Florencia De Giovanni Pacini

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AQ Volume IV artist Flo Giovanni Pacini is a figurative oil painter from Buenos Aires, currently living in New York City, whose practice focuses on the question of tradition and its deviations. Her work investigates a universal wound that unites and fraternizes the living on the planet, but also traces the inescapable power of life that is birthed, that makes demands, and invites us to enter into an introspective dimension. The paintings capture the precarious vestiges of the dominant culture in order to seek other possible answers in the value and beauty of the unfinished.

Flo’s art blends meticulous techniques and noble materials with a surrender to the unknown, creating pieces that explore magic, nature, and the forces that shape existence.
Flo Giovanni Pacini majored in Image and Sound Design at the University of Buenos Aires. She has won awards in various salons, including 1st prize at the Eduardo Sívori Museum and 3rd in the Teorema contest at Quinquela Martín Museum. She has exhibited widely, including at the Sociedad Rural Argentina, Art Basel Miami (Virtual Reality with Sublimart NFT), and the Argentine Embassy in Berlin.

In 2024, she was awarded a solo exhibition at Space 776 Gallery in Manhattan.
Her work has also been featured in FlameZine Berlin, WO Woman Art Foundation, and Salmagundi Club New York.

She plans to continue deepening her technical abilities and exploring oil paintings that contemplate tradition, memory, nature, and the unknown in the future.


https://www.flogiovanni.com/

What inspired you to become an artist, and how did you decide to commit to this path?

My path to becoming an artist started later in life. I had studied Image and Sound Design at the University of Buenos Aires and spent 10 years working in different office environments. During that time, I felt increasingly out of place, as if I were living someone else's life. I attended workshops to explore my love for painting, but they only deepened my hunger to fully immerse myself in it. I remember mixing colors in secret during my workday at a production company, impatiently waiting for the moment I could rush to the atelier. I could no longer stand being separated from what truly called to me—standing in front of the canvas. That yearning eventually led me to make the decision to commit fully to painting.
What both attracted and frightened me about painting is that it’s an existentially challenging practice, existing at the boundaries of what society allows. It involves materializing and making visible inheritances (particularly those of ancestral women and the earth, in my case) that perhaps even we do not fully comprehend. It’s a space of uncertainty, where sharing occurs in both veiled and raw forms. I have always felt drawn to what I perceive as magic—the idea of developing sensitive and perceptive mechanisms that transcend ordinary life, a way of bringing light to the invisible. But it was something I struggled with for a long time due to social and familial expectations—until I freed myself.


Could you share the story or concept behind your recent work?

My recent collection of oil paintings delves into the intricate web of interdependence within nature, capturing the interconnectedness of all living things. Drawing inspiration from ancient traditions and native mythologies, I explore the reverence for spirits and phenomena as manifestations of the divine in the natural world. Each painting contemplates the forces that shape life, from the weight of the body tied to the earth's magnetism to the gift of flight from the sky. This series invites viewers to consider the unseen connections that sustain life, reflecting on nature's cycles, gratitude to creation, and our place within this beautiful, complex tapestry.


What was the most challenging part of your path so far? How are you navigating this obstacle?

The most challenging part of my career came at the end of the pandemic when, due to collective stress and physical constraints, I was unable to paint for a year. This led me to reorient my practice towards an exploration of the relationship between the body and the painting ritual. The series 'El Abrazo' emerged from a shoulder injury that not only prevented me from painting but also forced me to look inward. Through this period of introspection, I realized that painting and the body are one, inseparable. The process of healing became intertwined with my work, allowing me to rediscover the visceral connection between my body and the canvas, transforming personal struggle into a universal experience.
But the challenges extend beyond the personal. In a world that demands constant movement and instant gratification, the type of painting I do feels almost like a rebellion—because it requires people to stop, to contemplate. Balancing this contemplative art with the realities of modern life—earning money, managing my career, and communicating through social media—is often overwhelming. It feels like wearing multiple hats. Yet, my desire to connect with painting, and through it with others, continues to guide me forward.

What role does experimentation and exploration play in your artistic practice?

