Patrizza Bonardi presents “GAZA TRAUMA – Songs in the Sun?”, a project born out of the need to explore collective trauma through material, gesture, and relationship. The exhibition, curated by Mariateresa Zagone, is conceived as a space for listening and reflection on wounding, memory, and the possibility of healing. The project draws inspiration from “Enemy of the Sun. Poetry of Palestinian Resistance,” a collection of Palestinian poems published in 1970, and from reflections on the concept of Sumud: the ability to remain steadfast, preserving dignity and presence even under the most difficult conditions.
The title evokes the sun as an image of freedom and resilience, while the songs become a metaphor for those shared gestures capable of creating a space for presence, connection, and healing within the wound. The songs in the sun are also linked to the actions Bonardi has carried out over time with people, in public squares and in spaces dedicated to art, where the individual act is transformed into a collective experience.
The Artist’s Installation and Research
At the heart of the project is a large site-specific installation composed of suspended bandages. Fragile yet resilient gauze is transformed by the artist into a tapestry of memories, bodies, and relationships. The bandage—a recurring element in Bonardi’s work since 2008—transcends its purely curative function to become a symbol of vulnerability, the need to be heard, and the possibility of healing.
Reflections on wounding and healing are intertwined with the artist’s research, which she has developed—in particular—since early 2024 through projects and actions dedicated to Gaza. This journey also includes the performance Bonardi created as part of “GAZA NO WORDS” at Palazzo Mora in Venice, an experience in which the body, gesture, and presence become tools for exploring what words cannot convey.
Symbolic Elements of the Project
Next to the installation, sixty keys are dedicated to the Palestinian women in the refugee camps who created the tapestries on display at Palazzo Mora in Venice as part of a collateral event of the Biennale. The keys form a symbolic archive of hands, stories, and bonds, evoking the right of return and the passing down of memory from one generation to the next.
With this work, the artist does not intend to depict trauma or transform it into an image. Rather, she constructs a space in which it can be recognized and navigated, inviting the visitor to pause before fragility without turning it into a spectacle. The result is a place where one can reflect on the possibility of a shared response to the wounds of the present and on the role that art can play when confronted with what cannot yet be mended.
The initiative is organized in collaboration with the Artists.Sociologists Association and with the support of Global Sumud Flotilla – Bergamo Land Crew, Teachers for Gaza, ARCI Bergamo, Vigils Against Deaths at Sea, Women in Black, and Vero Verde.
