PORTRAITS

Performance, 2023–2024

The project originated as a portrait stall presented during a public art festival in Bologna, Urca Festival 2024. Through a performative game, participants could “win” a portrait: an oval aluminum tray was pressed onto the face, leaving an imprint and transforming it into a unique portrait. A simple, direct, immediate gesture that overturns the traditional notion of representation and authorship.

The documentation of the action, shared on social media, generated an unexpected reaction: millions of views, mixed comments, excitement, and rejection. The project sparked a broad and polarized discussion about what is considered art, its value, gesture, and meaning in contemporary culture.

The work was later revisited and presented at Artissima 2024, where the project became part of a conscious staging of its own virality: people requesting portraits, actions organized as if the artist had suddenly become a famous portraitist. The video created in this context exceeded 30 million views, with global resharing.

From a performative game, the project evolved into a reflection on the art system and contemporary communication. Drawing on Arte Povera practices, Duchamp’s ready-mades, and the artistic revolutions of the twentieth century, the work uses a common object and a simple action to question the role of the artist, the audience, and the media. Virality becomes an integral part of the work—not as an end, but as a tool for sociological and cultural inquiry into our present.

Materials: aluminum trays, performance, video
Exhibited at: public art festival (Bologna), Artissima (2024)
Online reach: over 30 million total views