Bruna Mayer is a visual artist born in 1986 (Brazil). She develops her work through an interdisciplinary praxis that includes video and installation. Her most recent production investigates living microorganisms to reflect on the interdependence among beings and the transience of our existence. In her work, Bruna delves into the symbiotic relationships between fungi, bacteria, and humans in search of a broader and more integrative vision of life. These elements transcend the boundaries between life and death, human and nature, human and non-human.
Master of Arts from the Universität der Künste Berlin (UDK), Bachelor of Visual Arts from Centro Universitário Belas Artes de São Paulo, the artist won a scholarship to study illustration at the Art Center College of Design (Pasadena, USA). She participated in the GlogauAIR art residency in Berlin, where she began her research on the cultivation of microorganisms.
While investigating the body's invisible ecosystem, Bruna collected organisms from her body by exposing them in a vitrine facing the streets in Berlin. The organisms grew and developed for 20 days. Then, from 2020 to 2022, she performed temporary public interventions at different locations in the Tiergarten park and UDK's Konzertsaal (both in Berlin).
Throughout her practice, she has worked with several materials such as water, food, cotton, thread, paint, glue, milk, and beeswax, among others, using the body as a starting point to reflect on matters related to what is intrinsic to our existence. By connecting with the most intimate parts of the being, Bruna seeks to materialize underlying aspects that might have been neglected or put aside due to their unsettling characteristics but that, when denied, grow stronger, infiltrating and expanding under the surface.
Recent exhibitions include institutions such as the International Biennial of Curitiba, BR (2021), Kühlhaus Berlin and Floating University in Berlin (2022, 2021), De School in Amsterdam, NL (2020), Bunker 101 in Cologne, DE (2018). She also won the award for best Short-Film at the Brazilian Film Festival in Los Angeles, USA (2015).