In Federica Sasso’s visual research, the body becomes a surface for projection, an interface, and an identity in constant transformation. The artist investigates the relationship between adolescence, digital culture, and new media, developing a multidisciplinary language that moves across photography, video, virtual reality, and immersive environments.

Battle Royale reflects on the relationship between individuality and emerging technologies, self-representation and digital avatars, virtual worlds and physical space. Sasso explores fragility and the construction of the image, intimacy and spectacle, capturing an emotional present in which the individual and the body continue to oscillate between the need to be seen and the desire to disappear.

Battle Royale is part of a long-term exploration of the relationship between Gen Z, gaming, and emerging technologies. Drawing on the visual nostalgia of the Internet and the lo-fi trends in youth-driven “-core” movements, the artist presents a VR experience that delves into feelings of entrapment, bullying, and suffocation.

A dramatic showcase set within liminal virtual spaces and referred-performative shows. Through raw self-portraits and detailed depictions of young adults — some in aseptic environments, others captured mid-game — Sasso prompts us to reflect on a renewed relationship with the body, marked by both confidence and vulnerability, presence and absence. These tensions are juxtaposed with aspirations and divergences embodied by playful avatars, escapism, and imagination.

The choice to employ a nonlinear narrative, suspended between understanding and confusion, between the virtual and the real, while revealing the processes and hidden elements behind its creation, symbolically suggests a profound and contemporary communicative gap.

What is virtual in the real, and what is real in the virtual?

Produced in collaboration with Alma Mater University (Bologna, Italy) Computer Science department and professor Gustavo Marfia, Virtual and Augmented Reality Lab (VARLAB).

Graphic design: Maria Chiara Moro.

Coding and computing: Igor Urevici, Ulderico Vagnoni, Lorenzo Stacchio, Paola Persico, Gianluca Spiller.

INDEX
FIG.1 Paradiso, still from video, 2023.
FIG.2 Medea, framed fine art print, 2023.
FIG.3 Croce, still from video, 2023.
FIG.4 Walk #1, still from video, 2023.
FIG. 5 Walk, video, 2023.
FIG. 6 Andrea framed fine art print, 2022.
FIG. 7-10-21 Avatars, video, 2020.
FIG. 8 Dave, framed fine art print, 2023.
FIG. 9 Agata, framed fine art print, 2022.
FIG. 11 Scomporsi, still from video, 2022.
FIG. 12 Sguardi, video, 2023.
FIG. 13 Walk #2, still from video, 2023.
FIG. 14-15 Bocca, still from video, 2021.
FIG. 16 Mano, still from video, 2021.
FIG. 17 Madonna, framed fine art print, 2023.
FIG. 18 Looking for God, still from video, 2023.
FIG. 19 Gruppo, video, 2023.
FIG. 20 Fabio, framed fine art print, 2022.
FIG. 22 Avatar, framed fine art print, 2022.
FIG. 23 Accerchiamento, video, 2023.
FIG. 24 Buio, still from video, 2023.
FIG. 25 Stringere, framed fine art print, 2022.
FIG. 26 Battle Royale, poster, 2023.
FIG. 27 Lisa, framed fine art print, 2023.
FIG. 28 Battle Royale, poster, 2023.
FIG. 29 Battle Royale, installation view, 2022.
FIG. 30 Eleonora, framed fine art print, 2022.