Statement

Our identity as human beings is not unchangeable nor given; it is constructed through experiences and places, moulded by society and personal relationships, sometimes shattered by life events, in a constant process of de- and re-construction.

I’ve always been fascinated by the past as a place of understanding, not only my own personal history and the people in my family, but our society. Since I was young, growing up in the house of my grandparents in Venice, I would go through old photos, hand-written letters and other writings, sensing that the most interesting things in a person’s mind are rarely “told”.

In my work I explore, through the reinterpretation and manipulation of archives, the construction and deconstruction of personal identity. Although my main medium remains photography, most projects come to life through research, the use of existing images and reproduction of archival material through alternative processes of printing and manipulation.

This process of remaking and (self)discovery, can take the form of a struggle, and aims to uncover the latent violence of societal structures and gender norms—within ourselves, family and institutions. Starting from the belief that the “personal is political” [Carol Hanisch] I address universal issues of identity using my emotional and subconscious world as a matrix.

Bio

Francesca Faulin (b. 1985, Venice, Italy) holds a degree in Sociology from Milan (2005) and a Master’s in Artistic Photography from IPCI, Lisbon (2021). Her practice explores the construction and deconstruction of personal identity, with each project developing through archival research, alternative printing processes, and the creation of artist’s books. Since 2022, she has taken part in several residencies and group exhibitions in Portugal and Spain. In 2024, she presented L’ombra, l’originale e la ripetizione in two solo exhibitions in Lisbon and Coimbra, as well as in a group exhibition at Encontros da Imagem, Braga.