Francesca Pionati and Tommaso Arnaldi, Unexpected homes (series), 2025.
Black iron, cardboard, glass, wood, paper, foam, resin. 60 x 40 x 40 cm
Photo credit: Karoly Tendl.
MY TONGUE IN MY FRIEND'S MOUTH
Francesca Pionati and Gaia Di Lorenzo duo show at Forma, 15 Bermondsey Square
Produced by Forma Arts and Media, London with the support of the Italian Istitute of Culture of London
PRESS RELEASE
Gaia Di Lorenzo and Francesca Pionati unveil My tongue in my friend's mouth, a new exhibition at Forma, 15 Bermondsey Square. Developed during their two-month residency at FormaHQ in autumn 2024, my tongue in my friend’s mouth brings together new work by the two artists shaped through shared research and dialogue. Though distinct in their approaches, their practices converge around the structures that govern both selfhood and the state — probing the spaces where these structures falter, fracture, or shift, and the personal and societal voids that emerge in their wake.
Installed across Forma’s 15-metre-long window gallery on Bermondsey Square, the exhibition unfolds as a conversation between the bodies of works and the vitrine-like space. Taking advantage of the existing architecture, the artists experiment with layering, transforming the space into a dynamic interplay of material to explore how emotional, architectural, social frameworks can both sustain and estrange us. Di Lorenzo's and Pionati's works meet in this space of rupture, examining how absence, when made visible, can become a site of shared inquiry.
Francesca Pionati’s series of layered works and miniatures offer a counterpoint in their examination of how urban architecture — shaped by policy, profit, and exclusion — can displace and unmoor communities and sever social bonds. Developed in collaboration with Tommaso Arnaldi, and with support from 3D designer Gaia Lazzaro, Pionati explore the relation between small-scale, ephemeral modifications carried out by the occupants—architectural elements that support each other without any infrastructural support or cohesive planning—and the large-scale structural interventions that remain largely inaccessible without major capital investments.
Installation view, My tongue in my friend's mouth, 15 Bermondsey Square, Forma Arts and Media, London, 2025.
Francesca Pionati and Gaia Di Lorenzo.
Photo credit: Karoly Tendl.
Francesca Pionati, What you find vs. what you bring (series), 2025
black iron, plexiglass and 3D printed PLA. 40 x 25 cm, 70 x 30 cm, 23 x 38 cm
Photo credit: Karoly Tendl.
Francesca Pionati and Tommaso Arnaldi, Unexpected homes (series), 2025.
Black iron, cardboard, glass, wood, paper, foam, resin. 60 x 40 x 40 cm
Photo credit: Karoly Tendl.