Francesca Sacco

Paper artist

©Francesca Gazzolo

Thank you, Genoa

Francesca creates storytelling collages
Her hometown is her main source of inspiration
Her practice includes both digital and handmade artworks

Francesca Sacco’s signature collages depict the profile of a city and express a chaotic harmony, where uneven details seem to meet by chance to create an unexpected landscape. The truth is that there is nothing random in her works, which are the result of precise and conscious choices and technical mastery by the artist. When Francesca tells her personal story, there is a similar emotion. In her own words, randomness always played a key role in her life, but her story is clear and coherent nonetheless. Daughter of a typographer, Francesca started playing with paper when she was a child and studied photography and cinema, which she says met her need to express her creativity through storytelling. She eventually found her way in collage-making and, thanks to Genoa, has a wealth of works to share.

Interview

©Francesca Gazzolo

©Francesca Gazzolo

Where does your inspiration come from?: It all comes from Genoa, my hometown. There is no rationality in the city's layout. If you look at it from the sea, you do not see any space, just layers and levels. This influenced me so much that Genoa is my inspiration even when I depict other cities.
Does your work combine different elements?: When possible, my whole process is manual: I personally take the pictures, print them, cut and combine them with other objects like handwritten letters, newspapers cuts, old pictures. Each one has a story. I make both handmade works and purely digital ones.
What is the role of digital in your work?: There is one step of the making process which is always digital, even in fully handmade works: the creation of the layout, where I set the proportions. But I also create purely digital works which are then printed.
Is digital important for you in terms of being known?: I have been promoting myself on social media since the beginning, and I gained a significant fan base organically and quite rapidly. My studio in Genoa is the place where I spend most of my time but the real window is Instagram, especially for international reach.

Francesca Sacco is an expert artisan: she began her career in 2012 and she started teaching in 2024