11 QUESTIONS – Federica Francesconi
1. How do you describe your own practice?
My art practice focuses on altered perception. I explore the idea that what we see and perceive is not necessarily what is real and present. Through my works, I try to question our reliance on objective reality and highlight the dynamics of deception, expectation, and image manipulation.
2. Which question is central to your work?
If Frank Stella were to say, ‘What you see is what you see’, I would raise doubts as to whether that statement truly holds. I challenge the authenticity of the images and representations that envelop us, encouraging us to question our perceptions and challenge the notion of apparent reality.
3. What do you listen to when creating?
Silence. While working I try to clear my mind and be in the present.
4. What is your main source of inspiration?
My main source of inspiration is image manipulation and storytelling. I am interested in exploring how deception and alteration of reality can be represented artistically and affect our perception of the world.
5. Who are your biggest artistic influences?
Definitely Minimal Art for its aesthetic essentiality and Conceptual Art for its revolution of language. In the contemporary, I draw from artists who are able to play with advertising and media as an artistic tool.
6. If you could collaborate with any living artist, who would it be and why?
Maurizio Cattelan. I admire his provocative approach and his ability to create embarrassment by playing with scandal.
7. What was your first experience with art?
I believe that the experience of art is inherent in human nature, and everyone as a child has had an initial encounter with art in some form. Everyone experiences it, but not everyone makes it an expression of themselves.
8. What do you consider your greatest artistic achievement?
I would say the collaborations. They are great moments of confrontation and sharing. For example, having exhibited together with artists like Mario Garcia Torres and Stefan Bruggermann in Mexico, or with Albert Oehlen in Vienna.
9. What work or artist has most recently surprised you?
Recently, nothing. The last thing that really surprised me was Anne Imhof’s performance Faust at the Venice Biennale. I found it to be a total work, able to tell personal stories in a direct way. It was simple yet complex, impossible to encapsulate in words and images.
10. What is the best piece of advice you have ever received about your art career?
To work on understanding myself. Only through a deep understanding of the inner self can one achieve creative freedom and create authentic and meaningful artwork.
11. What are some of your upcoming projects or plans ahead?
I have an exhibition scheduled at the Quadriennale in Rome. I will be presenting large canvases in a vertical format.
I am interested in what the eyes can see and will continue to work on that.
Alejandro Javaloyas
Exploring IRL and on-chain contemporary abstraction.
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