Remote Portraits
a project with Nelimarkka Museum
May 2020
Due to the lockdown in the spring 2020 I had to prolong my Art Residence at Villa Nelimarkka in Southern Ostrobothnia, Finland. There, in cooperation with the Nelimarkka Museum I organized an artistic project called Remote Portraits which involved over 40 people from all over Europe. With the help of a webcam, I painted the portraits of the participants while having conversations with them.
I asked every participant to write a question or a reflection they wished to share with another participant. Then I randomly assigned the questions to the participants and we could talk about it during the portrait session.
My purpose by this virtual dialogue was to let people think about something they normally wouldn't think about through a stranger's point of view.
At the same time this gave me the opportunity to have a topic to talk about during the portrait session in case the conversation became awkward or somebody stopped to talk. I prefer painting portraits while people talk or move because I can see better their personality.
I ended up talking about my personal feelings and experiences about those topics. Sometimes I would change my point of view about something through those dialogues. Sometimes I would remember what another participant said related to the same topic. In this spontaneous way the virtual dialogue became much wider than expected.
You can take a peek at those conversations between strangers via the link below.
On the left: Francesca drawing a “Remote Portrait”.
On the right: Francesca on the regional newspaper of Southern Ostrobothnia
