Bianca Poláková
The work of Bianca Poláková (2000, Bratislava, Slovakia) is situated on the borderline between the visual and the performative. She develops installation and performance art with a strong focus on sensory experience, storytelling, ecofeminism, and immersive narratives that investigate how mythological and folkloric motifs can re-enchant contemporary relationships with the natural world. Through sensory materials, symbolic gestures, and participatory elements, she creates poetic situations that invite audiences to reconsider the boundaries between human and more-than-human bodies. She also creates larger environments exploring imaginative futures, often using the visitor as a co-actor.
Her projects draw on ancestral knowledge, ecological processes, and speculative imagination, positioning art as a ritual space for transformation and reconnection. Working with organic matter, ephemeral media, and performative actions, she examines themes of memory, disappearance, and ecological empathy, proposing new ways of perceiving and inhabiting the world.
Alongside her artistic practice, she engages in theoretical research on ecological performance and contemporary myth-making. Her work has been presented in exhibitions and interdisciplinary contexts across Italy, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, France, Germany, and the United States, and she continues to develop projects that bridge artistic practice, research, and environmental thought. She currently lives and works in Bratislava (Slovakia) at her studio in the independent cultural center Nová Cvernovka.
studies
Master of Fine Arts, Sculpture and Installation, Rome University of Fine Arts, Rome, Italy
BA (Hons), Painting and Printmaking Department, Academy of Arts in Banská Bystrica, Slovakia
Study Mobility, Ceramic Studio, Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Bratislava, Slovakia
ERASMUS+ Study Mobility, Sculpture Department, Academy of Fine Arts in Prague, Czech Republic
awards/scholarships/
residencies
2026
Mawddach Residency, Eryri/Snowdonia National Park, Wales
2025
Playing Memories — a residency project for the creation and production of multidisciplinary performances in an international setting, presented in BASE (Milan, Italy) and Sala Colonne (Paris, France)
2024
Collaboration Scholarship, Winter and Summer School Office, RUFA, Rome, Italy
2023
Dean’s Award for the Best Bachelor Work, Academy of Arts in Banská Bystrica, Slovakia
Excellent Academic Merit Scholarship, Academy of Arts in Banská Bystrica, Slovakia
courses and workshops
2025
Art as Mayhem Instead of Career — Masterclass with Ragnar Kjartansson, RUFA, Rome
Deconstruct the Gesture with Matilde Sambo, RUFA, Rome
2024
Performance Masterclass with Silvia Giambrone, RUFA, Rome
Painting Masterclass with Mauro Di Silvestre, RUFA, Rome
2023
Project Brief: Save the Planet — Design for Circular Economy, RUFA, Rome
2022
Dubí Course in Ceramics, Czech Republic
Screen Printing on Clay with Teja Hlacer, La Meridiana International School of Ceramics in Tuscany, Certaldo, Italy
2019–2020
Figurama Workshop with Boris Jirků, Banská Bystrica, Slovakia
selected solo exhibitions
2024
What We Look for Beyond Seeing, RUFA Space, Rome, Italy
Presented on the occasion of the Contemporary Art Foundations Committee’s 10th anniversary, in collaboration with Pastificio Cerere Foundation, Memmo Foundation, and NOMAS Foundation
selected group exhibitions
2025
In Between — Lakeside Park, Bratislava, Slovakia
2024
Phygital, RUFA Space, Rome
Ambiente Festival, Parco della Caffarella, Rome
2021
ZVTFX, Gallery FX, Banská Bystrica, Slovakia
Tehláreň Festival, Liptovský Mikuláš
2020
Figurama, Gallery FX, Banská Bystrica, Slovakia
performances and lectures
2026
MADE IN NC — public lecture on current practice in Nová Cvernovka Cultural center, Bratislava, Slovakia
Heaven is a Place on Earth — performance at CCAM Fest: Fluxus – The Yale Center for Collaborative Arts and Media (CCAM), New Haven, CT
2025
Nibble Nibble Gnaw — performance at the Performance Cluster 2025: Discipline / Desire / Surveillance”, MAXXI – National Museum of XXI Century Arts
What Lives in the Space Under the Skin — performance at Fascinatrix festival, Nová Cvernovka, Bratislava, Slovakia
M.A.K. (Milk of Ancestral Knowledge) — performance at Performance-Box: From Roots to Branches, RUFA Space, Rome, Italy
