ProgettoFATUO
EmergeNYC Flagship (2025)
ProgettoFATUO was born in 2020 from a shared vision of Giulia Felici and Alessandra Di Cicco. Starting from their individual paths, they meet in their first explorations through video art. Starting from a need, they then decide to question the medium itself, feeling increasingly familiar with performance. Starting with installation as a conceptual foundation, progettoFATUO embraces the body as a territory of expression, exploring between visual and sound languages and embodiments. Their research focuses on the complexity of being female, exploring the facets of acceptance, rejection and living with one’s body and mind. They stage the anxieties, disturbances and challenges faced by those living on the borderline between gender identity and sexual orientation, exploring the intersections of feminism and queer culture. ProgettoFATUO strives to transform individual experiences into collective narratives, offering a safe space for reflection and confrontation. Performances are not limited to mere artistic display, but become an opportunity for dialogue and social transformation, challenging spectators to explore new perspectives and question their own through participation.
My name is Giulia Felici (she/her) and I am a multidisciplinary artist with experience in photography, installation, videoart and performance art. I was born in Pesaro, a small province town in Italy. In 2015, after obtaining a Graphics and illustration diploma from Liceo Artistico F. Mengaroni, I decided to move to Rome to carry on with my studies and cultivate my passion for theater and photography. I studied portrait and reportage photography with poetic and journalistic writing at Graffi photography school. In parallel, I started developing my performance research and exploring physical expression by attending the working sessions of the “Melograno” association. In 2017, the desire to expand my artistic competence brought me to the Accademia di Belle Arti di Venezia, where I attended the New Technologies of Art faculty. Thus I went through a multidisciplinary academic journey which allowed me to explore videoart, photography, installation and performance and to enrich my artistic vision. This journey ended in 2022 in the Accademia di Belle Arti di Roma. In 2020, together with Alessandra Di Cicco, I founded the ProgettoFATUO collective, within which we explore themes linked to transfeminist, queer and social practices reflecting our experience as women. In 2023, as a collective, we attended the first phase of training within “Scuola Conia”, a triennial summer intensive program in techniques of representation and performance directed by Claudia Castellucci. Successively, I attended a four-month performance course directed by Marta Jovanovic within RUFA International Academy in Rome, an experience which further honed my research in combining performative and multimedia languages. I worked in several contexts which enriched my professionality. I worked as a stage photographer and videographer for five years in several theaters in Rome, as a director and production assistant for MokaFilm Productions for three years, and as an assistant for two years for artist Ileana Florescu. Since 2021 I’ve been active in the independent and political environment in Rome, organising and taking part in events, exhibitions and happenings, showcasing personal projects and research within the collective.
My name is Alessandra Di Cicco (she/her), and I am an Italian performance artist. I was born in Cassino in 1999, currently working and studying in Rome. After my studies in ballet, theater and cinema, I started my research through performance art. My training is developed through self-taught studies and with schools and artists inside and outside the Roman territory. In 2020 I co-founded ProgettoFATUO together with Giulia Felici. ProgettoFATUO is an independent collective but also a family-city, in which we explore experiences from a transfeminist and queer perspective, creating performances that interweave individual experiences with collective performance experiences, through installations that integrate photography, video art and sound with workshop practice experiences.