Mailand Kunst
ENG

Interview. Federica Francesconi

Federica Francesconi's work studies the concept of perception and its alteration of it in painting, installation, performance, and narrative terms. From the light-shadow relationship, perception and its alteration expand toward the investigation of art and the art system itself.
6. Federica Francesconi, untitled diptych, (clickbait), enamel on canvas, 200x150 cm, 2022
Federica Francesconi, untitled diptych, (clickbait), enamel on canvas, 200×150 cm, 2022

From the mode of representation to the mode of media communication and narration of themselves and their own work. The object and its representation are today for the artist surpassed by the narrative of them. Her work analyzes this perceptual gap, this constant alteration. Is what we see really what we see?

5. Federica Francesconi, untitled diptych, (clickbait), enamel on canvas, 70x50 cm, 2022
Federica Francesconi, untitled diptych, (clickbait), enamel on canvas, 70×50 cm, 2022

What inspires you as an artist?
Potentially everything. If we open Instagram today we might get some very good insights into what I mean by alteration of perception. Everything we are offered is imposed on us by a system where our image determines who we are. The more compelling the plot and the more it matches certain standards, the more palatable we are in the eyes of others.


But is this real? Here, this relationship between the real and the unreal is an inspiration for me.

How do you spend your free time?
I am looking for the best answer to make the story more interesting. I will leave this chapter incomplete. I am interpreting my image and nothing else.

Describe your process of creating a new artwork.
Concept, Experimentation, Choice of material, Union of concept+material = image

What are your favourite artistic mediums?
Thought. It does not have any kind of limit or boundary, it represents a separate medium, but it has only one flaw, it must often be translated into painting or sculpture to be seen; the skill lies in keeping it as intact as possible.

Your works often do not have a title. Why?
Because I love paradox. I don’t make poems and I don’t pretend to make anything that is somehow already expected. Nevertheless, Untitled can be considered as a title, all my works are actually Untitled. They are experiments, and only for projects or exhibitions do I then use narrative titles, as I encapsulate particular research with them. Fake it ‚till you make it, the latest solo exhibition I opened with Apparatus Projects in Chicago, is an example.

0. Federica Francesconi, untitled, 50x40 cm, oil and solvent on linen,  2020
Federica Francesconi, untitled, 50×40 cm, oil and solvent on linen, 2020

Which is?
Fake it ‚till you make it is a provocative work that comes from the desire to alter the perception of the exhibition, relying on the use of the online image that, as I said before, makes the narrative of the exhibition itself real. I randomly found photos of industrial space on a real estate website. I immediately thought they were perfect installation views of the exhibition. So I decided to use these images to create an aesthetic/spatial expectation about the exhibition I was going to present by posting them online earlier from the opening. Expectations altered: only a camera on a tripod was on display, reproducing them on its screen.

What are you working on now?
I am currently producing new works for a very huge exhibition. I am working on the theme Clickbait. The audience will be forced and blinded to the gaze of the work, like sunlight or like a banner ad.

Federica Francesconi – www.federicafrancesconi.com