[ and it is on the failure of both [ who’s disturbed ] [who disturbs further ] that we can mutually forge: relationality, kinship, materiality, habitats, Əcologies ]
[ in my view, sculpture is a semiotic triangle, whose references continuously metamorphose by interbeing agency, the organicity of matter and the subjectivity of processes, regardless, as their ultimate end ]
ph. guido mallamace MABOS 2021 / courtesy the artist ©
[ CV ++ bibliography ]
smdz / medina zabo (b.arezzo n.d.) based in london/uk and etruria /it
education
MFA, arts and humanities, royal college of art (career progression bursary) 2024BA painting accademia di belle arti di perugia (chen ming bursary), accademia di belle arti di roma 2015-20MA (hons) communication, università degli studi di perugia _ PGcert new media IED istituto europeo di design, rome, 2010(2012 career shift) investigative journalist, video reporter / italian order of journalist // (2013 ongoing) cohabitation with bees + lepidoptera learn more
grants ++ residencies ++ awards
resident artist ACAVA (2022)/ VO curations (2023) london //sense residencies MABOS, museo d’arte del bosco della sila, catanzaro (september 2021) //pilotenkueche international program, leipzig (april-june 2021)//award winning O.R.A. prize for the artistic research, selected by curva pura (2018) //13th arte laguna prize finalist /land art section (2018)orange book 2022 / artrepreneur_org NY, award winner + best 100 selected artists (2020-22) //collaborations
aram bartholl_ wannacry (weeping angels), 57th venice biennale, hyper pavilion, curated philippe riss-schmidt, produced by fabulous inc. may-september 2017 performer // eliza soroga, women in agony, arsenal of venice, march 2017, performer // andreco, parata della fine – the end of anthropocene era, curated giada pellicari, contemporary art center luigi pecci, prato, february 2017, performer // fondazione progetti beverly pepper, residencies –opera pr1ma off/beverly feat. accademia di belle arti pietro vannucci – (january 2017) / beverly pepper tra todi e il mondo curated massimo mattioli, (november 2018) sponsored by fondazione progetti beverly pepper//gruppo jobel, creative drawing and writing teacher and lecturer, bottega arti creative, rome (fall winter 2017-18) //public collections
MABOS, museo d’arte del bosco della sila, catanzaro //procura della repubblica, palazzo martorelli orsini, spoleto //available catalogues ++ publications
il problema ambientale nell’arte contemporanea, silvioli d., in: nuovo lessico critico, ecologia, a cura di prisca amoroso, castelvecchi editore, (2023) // genetica della forma, texts davide silvioli, valeria de siero, marco tonelli, kappabit edizioni, rome (2023) // arte e bosco, il secondo catalogo del MABOS , galileo editore, (2022), curator angelo gallo // orange book volume, artrepreneur NY publishing, new york (2022) // fuori fuoco: angrisani-tancredi-tosti-zabo, texts davide silvioli, freemocco ed. (2022) // iron collective, critical texts manuela de leonardis, mara predicatori, davide silvioli, emma tramontana, antonella cristina manni, freemocco edizioni (2022) // brana, omaggio a brajo fuso, exhibition catalogue, curatorial texts andrea baffoni, fabrizio fabbri editore (2018) //
++ site specific ++
(2018) f-u-t-u-r-a 3018 / porta santi quaranta treviso // supported rete dei festival di treviso, curated subsculture
++ selected group shows ++
[ contacts ]
brickfield studios, E3 3LT london
info@medinazabo.com
mobile: ask mom
[ statƏment of teƏming cyborgs ]
is the process of metamorphosis the ultimate cyborg?
i consider the process of metamorphosis as a method and heuristic paradigm that facilitates encounters with phenomena of the unforeseeable and feral entities towards the audience. that’s all i observe too: how the ephemeral, metamorphic charm of nature’s grace draws us in while simultaneously feeds the ancestral fear of the otherwise.
in 2013 i found myself under the same roof with a family of honeybees. they suddenly swarmed indoors and settled in, marking the first of many such entanglements across realms. Not so separate, i have thought since then. Over time, this experience gradually merged with the ethical framework of investigation from my previous career. non-human encounters unearthed the limits of wordsmithing and scientific observation. in response, i chose to dedicate my inquiry entirely to the visual arts. initially inspired by nobel laureate karl von frisch’s studies on bee communication and further contemporary sociobiological theories, my research soon began weaving anthropology with a queer perspective of going-gaga.
materiality and chemistry are borrowed from ordinary life and organic by-products meant to be destroyed, combined with renaissance techniques and multimedia interventions.
handling these living archives i see the same uninhabited homes in our cities, their embodied memory endlessly erased and replaced. i only arrange a safe place for things to happen according to their real nature. my position is, quite simply, that of a machine connecting subsystems through the re-enactment of stratification, accumulation, assembly, and deconstruction, co-labouring with multiple entities. layers of coats are my signature, my discourse, and archival records of mutual care.
is this fraught process a failure or resilience? or only to us?