Francesca Pionati is an artist and researcher interested in the relationships between politics, legal systems and the Southern Italian territory. Her work investigates ways in which formal and informal urban architectures and infrastructures retain trauma, as well as strategies of resistance and commoning that emerge in response to institutional, colonial and capitalistic forms of violence.
Pionati’s research focuses on analyzing language, bodily manifestations of psychic states and physical infrastructures through archival material, forensic investigations, interviews and encounters. To develop her works Francesca employs process-based collaborative practices and embodied research methodologies borrowed from radical pedagogies, resulting in performances, video works, publishing and curatorial projects.
Since 2020, Pionati has collaborated with Tommaso Arnaldi as a member of the artist duo VEGA. In 2021 they established the curatorial and research practice Iniziative di II with Nicolò Pellarin, dedicated to exploring the relationship between performativity and different forms of physical and immaterial spaces. From this experience, the collective initiated the independent publication II Magazine, aiming to question and broaden current publishing canons in relation to lesser visible or permanent forms of dissemination. The forthcoming Issue #1—Unpublishing and Publishing, co-edited by Francesca and Dalia Maini, addresses systemic forms of censorship and control through ongoing dialogues with artists, collectives, organizations and researchers working to make visibile and oppose such mechanisms.
In 2023 the collective, together with curator Antoine Simeão Schalk, started una notte sola, an ongoing series of events in Rome promoting sonic investigations, performance research and non-temporary urban communities within the club space.
Pionati’s practice is closely linked to radical pedagogies, centered around principles of mutual aid and cooperation. In 2022 Francesca joined the Dutch Art Institute (DAI), a nomadic program standing between artistic practice and theoretical research, intending to expand alternative pedagogical methodologies and temporary communities. Since 2023 she has also been the Artistic and Academic Advisor of the Studio Program of the independent experimental learning program CASTRO based in Rome,
where she invited Maya Rodriguez Castro, Joshua Wicke and Veza Maria Fernandez to lead seminars for the 2024 cohort of fellows.
The research by Pionati has been presented at MACRO - Museum of Contemporary Art of Rome, Museo MA*GA, Triennale Milano, Gallery of Modern Art Rome, Cassina Project, MATTATOIO, Manifattura Tabacchi Firenze, Fondazione smART, Sant’Andrea de Scaphis, MEGA Milan, SPAZIOMENSA, Artissima Fair, Fondazione Fabbri, Vleeshal and Centrale Fies among others. She is currently in residence at FORMA Arts and Media in London, with the support of the Italian Institute of Culture in London. She has also partaken in the residency programs PLAYTIME , La Quarta Partete at Triennale Milano, Prender-si Cura at MATTATOIO, VISIO – European Programme on Artists' Moving Images , and FONDAMENTA at Teatro India. In 2024 she qualified first for the Lazio Contemporaneo Open Call, the biggest national prize awarded to Roman artists, while in 2022 she won Premio Francesco Fabbri per le Arti Contemporanee and Premio Nazionale Arti Visive Città di Gallarate. In 2024 she was shortlisted for the artistic curatorship of Short Theatre in Rome, alongside Joshua Wicke and Elena Rivoltini.