in parentheses

Francesca Floris, born in Oristano, Italy, in 1992. I make photos and cartoons. I attended the “Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia” in Rome. I’ve been working in the film industry as a professional for the past four years. In May 2020, I joined some colleague photographers in working with actors through the medium of the webcam, starting a series of photoshoots that are set during the Covid-19 emergency lockdown in Italy.

http://www.francescafloris.eu

Francesca Floris is the cover artist of the 2020 Summer Issue of In Parentheses.

“Agave” from the world of las

---

The story of Las narrates a long moment of imagination during which the protagonist dreams of finding the strength to pursue her ambitions and conquer the woman she loves. For me, this story is a thought on all the women I could only wish for. These women, all of whom converge in the figure of Anna (the object of Las’s desire), were unaware guests of my imagination. When we think intensely about something, when we imagine, we take ourselves away from what we perceive as reality. We are elsewhere. The place where our imagination is unfolding is, at that moment, our reference environment. There are objects, natural elements, people, with which we interact and with which we spend our time. The mechanism of my exhibition places this environment as the central place of representation. Fantasy is the starting point. Next to it, a few meters away, there is another circumscribed space that represents reality. Through a system of mirrors and lights, the person who is in the space of reality is reflected within the environment that represents fantasy. The elaboration, on our part, of a thought, addressed to the person we love, is nothing but the journey that the subject takes through the mirrors, to be projected inside the scenography. Once she/he gets there we can guide them, or simply observe them. The eye of the camera, like ours, is elsewhere. It is not aimed at reality but towards the dream. It observes what comes from reality while it moves in the protected space of our imagination. In this way, fantasy becomes a concrete place, while reality becomes impalpable. At the exhibition (2019), at the Media Library Santa Teresa (Milan), in February, and the Centro Luigi Di Sarro (Rome), in May, visitors had the opportunity to personally experience the mechanism, observing and photographing each other inside a scaled-down version of the device used for the exhibited photographs. The project was published in February 2019 by Officina Libraria (Milan).

from the cover artist, Francesca Floris.

Number 1 was the position of the actress (the girl who represents the object of the desire). Number 2 is the first mirror, number 3 is the second mirror (which is actually a partially reflecting glass). Number 4 is the set (which represents the mind of the lover). And number 5 is the position from which one takes the photograph. So basically the reflection of the girl travels inside the mind of the lover and one can see her from that position moving inside the mind.

Yes she can move. So it’s sort of made to represent daydreaming: you imagine a person moving in your fantasy, so your fantasy becomes the concrete place. At this moment, the person in the fantasy (which comes from reality) is less perceivable.

Because that is all you have: the landscape of your mind. But you don’t really have the person.

from the artist, Francesca Floris

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

---