Rooted in embodied and transhistorical research, Bongard’s practice explores ancestral memory, placelessness, and cultural erasure through the lens of food and storytelling. Working across publishing, performance, and sensory installations, she draws on archives, mythology, oral histories, and land-based practices. Her work weaves ancient narratives into new stories, images, and rituals—reimagining plural ways of belonging in an increasingly uprooted world.

Lara Bongard (b. 1995, Apeldoorn) is a trans-disciplinary artist, cook, and researcher at LUCA School of Arts in Ghent, where she also received her B.A. in 2019 and M.A. in 2020. Her work has been presented at the Nieuwe Instituut in Rotterdam, Jewish Museum Amsterdam, Morpho Antwerp, a rose is a rose is a rose in Amsterdam, and Barcelona Design Week. She has participated in residencies at Casa Balandra, Robida, and Cascina Lago Scuro. Her work is included in the Dutch National Collection and the The MET Library in New York. She writes for METAL, MOLD, Mister Motley, and is part of the Fluid Futures research cluster and SIT-PLU Lab at LUCA School of Arts. Since 2024, she is editor-in-chief of the online platform Woven Women.

Her first book, The Girl Who Crossed the River with a Tablecloth was published by Art Paper Editions in 2023.

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Dinners, Events, and Workshops

• Folktale Kitchen with Sanabel Abdel Rahman, workshop, LUCA School of Arts, Ghent, BE (2026)
• Crafting the Archive, symposium, Nieuwe Instituut, Rotterdam, NL (2026)
  

• Sowing Worlds, reading group & lunch, SIT-PLU, LUCA School of Arts, Ghent, BE (2026)
  

• Judeo-Futurism with David Bernstein & Julie Weitz, Jewish Museum, Amsterdam, NL (2025)
  

• Entangled Dreaming, curatorial, performance-lecture by Marieke McKenna, SIT-PLU, LUCA School of Arts, Ghent, BE (2025)
  

• De oorsprong voor de voorsprong, curatorial, workshop by Ibrahim Traoré, SIT-PLU, LUCA School of Arts, Ghent, BE (2025)
  

• Tracing the Roots of Colour: Dye, Food, and Ecological Narratives, workshop, LUCA textielontwerp, Ghent, BE (2025)
• LUCA-Lab Kick-off, curatorial, SIT-PLU, LUCA School of Arts, Ghent, BE (2025)
  

• Edible Echoes, workshop, LocHal, Tilburg, NL (2025)
  

• Edible Echoes, workshop, Buddy to Buddy, Breda, NL (2024)
  

• Murmuring Voices, performative lunch, Doctoral Seminar, LUCA School of Arts, Ghent, BE (2024)
  

• Botanical Patchworks, food installation, Doctoral Seminar, LUCA School of Arts, Ghent, BE (2024)
  

• Book launch, The Girl Who Crossed the River with a Tabcloth, ROZENSTRAAT - a rose is a rose is a rose, Amsterdam, NL (2024)
  

• Book launch, The Girl Who Crossed the River with a Tabcloth, Kunsthal, Ghent, BE (2024)
  
• Book launch, The Girl Who Crossed the River with a Tablecloth, Terranova, Barcelona, ES (2023)
  

• Travelling Dinner Ta(b)les, workshop & dinner, Casa Balandra, Mallorca, ES (2023)
  

• Sukkot dinner in collaboration with David Bernstein, Morpho, Antwerp, BE (2023)
  

• Travelling Dinner Ta(b)les, workshop & dinner, Academy of Margins, Robida, Topolò, IT/SNV (2023)
  

• Moving Grounds, dinner, Broei, Ghent, BE (2023)
  

• Tracing the Roots of Colour: Dye, Food, and Ecological Narratives, workshop, LUCA textielontwerp, Ghent, BE (2023)
  

• W&W: A reflexive dinner around Barcelona’s food culture, Barcelona Design Week, ES (2021)

Publications

• Academy of Margins: An Experiment in Learning-with, Robida (2024)
  

• The Girl Who Crossed the River with a Tablecloth, Art Paper Editions (2023)    
• The Girl Who Crossed the River with a Tablecloth, Master thesis, LUCA School of Arts (2023)
  

• SPREAD MAG. Issue 2, DISGUISE (2020)
  

• The In-Between Place, self-published (2019)
  

• A Placeless Journal, magazine, self-published (2019)
  

Selected Exhibitions

• Het Geheugen, Studio Herinner, LocHal, Tilburg, NL (2025)
  

• The Scope of Stories: Tracing Vernacular Landscapes, Blanco, Ghent, BE (2025)

• The Girl Who Crossed the River with a Tablecloth, Jewish Museum, Amsterdam, NL (2023)
  

• The Girl Who Crossed the River with a Tablecloth, LJG, Amsterdam, NL (2022)
  

• De Nabije Toekomst, selection of LUCA Master graduates, online (2021)
  

• SPREAD MAG. #02, magazine launch and exhibition, online (2020)
  

• How Soft Did You Expect This Fruit To Be?, BFA Graduation, LUCA School of Arts, Ghent, BE (2019)

