Francesco Pedraglio Artist, writer and editor living between Italy and Mexico City, Francesco Pedraglio is interested in storytelling as a tool to decode intimate encounters with both mundane and historically complex situations. He looks at how the process of narrating and staging - oneself, or a situation - influences the relationship between teller and listener, making visible the fantasies and fictions that constitute our reality. Francesco writes, “In my work, the idea of “frame and framing” has always been present. I come from experimental writing and live performance, primarily spoken word performance. And the idea of defining a stage, framing an action, a scene, has always been part of my Work. In both live events and videos, I used the concepts of “prospective” and “frame” as conceptual tools to discuss how we—as spectators and listeners—make sense of our surroundings. So, naturally, I also brought these interests with me when I started drawing and painting. The drawings are always “studies” for future paintings. And in both drawings and paintings, my main interest is in the potential viewer observing them... a viewer as the sole “actor” in the silent performance of observing the drawing/painting and, as such, entering a performative space. Because when a person is looking at a drawing/ painting, he or she is the real protagonist of this little, a-temporary action. In the drawings I sent you, I try to rethink the idea of “frame” both literally (in fact, they are imaginary frames... our mental idea of what a frame might be) and conceptually (I draw them floating in empty space to create a flat object/image that is more of a symbol than a real object). Once I started drawing them, I also realized they had a kind of resemblance to those frames used on old mirrors... So I decided to leave the center of the image empty precisely to suggest that, as a viewer, you might see yourself reflected in the center of the work. I’m not entirely sure why that interests me... but I think it somewhat completes the idea of how the act of giving meaning to something also means giving meaning to oneself. And that’s where the title of the drawings comes from.” Recent exhibitions: MACRO, Rome (2020); Artists’ Film International, GAMEC Bergamo (2020); Norma Mangione Gallery (solo), Turin (2019); Kettle’s Yard (solo), Cambridge (2018); Museo Leonora Carrington (solo), San Luis Potosí (2018); Casa Tomada, Mexico City (2018); Kunstverein Munich, Munich (2017); PAKT, Amsterdam (2017); CRAC Alsazia (2017); Sheffield Fringe, Sheffield (2016); Parallel Oaxaca, Oaxaca (2015); The Physics Room, Christchurch, New Zealand (2015); Kunsthalle Wien (2015). www.acertainrealism.com www.johnofthething.net