Alessandra Mondolfi

Alessandra Carolina Mondolfi passed away in Miami, Florida on January 3, 2025, at the age of 55. She was born on December 14, 1969, in Rochester, New York, and lived in Caracas, Venezuela, for most of her childhood with notable family summers in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and Ocean City, New Jersey.

Alessandra received a BFA in Photography and Sculpture from the Massachusetts College of Art in 1996 and settled in Boston after graduation. Her career there spanned multiple titles including Technical Instructor for the MIT Visual Arts Program, Designer and Fabricator of custom window displays, trade show booths and retail spaces, Art Director for a magazine, Production Designer for a film, Art Handler and Installer for museums, as well as Designer for theater props, sets and costumes. She was also a multi-disciplinary artist with work that ranged from altered photographs to elaborate large scale multimedia installations - exhibited both nationally and internationally - for which she received multiple grants and awards, most notably a Fulbright Grant to Barcelona, Spain in 1996-1997. In 2005, The Improper Bostonian Magazine recognized her rotating window displays as one of the top "IT" things of the year. In 2006, she was awarded Best Booth of Show by the New York International Gift Fair and in 2011 she won Best Eco Booth at the Outdoor Retailer Show. Her commercial work was featured in numerous magazines and television programs and her "Wellie Wagon" was included in the book Very Small Shops.

During her last year in Boston, Alessandra completed what was perhaps her most impressive body of work in the fine art realm - her Bloom series, which explored themes of intimacy, transformation and vulnerability. These intricate wall-mounted sculptures, each made from hundreds of painted plaster casts, appear to be surreal flowers but upon closer inspection are revealed to be body parts.

After moving to Miami in 2016, Alessandra's creative practice shifted towards activism, in response to the political climate. She recognized the importance of garnering media attention with bold visuals, crafting the most dynamic and visually appealing signs, banners and light projections possible, to ensure threats to human rights made the news. Her Props for Protest were deployed in hundreds of local and national actions, drawing a significant amount of local, national and international coverage from media outlets such as the Miami Herald, Miami New Times, The New York Times, The Washington Post, CNN, Vox, The Rachel Maddow Show, Forbes, Al Jazeera and The Guardian. Her Props were acquired by private collectors, for traveling exhibitions, for History of Miami Museum's archived collection and were exhibited in various galleries. Alessandra's creative resistance works also took the form of street performances, short videos disseminated on social media platforms, protest jewelry and street art wheat pastings.

You could always count on seeing her at local and national protests in "uniform": black clothing to let the visuals be the hero, influenced by Bread & Puppet Theater in Vermont. She used her powerful Props and voice to speak up for immigrants, women, the LGBTQ community, civil rights, freedom of the press, the environment and more. She showed no fear and was arrested for protesting more than once. In 2017, she founded and co-organized a nationwide Artist March, featuring the props and visuals that spoke out against Trump's policies, including large "RESIST" letters she had composed by sewing American flags together that could be seen with drones or by plane, like an SOS signal. Alessandra brought together artists, poets, activists, writers, dancers and musicians and formed a community that is unbreakable to this day.

In 2019, Alessandra spent six months with Witness at the Border protesting the migrant child detention facility in Homestead, Florida, the largest center in the country of its kind at the time, detaining around 3,200 children who had been separated from their families upon entering the United States. They exposed the fact that Caliburn International and other corporations were making large amounts of money on each child detainee. Alessandra produced numerous Props and projections during those six months, inspiring an army of protesters. She used the phrase "Homes Instead" in several activations, but perhaps the most effective signs were her large, red hearts that could be waved at children inside the facility. These hearts transcended language barriers, as many children detained spoke only Indigenous dialects. She and other activists stood on ladders with the signs to ensure the children saw them over a tall fence, letting them know that they were not alone. Also in 2019, many politicians visited the site and held the heart signs, including Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava and former Member of Congress Debbie Mucarsel-Powell, as well as Democratic candidates for the presidency Elizabeth Warren, Kamala Harris, Pete Buttigieg, Julian Castro and Beto O'Rourke among others, forcing national news coverage. For any candidates who did not visit the Homestead site, she brought "the camps" to them at the second Democratic debate being held in Miami, by replicating a scene from the detention center that included a chain-link fence sign. Her unrelenting efforts with Witness at the Border paid off and the Homestead detention facility was investigated and later shut down.

That same year, she received the Maurice Rosen Act of Courage Award from the ACLU of Florida and the Virtuosic Artful Activism Award by Backbone Campaign.

There are so many things we'll miss about Alessandra... Her infectious maniacal laugh. Her inability to navigate a morning without black coffee and a cigarette (or a few). Her depth of palate that spanned the globe. Her appreciation for any menu you put in front her. Her deep-rooted love of trip planning. Her organizational skills that surpassed all others. She could use her hands to make anything. Absolutely anything. A frenetic energy that was unmatched. Simply put, she was a marvel. Her empathy for oppressed people became her life's purpose and to act on their behalf. She was a true force of nature who left a deep impact on so many individuals and communities. In the words of the late John Lewis, whom she once met, Alessandra Mondolfi got into "good trouble, necessary trouble." May we all carry on her legacy. Rest in power, Alessandra.

A remembrance event will take place in Miami, Florida on Feb 9th, 2025. RSVP to attend here:

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/alessandra-mondolfi-remembrance-event-tickets-1208368716359?aff=oddtdtcreator

It will be livestreamed for those who cannot attend in person (follow her Facebook page for details).

Her commitment to the streets will transcend death, as Alessandra will march one more time post-mortem. She loved the City of New Orleans and thus, per her wishes, her ashes will be carried by New Orleanian friends in the "La Société de Saint Anne" Walking Krewe on Mardi Gras, March 4th, 2025 and will be scattered in the Mississippi River.

Donations can be made in her honor to Backbone Campaign and Witness at the Border.



https://witnessattheborder.org/

https://www.backbonecampaign.org/