At the core of my artistic practice lies the concept of W@nder, a fusion of 'wonder' and 'wander.' Philosophically, W@nder encapsulates the duality of creation as both an ontological experience of awe and an epistemological pursuit of the unknown. Wonder, in this context, aligns with the ancient Greek notion of thaumazein—a state of profound astonishment that gives rise to philosophical contemplation. It is a moment of revelation, where the familiar becomes strange, prompting deeper reflection on the nature of existence. Conversely, 'wander' signifies a purposeful meandering through the liminal spaces of thought and perception. It draws on the existential concept of Becoming, a journey that transcends linear progression, embracing the serendipity of exploration and the unexpected discoveries that arise therein. Together, these forces form a dialectical relationship, positioning W@nder as both a mode of artistic inquiry and a state of being—one where the artist perpetually oscillates between the sublime encounter with beauty and the restless search for meaning within the chaotic vastness of creative potential.

While the technical aspect of my practice is central to my work, and I dedicate much effort to deepening my knowledge and refining my skills, I am acutely aware of the dangers of over-controlling the creative process. In his book The Uncontrollability of the World, Hartmut Rosa speaks to the modern drive for mastery over the world, arguing that 'modernity’s incessant desire to make the world engineerable, predictable, available, accessible, [and] disposable' often alienates us from the world and diminishes the potential for genuine resonance. Rosa suggests that while 'things we can completely control lose their resonant quality,' true resonance requires a balance—what he calls 'semi-controllability'—where the world can be reached but not fully dominated.This notion deeply resonates with my own practice. Though technique and control are vital, they must be held in tension with the uncontrollable forces that animate creativity. As Rosa notes, resonance 'can be neither forced nor prevented with absolute certainty.' To maintain this balance in my art, I must relinquish some control, allowing the unpredictable elements of the creative process to shape both the work and my experience of it. In this way, W@nder becomes not only a guiding principle but a lived experience—where the pursuit of mastery is intertwined with the embrace of the uncontrollable, and where meaning emerges in the spaces between.


Do you have any start or stop rituals before creating?

My approach to creation is deeply rooted in a practice of attunement, as articulated by Amber Musser. Rather than engaging in specific rituals, I focus on cultivating an awareness of multiplicity rather than discernment. This involves sitting with what may not be fully understood cognitively but is known through feeling, fostering a sense of certainty in and of enfleshment. The process requires an acute awareness of the multiple ways in which the body absorbs information—through sensation, intuition, and emotion—acknowledging that knowledge is not confined to the intellect alone.
In this practice, I allow myself to break open, to absorb the energy surrounding the work, and to observe how this energy rearranges my own body, both physically and emotionally. It is a space of openness, where I remain receptive to the unexpected and to the subtle forces that shape the creative process. In this state, I am not so much controlling the work as I am in a dynamic exchange with it, where the act of creation becomes a shared experience between myself, the materials, and the unseen forces that emerge in the process. This attunement fosters a deeper resonance with the work, allowing it to unfold in ways that transcend the limitations of premeditated design.


What message do you hope your art conveys to the world?

My art engages with the intricate interplay between tradition, memory, nature, and the unknown, aiming to render visible the inheritances that move through us—particularly those of ancestral women and the natural world. These legacies, often only partially understood, occupy a space at the edges of what society deems permissible, inviting a subtle confrontation with the forces that shape our existence.

Drawing from the concept of corporeal space, inspired by Rembrandt, I delve into the relationship between physical presence and emotional resonance, where the artwork becomes a site of layered experience. Yet, I remain aware that I do not fully control the meanings that emerge from my work; it exists within a dynamic, evolving dialogue that resists fixed interpretations.

In this sense, I approach art as a form of language—one that extends beyond its typical function of solving problems. Instead, I seek to use this language in a broader, more expansive way, one that fosters life, cultivates wonder, and opens a space for viewers to encounter the world anew, allowing for the emergence of energies and insights that transcend the ordinary and the expected.


Share a mantra or favorite quote that keeps you going.

A mantra that continually guides me comes from Michelangelo: 'Every block of stone has a statue inside it, and it is the task of the sculptor to discover it.' While this may be a widely known phrase, it holds profound resonance for me. It reflects the idea that creation is not about imposing form but about revealing what already lies latent within. It’s a process of attunement, of deep listening to the material, where the role of the artist is to uncover, rather than create, the essence that already exists beneath the surface. This understanding shapes my approach to painting and to art itself, as an act of discovery rather than fabrication.