“Spaces of Slow Becoming”,
mixed media on paper, wood,
series of 5, 2025
“Spaces of Slow Becoming” is a conceptual work of 5 paintings, comissioned by @mecenatearchivio – publication founded by @emma.ccio , which each edition is dedicated to explore the personal relationship between invited artists and the city.
After noticing that the currency exchange stores in Rome are simply called “Change,” I decided to base my research on the aesthetics of these stores, focusing on typography, color, and repetitive rhythm. The idea to create a barely visible typography came from the observation that change can be visible only in retrospect, never in the given moment – which essentially reflects my experience of leaving my life in Vilnius and moving to Rome two years ago. To express the mantric repetition of the word itself, I decided to use the frames of each painting and repeat it on every side of the frame.
For the documentation of this work, I decided to bring them back to the urban setting of my neighborhood in Rome, completing the full circle of the idea – initially inspired by something seen outside, then modified in the studio, and finally reintroduced to what could be seen as their “natural habitat.” Each work attempts to blend in as if it had always belonged there, but in reality, it never quite does. The careful construction and deliberate craft of the paintings contrast with the chaotic, uncurated nature of the urban environment. This dissonance mirrors the emotional experience of trying to adapt and change – when you think you’re starting to fit in, but something still feels off, as if the transformation hasn’t fully landed, or maybe never will.
thank you to everyone involved <3
@mecenatearchivio
founder and editorial director @emma.ccio
published by @malelingueedizioni
exhibition co-curated by @animal_waves_ and @majdelroumy in @cosmo_trastevere ,
November 1, 2025
Installation view photography by @majdelroumy
“solo tonica con ghiaccio”, 2025
mixed media on paper,
installation, series of 7,
10x15 cm
Exhibited in LASCIA ANDARE, group exhibition curated by @majdelroumy and @amil__cruz ,
@cosmo_trastevere , February 2025.
“Notes”, 2025,
clay, pencils, ball pen,
dimensions variable
Exhibited in “Hotel Fernando 3 stars” group exhibition,
June 11, 2025,
Via dei Tre Archi, Rome.
Set in a former apartment-turned-gallery, this site-specific intervention imagines a fictional couple who once lived in the space before the era of mobile phones, around the late 1980s. With different daily rhythms keeping them apart, the couple communicates through handwritten notes left around the house. These imagined messages are recreated as life-sized ceramic pieces and subtly placed throughout the gallery. Scattered like traces of intimacy, the notes form a quiet archive of inside jokes, reminders, and gestures of care, revealing a tender, private language shared between two people.
“Once, over dinner, I asked Fernando an incredibly banal question, only reasonable given the late hour: “Why in the world would you start your own hotel?” Fernando shrugged and answered lightheartedly, “Of course, because of Mia.” Mia, now his wife of ten years, then his girlfriend of ten months, once joked that they lived like they were in a hotel, only coming home to sleep. “It was a different time,” he said. “I was working as a chef, she was working as an architect. By the time I got home, she would already be dreaming her eighth dream. No mobile phones. No Instagram! You’re all too young to understand.” To keep each other in the loop, they would leave random notes around the apartment: dreams, reminders, inside jokes. Once, they even had an entire fight on Post-its, stretched over six days. “I remember it so clearly,” Fernando said. “She replied to my note with a thick red pen. I could feel her frustration seeping through it: ‘If you like living in a hotel so much, why don’t you open one?’ And I thought… why don’t I? And so the rest is history. Moral of the story: never underestimate a woman with a red pen”.
Eight figures, one afternoon, in search of something they couldn’t quite name. I told them “You must stay longer. The city only begins to speak after midnight.” I made them an offer to stay in my modest house, giving Rome the chance to slowly unravel itself to them, one piazza at a time. Seven days of wandering through ruins, visiting palazzos and parks by day, then returning to the hotel at night to create. Each evening, they invited me to join them for dinner, eager to share the art they were creating within my space. The hotel quickly became their studio. A beautiful collision of strangers and wild hospitality. And now Hotel Fernando opens its doors to everyone; allowing you to come and finally see what these eight strangers created during their stay.
I am endlessly grateful,
- Fernando
June 11,
Via Dei Tre Archi 5,
from 6pm
@m______isha@animalquepensa@majdelroumy@the.brost@boboxo__@carlotarel@gi_fior3@josdegruyterandharaldthys
Graphic design and video installation for performance ‘Žiūrėdama viena į kitą’ (2021).
all my love goes to
🤍VERA COLLECTIVE🤍
@eglesvedkauskaite@elzbieta_latenaite@justinamyk Eglė Gabrėnaitė, Ona Juciūtė, Giedrė Bagdžiūnaitė, @kalbantisvelnias , @ievakotrynaski@agne._ , Mantas Stabačinskas, @julius_kur , Vytautas Narbutas.
#graphicdesign #artdirection #installationart #typography #performance #sirenos2021
