[ 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 ]
medina zabo is a transdisciplinary sculptor based between london and tuscany, whose work metabolizes the process of metamorphosis questioning interbeing agency through a multifaceted language. they completed an MFA at the royal college of art in 2024, and are also an alumn* of accademia di belle arti di perugia, accadema di belle arti di roma, istituto europeo di design and università degli studi di perugia. much of zabo’s work stems from an early career in investigative journalism and a decade of first-hand experiences of cohabitation with bees and moths that autonomously settled in their home.
[ 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) 2024
BA painting accademia di belle arti di perugia (chen ming bursary), accademia di belle arti di roma 2015-20
MA (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 id 164972 // (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_ NY, award winner selected artist (2020-22) //selected exhibition ++ site specific
(2024) in secret dens / riverside walk, us embassy, london + WAF wandsworth fringe festival // supported royal college of art & wandsworth borough council(2024) co-creating with nature / sustainLab RCA annual show, gulbenkian gallery, london // curated giada holland, zofia kierkus, yenah kim, hoi man lai, hee jo kang(2023) *prompt for credentials, solo show / VO curations, london (artist book)(2022) genetica della forma / galleria d’arte moderna giovanni carendente, palazzo collicola arti visive, spoleto // curator davide silvioli (catalogue)(2022) *esercizio di decenza VOL 1+2, solo installation / chiesa madonna del pozzo // studio A87, texts valeria de siero, michela becchis, municipality of spoleto(2021) *il paesaggio futuro, rappresentazione immaginazione, solo installation / IX castelnuovo fotografia, rome // curated elisabetta portoghese, michela becchis, manuela de leonardis (catalogue)(2021) oltre cenere / MABOS museo d’arte del bosco della sila, catanzaro, permanent installation (catalogue)(2021) language gaps / galerie kub, leipzig, site specific// curated joanna glinkowska(2021) MOP month of photography, reimagining hope / CPAC colorado photographic arts center, denver US // curated CPAC samantha johnston(2019) diversioni, mariani pallante vicidomini zabo / centro della ricerca contemporanea luigi di sarro, rome // curator davide silvioli (artist book)
(2019) materia prima, curva pura + boccanera gallery / castello aliprandini laifenthurn, trento // curator michela becchis (exhibition publication)
(2018) f-u-t-u-r-a 3018 arts festival / porta santi quaranta treviso, site specific // supported rete dei festival di treviso, curated subsculture(2018) *in buono stato, solo show / curva pura rome //curated river of trees(2017) mimmo paladino and the young artists / museo tattile omero, mole vanvitelliana, ancona // supported TACTUS contemporary, MIBAC ministero dei beni culturali (catalogue)
screenings ++
(2020) IV international bad video art festival, khodynka gallery, moscow, curators natalia monakhova and andrey slaschilin // (2020) #tempofermo / 16civico, pescara, curator christian ciampoli, texts chiara scarlato
group show ++
(2024) interstitial collective / safehouse, london // (2023) iron collective / studio campo boario, rome, curatorial texts virginia ryan, mara predicatori, manuela de leonardis (catalogue) // (2022) i nuovi reperti brooke_laplante_zabo / MUST museo della scienza del comune di spoleto // (2022) contemporary abstract /hilliard gallery, kansas city US, curator bob swearingin // (2022) fuori fuoco, angrisani tancredi tosti zabo /studio attilio quintili, curator davide silvioli (catalogue)// (2021) play deep play, pilotenkueche, leipzig, curator joanna glinkowska // (2019) 13rd premio arte laguna / arsenale of venice (catalogue) // (2019) sciame project / presentetion, MACRO rome // (2019) natura naturans / complesso di san francesco in cortemilia, cuneo // curator valeria guglielmi, supported cortemilia municipality (2018) // (2016) opera pr1ma / umbria terre musei, pinacoteca civica di spello // various curators, supported regione umbria, ABA perugia (catalogue)collaborating
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, d.silvioli, 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) //
[ contacts ]
proposition studios, shoreditch, E1 6NR 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?