Federica Di Pietrantonio Explores Digital Subcultures at The Gallery Apart

Federica Di Pietrantonio (Rome, 1996) presents her second solo show at The Gallery Apart in Rome, titled 'You lost me', following her 2020 debut 'My life as yours'. The exhibition delves into the relationship between humanity, technology, and identity, blurring boundaries between individual and collective, intimate and sociological. It features video, digital photographs, and paintings centered on liminal online communities such as hikikomori, gold farmers, and NEETs (Not in Education, Employment, or Training). A key work is a video from her residency at SODA – School of Digital Arts in Manchester, in collaboration with the Quadriennale di Roma. This is the second chapter of a trilogy created using the graphics engine of the video game Farming Simulator 22, modified with modding technology to alter maps and weather. The video's script is based on testimonies from online community members, narrated by an AI-altered version of the artist's voice, depicting an anonymous character losing sense of reality. A series of digital photographs taken within the game are contextualized by texts from gold farmers—players who earn virtual currency to convert into real money. The ground floor displays recent enamel and oil paintings that play with presence and absence, reflecting the continuity between real and virtual, online and 'onlife'.