In February 2026 Yann Bronder visited Villa Eläintarha for a research period. A Brussels-based painter, she experienced a turning point in her practice after an accidental fall in 2024, which left her with a fractured skull. Since then, her work has increasingly incorporated text, photography, and performative elements. Her head has come to serve as a symbol in her work, an emblem; an emblem of her practice.
In 2025, she exhibited in Chicago with Gallery Agnes Offshore, stepping into the persona of a contemporary politician, blending photos and text to blur reality and fiction. Following this, she created Girls and Guns, inspired by a solo trip to Poland and encounters with young women exploring online weapon-fetish diaries. The works translate their aggression, humor, and radical energy into oil paintings and performative images.
Since November, Bronder has been writing an autofiction book in almost real time. The project has brought her to Helsinki, fascinated by Aki Kaurismäki and Alvar Aalto, where life and writing converge. The residency is being documented for a work in progress, together with Bastiaan Vandendriesche: The Melancholy of Being Real.
Learn more about Yann’s work at the Galerie Baronian website: baronian.eu/artists/yann-bronder/
Photo Egle Oddo