Performing Myth, Enacting Ecology: Ritual in Contemporary Environmental Performance Art — public lecture at RUFA Space, Rome, Italy
2024
Masticare la Lingua — Performance at Performance Cluster – Beyond the Pale, RUFA, Rome, Italy
Too Sweet For Me — performance, Via Benaco 12, RUFA, Rome, Italy
Skin 2000 Balloons and Let Them Fly — performance, Via Benaco 12, RUFA, Rome, Italy
Performing Sustainability: Integrating Performance Art into Fashion Narratives — lecture for students of Sustainable Fashion Design department, Ostiense Campus, RUFA, Rome, Italy
2023
Whisper Sweet Nothings to Me — performance, Via Benaco 12, Rome, Italy
publications
2021
Winner of publication in Pankumenta Magazine, Berlin, Germany
artistic collaborations/
internships
2024–2025
Studio Marta Jovanović — Internship, Rome, Italy
2024
Davide Dormino studio — Internship, Rome, Italy
2023
Planetary Garden — Curation and scenography, Fashion Performance Giardino Planetario, Rome, Italy
Mawddach Residency, Eryri/Snowdonia National Park, Wales
Playing Memories — a residency project for the creation and production of multidisciplinary performances in an international setting, presented in BASE (Milan, Italy) and Sala Colonne (Paris, France)
Collaboration Scholarship, Winter and Summer School Office, RUFA, Rome, Italy
Dean’s Award for the Best Bachelor Work, Academy of Arts in Banská Bystrica, Slovakia
Excellent Academic Merit Scholarship, Academy of Arts in Banská Bystrica, Slovakia
courses and workshops
Art as Mayhem Instead of Career — Masterclass with Ragnar Kjartansson, RUFA, Rome
Deconstruct the Gesture with Matilde Sambo, RUFA, Rome
Performance Masterclass with Silvia Giambrone, RUFA, Rome
Painting Masterclass with Mauro Di Silvestre, RUFA, Rome
Project Brief: Save the Planet — Design for Circular Economy, RUFA, Rome
Dubí Course in Ceramics, Czech Republic
Screen Printing on Clay with Teja Hlacer, La Meridiana International School of Ceramics in Tuscany, Certaldo, Italy
Figurama Workshop with Boris Jirků, Banská Bystrica, Slovakia
selected solo exhibitions
What We Look for Beyond Seeing, RUFA Space, Rome, Italy
Presented on the occasion of the Contemporary Art Foundations Committee’s 10th anniversary, in collaboration with Pastificio Cerere Foundation, Memmo Foundation, and NOMAS Foundation
selected group exhibitions
In Between — Lakeside Park, Bratislava, Slovakia
Phygital, RUFA Space, Rome
Ambiente Festival, Parco della Caffarella, Rome
ZVTFX, Gallery FX, Banská Bystrica, Slovakia
Tehláreň Festival, Liptovský Mikuláš
Figurama, Gallery FX, Banská Bystrica, Slovakia
performances and lectures
MADE IN NC — public lecture on current practice in Nová Cvernovka Cultural center, Bratislava, Slovakia
Heaven is a Place on Earth — performance at CCAM Fest: Fluxus – The Yale Center for Collaborative Arts and Media (CCAM), New Haven, CT
Nibble Nibble Gnaw — performance at the Performance Cluster 2025: Discipline / Desire / Surveillance”, MAXXI – National Museum of XXI Century Arts
What Lives in the Space Under the Skin — performance at Fascinatrix festival, Nová Cvernovka, Bratislava, Slovakia
M.A.K. (Milk of Ancestral Knowledge) — performance at Performance-Box: From Roots to Branches, RUFA Space, Rome, Italy
Performing Myth, Enacting Ecology: Ritual in Contemporary Environmental Performance Art — public lecture at RUFA Space, Rome, Italy
Masticare la Lingua — Performance at Performance Cluster – Beyond the Pale, RUFA, Rome, Italy
Too Sweet For Me — performance, Via Benaco 12, RUFA, Rome, Italy
Skin 2000 Balloons and Let Them Fly — performance, Via Benaco 12, RUFA, Rome, Italy
Performing Sustainability: Integrating Performance Art into Fashion Narratives — lecture for students of Sustainable Fashion Design department, Ostiense Campus, RUFA, Rome, Italy
Whisper Sweet Nothings to Me — performance, Via Benaco 12, Rome, Italy
publications
Winner of publication in Pankumenta Magazine, Berlin, Germany
artistic collaborations/
internships
2024–2025
Studio Marta Jovanović — Internship, Rome, Italy
2024
Davide Dormino studio — Internship, Rome, Italy
2023
Planetary Garden — Curation and scenography, Fashion Performance Giardino Planetario, Rome, Italy
Studio Marta Jovanović — Internship, Rome, Italy
Davide Dormino studio — Internship, Rome, Italy
Planetary Garden — Curation and scenography, Fashion Performance Giardino Planetario, Rome, Italy
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