVA Festival, White Church / Belarus / 2021

•  Le Mois de la Photo – Ancien musée de Peinture / Grenoble, France / 2021

    Long list in 2020

•  Promenade Photographique de Yenne – la Chapelle de Rosaire / Yenne, France / 2021

•  Photo-Art Festival MOST-21 – Palace of Arts / Minsk, Belarus / 2021

•  Hostages – New Belarus Art project – St. Petri Kirche / Hamburg, Germany / 2020

•  Correspondances – La Galerie Rouge / Paris, France / 2020

•  International Art festival Art-Minsk – Palace of Arts / Minsk, Belarus / 2018, 2019, 2020

•  Libros-objeto/Cajas de autor – Desvan Blanco space gallery / Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Spain / 2019

•  Autumn salon with Belgazprombank – Palace of Arts / Minsk, Belarus / 2019 – 2016

•  La Passeggiata – Galerie Agathe Galliard / Paris, France  / 2019

•  Lyubchansky region. People and time – The National Historical Museum / Minsk, Belarus / 2019

•  Today and tomorrow. Young artist from Belarus – Arka gallery / Vilnius, Lithuania / 2018

•  ROSPHOTO’s 15th Anniversary Exhibition – the best original photos, received in the collection from 2002 to 2017 – the State Russian Museum and Exhibition Centre ROSPHOTO / Saint-Petersburg, Russia / 2017

•  Open Youth – Palace of Arts / Minsk, 2017

•  Photo project The Odyssey – National Center for Contemporary Arts / Minsk, 2017

•  Photogram and Gum arabic – Mastatski Mayontak / Minsk, 2016

•  International exhibition dedicated to the 155th anniversary of the first color photography Aspiration for color – the State Russian Museum of Photography / Nizhny Novgorod, 2016

•  Project Likht-Art – Gallery of the Belarusian Union of Designers / Minsk, 2015

•  International Festival of Pinhole Photography Playing Classics – Museum of the Belarusian Cinema History / Minsk, 2015

•  Polonaise – Republican exhibition dedicated to the 250th anniversary of Michal Kleofas Oginsky – Palace of Arts /  Minsk, 2015

•  Steps – Gallery” University of Culture” / Minsk, 2015

•  The Minsk School of Photography. 1960’s–2000’s – The State Russian Museum and Exhibition Centre ROSPHOTO /  Saint-Petersburg, 2014

•  International Exhibition Photo Project – Cultural and Exhibition Center The Tenishevs / Smolensk, 2014

•  Photo project Metamorphosis – The National Historical Museum / Minsk, 2012

•  Photomania – International Photographic Biennale / Kaliningrad, 2011

•  Photo project Continuation – Museum of Contemporary Art / Minsk, 2010

•  Minsk Pictures: Private Life – NOVA Gallery / Minsk, 2009

Publications:

 

2021 • From the Riverbed series. 2019. Music for the Dead and Resurrected / Musik för de döda och återuppståndna  by Valzhyna Mort / Nirstedt, Stockholm, Sweden

2020 • From the Mistletoe series. 2012. Aquarium / Акварыум by Siarhiej Kalenda, Minsk 
2018 – 2020 • catalog Art-Minsk
2019, 2010 • Bolshoi magazine, Minsk
2016, 2017, 2018, 2019 • catalogues Autumn Salon with Belgazprombank, Minsk
2016 • album-catalogue The local design. Persons and objects, Minsk
2014 • album-catalogue The Minsk School of Photography. 1960’s–2000’s, Saint-Petersburg
2014 • album Metamorphoses, Minsk
2014 • album-catalogue Volga Biennale-2014, Nizhny Novgorod
2010 • album Continuation, Minsk
2009 • album Minsk photos private life, Minsk

 

Maria's works are in collections of: Villa Decius Cultural Institute, Krakow, Poland; National Center for Contemporary Arts, Minsk;  Art-Belarus Gallery, Minsk, The State Russian Museum and Exhibition Centre ROSPHOTO, Saint-Petersburg; The State Russian Museum of Photography, Nizhny Novgorod and in private collections around the world.