Artist Residencies

• Casa Balandra, Mallorca, ES (2023)
  

• Academy of Margins Summer School, Robida, Topolo, IT/SVN (2023)
  

• The Green Corridor, Brussels, BE (2023)
  

• Cascina Lago Scuro, farm-to-table chef’s residency, Cremona, IT (2021)
  

• L’Ane Vert, Tadedna, MA (2019)
  

In the Press

• Le 18 Substack, El Dialogue, interview (2024)
  

• Lara Bongard, Een draagbaar thuis, essay, Studium Generale ArtEZ (2023)
  

• Lara Bongard, Een draagbaar thuis, essay, Mister Motley (2023)

• Jesse Lemmens, Kunst op papier in coronatijd, essay, Mister Motley (2023)
  

Artist Talks & Teaching

• Workshop, LUCA Textile Design Department, Ghent, BE (2025)
  

• Vrijheidscollege with Abdulaal Hussein, LocHal, Tilburg, NL (2025)
  

• Guest lecture: Anthropology of Art, LUCA, Ghent, BE (2023)
  

• Workshop, LUCA Textile Design Department, Ghent, BE (2023)
  

• Guest lecture: ELISAVA, Barcelona, ES (2022)
  

Collections

• The Metropolitan Museum of Art Library, New York (USA)

• De Rijkscollectie Nederland, Den Haag (NL)
  

Awards & Grants

• Amsterdams Fonds voor de Kunst, NL (2023)
  

• LUCA School of Arts Break-Out Fund, BE (2023)
  

• Prins Bernhard Cultuurfonds, NL (2023)
  

• Hendrik Muller Fonds, NL (2023)
  

• Stichting Stokroos, NL (2023)
  

• Jewish Youth Fund, NL (2023)
  

• Stichting Niemeijer Fund for female artists, NL (2022)
  

• Best Thesis, LUCA School of Arts, Ghent, BE (2021)
  

Published Writing

• Diana Markosian: Father, Piecing Together the Past in the Present, FOAM Amsterdam, essay, METAL (2025)
  

• On Viviane Sassen’s Work, Influence, and Magical Thinking, interview with Aya Musa, METAL (2025)
  

• De dood als voortdurende staat van verandering, essay, Mister Motley (2024)
  

• Fluxus Corporum - Moving Bodies, exhibition review, METAL (2024)
  

• De uitwissing van de Palestijnse aanwezigheid, planten en waterbronnen — over het werk van Sirah Foighel Brutmann en Eitan Efrat, essay, Mister Motley (2024)
  

• Pasta Madre as Pretext for Exploration, interview, MOLD (2021)

• Klaas Rommelaere - Stitching Together Life, Love and Memory, article, METAL (2021)

• Lisa Konno - Fashion as Carrier of Stories, interview, METAL (2021)               
• Alex Dodge - Distorting Reality, interview, METAL (2021)    
• Tigra Tigra - Handicraft Futurism, interview, METAL (2021)
  

Selected Art Book Fairs

• Tokyo Art Book Fair, JP (2025)
  

• New York Art Book Fair x Printed Matter, USA (2023-2025)
• LA Art Book Fair x Printed Matter, USA (2023-2025)

• Offprint London, UK (2023-2025)

• Offprint Paris, FR (2023-2025)

• Index Art Book Fair, CMDX, MX (2024)

Education

• MA Visual Arts, LUCA School of Arts, Ghent, BE, Summa Cum Laude (2020)
  

• BA Visual Arts, LUCA School of Arts, Ghent, BE, Cum Laude (2019)
  

• Erasmus exchange, BA Textile Design, LUCA School of Arts, Ghent, BE (2017)
  

• BA Visual Arts (first 3 years), AKV St. Joost, Den Bosch, NL (2015-2018)

• BA (1st year) Allround Art-Direction and Design, Academie Artemis, Amsterdam, NL (2014)

• Preparation course Design, Edinburgh College of Art, UK (2014)
  

Roles & Experiences

• SIT-PLU, researcher, LUCA School of Arts, Ghent, BE (2025-2027)
  
• Editor-in-chief, Woven Women (2024-ongoing)
  

• Member of research cluster Fluid Futures, LUCA School of Arts, Ghent, BE (2022-ongoing)
  

• Team member, Ponto d’Orvalho Festival, Montemor-O-Novo, PT (2024)
  

• Writer, Mister Motley, Amsterdam, NL (2023-ongoing)
  
• Writer, METAL, Barcelona, ES (2021-2025)
  

• Participant Oxford Food Symposium ‘Food Rules & Rituals’, online (2023)
  

• Team member, Foodculture Days Biennial, Vevey, CH (2023)
  

• Editor, SPREAD MAG. (2021-2022)
  

• Food design assistant, Studio Nicole Vindel, Barcelona, ES (2021-2022)
  

• Photography assistant, Studio Olga de la Iglesia, Barcelona, ES (2021)
  

• Garde Manger, Marres Kitchen, Maastricht, NL (2021)
  

• The Artist & the others, 5-day workshop, online (2021)
  

• Storytelling Course, The Mezrab Storytelling School, Amsterdam, NL (2020)