MONICA TOLIA
Monica Tolia is a London-based visual artist, performer & organiser.  Their multidisciplinary practice culminates into sensory installations, performances & events drawing on communal ritual acts, animist & Taoist spiritual themes as decolonial approaches to inhabiting space together.  Their research is based on how non-Western knowledge practices can inform collective-building, deep connections & healing amongst human and more-than-human worlds, contemplating critical questions with regard to influences of technology & political reality.  Since 2021, they are co-founder of the ESEA diaspora collective ‘Have you eaten yet?’, organising performance-based events on the intersections of food, migration, art/activism & creating affectionate space.
CONTACT:  MONICATOLIA89@GMAIL.COM

CV

Monica Tolia, b. 1989
Lives and works in London, UK


EDUCATION & TRAINING
​2022  Constellations, alternative learning programme in social practice & public art run by Up Projects, Flattime House & Liverpool Biennial
2018  MFA Fine Art, Goldsmiths, University of London, London, UK


EXHIBITIONS, PERFORMANCES & TALKS

2022
DÉCALÉ 6, Space289  |  London, UK
Resolution Festival 2022, The Place  |  London, UK
Have you eaten yet?' Collective & VFP presents Lunar New Year Festival, Deptford X & Deptford Lounge  |  London, UK


2021
Hidden Harts performance film screenings: '2m', 
hARTslane Gallery  |  London, UK
(Online) HARSH LIGHT series, Bloc Projects  |  Sheffield, UK & ONLINE
(Online) 'Between food, art & activism' for ESEA Heritage Month, BESEA Network  |  ONLINE
(Performance & exhibition) Have you eaten yet?​, Deptford X Festival Commission  |  London, UK

2020
Ruderal Consciousness,
hARTslane Gallery  |  London, UK
Return to the Body, Chalton Gallery  |  London, UK


2019
(Talk) 'Digital & the Body' Panel in 'Performance Design in the Digital Age' Symposium, V&A Museum  |  London UK
Conditions, Unit 50/51 Whitgift Centre  |  Croydon, UK

Performance: 'Ambient Reproduction' in Mass Hysteria presents: 'What'soverthefence cherries'  |  London, UK
Art Night 2019, Chalton Gallery  |  London, UK
Friday Lates: Art Schooled, V&A Museum  |  London, UK
Anamorphic Waves, Ugly Duck  |  London, UK
Performance: 'BioSonics' in UKYA City Takeover Festival, Nottingham Contemporary  |  Nottingham, UK
Diaspora Disco, Eastern Margins & Phantom Limb presents: Lunar New Year, The Yard  |  London, UK
Contingent Behaviours, Gossamer Fog  |  London, UK

2018
Open Studios, Conditions  |  Croydon, UK
(Talk) RIXC Open Fields 2018: Global Control, Int'l Conference on Art, Science, Technologies & Humanities, National Library of Latvia  |  Riga, LV
Goldsmiths MFA Fine Art Degree Show 2018, Goldsmiths, University of London  |  London, UK
(Talk) 'Art and Automation' stream, London Conference in Critical Thought 2018, University of Westminster, London, UK
(Talk) AVBODY: Symposium on the Audiovisual Body, The Research Centre for Performance Practices at University of Huddersfield, UK
Diffracta, Total Refreshment Centre  |  London, UK
Sonic Topologies, The Glove that Fits  |  London, UK
Sofia Underground Performance Art Festival: "what now/now what", Sofia Arsenal-Museum for Contemporary Art  |  Sofia, BG
Edited Arts presents: Radiophonic Festival, The Cause  |  London, UK


AWARDS & GRANTS
2022  |  Shapes Lewisham (CEZ) Creative Happenings Grant
2021  |  
a-n Artists Bursaries 2021: Time Space Money
2021  |  Trinity Laban Ignite Award
2020  |  Arts Council England Emergency Support Grant for Artists
2019  |  Arts Council England National Lottery Project Grant for 'FUTURE PRESENT'
2019  |  Santander Universities Prototyping Fund Grant
2018  |  a-n Biennial Bursary Award - Berlin


RESIDENCIES
2020  |  Deptford X: How to be together again, London, UK
2019  |  Pavilion Dance Southwest, with Robert Bridger, Bournemouth, UK

2018  |  Desktop Choreography, RECLAIM Digital Movement Research Residency, curated by Robert Bridger, London, UK
2018  |  UK Young Artists Cornish Weekender, residency at Porthmeor Studios, St. Ives, UK


PRESS & PUBLICATIONS
Contextual Essay by Mimi Chu, Deptford X.  July 2021.
'Future Present' - Monica Tolia Interview, Chrom Art Magazine.  April 2019.
Ten Artists to Watch: MA & MFA Shows 2018, Elephant Magazine.  24 July 2018
Interview: Goldsmiths MFA 2018 'art in the spotlight'.  June 2018.


​​©  2022  Monica Tolia

  • HOME
  • -----
  • WORKS
  • HAVE YOU EATEN YET? COLLECTIVE
    • NIAN is here! 年到了
    • Lunar New Year Festival 2022
    • Deptford X Festival 2021: Have you eaten yet?
    • ABOUT 你吃了吗
  • a snake in the house means the family will never want
    • The Place (June 2022)
    • Deptford X Festival (July 2021)
  • Low Murmur
  • 2m
  • Flora / Fauna / Machina
    • Chalton Gallery for Art Night (June 2019)
    • Gossamer Fog (January 2019)
  • Technologies of Lived Abstraction: FUTURE PRESENT
    • FUTURE PRESENT 2
    • FUTURE PRESENT 1
  • BioSonics
  • -----
  • ABOUT
  • NEWS
  • INSTAGRAM
  • HOME
  • -----
  • WORKS
  • HAVE YOU EATEN YET? COLLECTIVE
    • NIAN is here! 年到了
    • Lunar New Year Festival 2022
    • Deptford X Festival 2021: Have you eaten yet?
    • ABOUT 你吃了吗
  • a snake in the house means the family will never want
    • The Place (June 2022)
    • Deptford X Festival (July 2021)
  • Low Murmur
  • 2m
  • Flora / Fauna / Machina
    • Chalton Gallery for Art Night (June 2019)
    • Gossamer Fog (January 2019)
  • Technologies of Lived Abstraction: FUTURE PRESENT
    • FUTURE PRESENT 2
    • FUTURE PRESENT 1
  • BioSonics
  • -----
  • ABOUT
  • NEWS
  • INSTAGRAM