CV - JOANA ASTOLFI

JOANA ASTOLFI

Joana Astolfi (Lisbon,1975) is a Portuguese architect and artist. Astolfi works spaces and objects. She collects porcelain birds, vintage toys and miniatures. She also gathers diaries and photographs of people she never met and creates narratives of the characters in the photos. Astolfi’s work focuses on the transformation of forgotten objects and images into ‘objets d’art’ through conceptual twists, creating unique pieces. Astolfi is a voyeur and a collector and she is particularly interested in the process of resuscitating and manipulating obsolete objects and images, giving them a second chance. Every piece tells a story based on the memory of each object that she finds. She often plays with the idea of scale and proportion and frequently invites the public to discover her artworks by looking through magnifying lenses or peeping through viewfinders. Astolfi likes to celebrate imperfections and mistakes, often evoking humor in her pieces. Her work has been exhibited in various countries and acquired by several collectors.