SELECTED PROJECTS SUMMARY
2016 — Installation, found objects, photographs, notes
Research-based installation developed from an expedition to Ilha do Cardoso, a protected island on the Brazilian Atlantic coast where ocean currents deposit debris from different parts of the world. The work investigates ecology, globalisation, and invisible systems of circulation through objects carried by the sea.
Sounds after Caspar David Friedrich
2015–ongoing — Field recordings, sound installation
Ongoing sound project developed from visits to locations paint- ed by Caspar David Friedrich. By recording the contemporary soundscapes of these sites, the work reflects on changing perceptions of nature, the legacy of Romanticism, and the transformation of landscape under modernity.
2014–ongoing — Participatory sound archive
Long-term collaborative project composed of sound recordings sent by people from different parts of the world in response to the question: “What does silence sound like where you are?” The work explores listening, presence, and the fragility of silence in contemporary environments.
Vento Sul
2021 — Bronze installation
Installation composed of leaves and branches carried by the wind into the gallery space and later cast in bronze. The work reflects on ephemerality, atmosphere, material transformation, and the subtle ways landscapes enter and shape built environments.
fossil-drama
2017 - visual essay
A visual essay reflecting on geological and urban time through fossil-bearing rock formations and the layered construction of São Paulo. It draws parallels between sedimentation and the accumulation of urban space, where both natural and built environments become archives of time.
https://pivo.org.br/en/blog/renata-de-bonis/
Travel Notebook: Notes, Reveries, and Field Records
2020 - PhD Research
My PhD research developed a hybrid artistic and theoretical investigation grounded in travel as both method and medium. Structured across seven volumes, the thesis combined photogra- phy, site-specific observation, travel writing, and critical reflec- tion to examine how landscape, monumentality, and movement shape artistic production and cultural imagination. Through encounters with places such as Stonehenge, Land Art sites, and the landscapes depicted by Caspar David Friedrich, the research approached walking, displacement, and attentive observation
as both artistic and critical acts, directly informing the development of my practice.
2019 — Sound piece
Sound composition constructed from edited dialogues extract- ed from films, revolving around gestures of invitation, repetition, and failed encounters. The piece explores interdependence, relational balance, and the fragile negotiations that sustain human and ecological coexistence.
Botanical Diasporas
2025 - ongoing — Research project involving painting, drawing, and writing
Research-based project investigating the migration of plants across territories and the ecological, political, and colonial his- tories embedded in gardens and landscapes. Through botanical observation and speculative writing, the work approaches plants as living witnesses of displacement, adaptation, and coexistence.