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Veronica Fazzio | Artist Statement
My practice as an Artist Researcher is rooted in constant mutability and the pursuit of questions rather than definitive answers. I view the art studio not merely as a space for production, but as a live laboratory where the focus shifts from the finalized artwork to the observation of the process of making itself. Within this space, diverse studio methods are tracked, reflected upon, and allowed to evolve into mechanisms that eventually articulates research methodologies. This inquiry manifests across a fluid terrain of sculpture, photography, video installation, social sculpture and live action—where no material or artwork is discarded, but rather held in a state of ongoing transformation. This sustained loop of observing and reflecting forms a methodological dispositif—an apparatus through which I understand the work and the world and continually generate new questions. In this way, philosophy steps directly into the studio, arising organically out of the methodologies themselves. The resulting sculptures and installations are not endpoints, but rather "by-products" of this deep, reflective practice. Central to this process is a decentering of human authority. I operate in tandem with my non-human colleague—the camera—giving it active agency. Working together under the collective pronouns They/Their, we form a collaborative assemblage that blurs the boundaries between the animate and the inanimate. What emerges from this partnership are further by-products—an accumulating archive of low-resolution photographs, soundscapes, and videos that serve as traces of an unfinalized investigation into everyday actions and post-human theories. Currently, this studio dispositif is directed toward the material and systemic structures of institutional bureaucracy. Through the physical acts of reclaiming, shredding, and papermaking with discarded archival and court documents, the studio becomes a site to observe how rigid, bureaucratic language can be physically mutated. Rather than generating a finalized statement on power or memory, this work functions as a physical prompt—transforming court files into tactile sculptures and installations that question how institutional systems impress themselves upon us, and how material transformation can disrupt that script. 
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DR. VERONICA MARINA FAZZIO WELF | ARTIST BIO
Veronica M. Fazzio is an Artist Researcher and Miami-based contemporary, interdisciplinary plastic artist whose practice spans Sculpture, Photography, Video, Installation, Social Sculpture, Performance and Art Objects-making. Originally from Buenos Aires, Dr. Fazzio has exhibited internationally since 1988, establishing a professional footprint across Argentina, Italy, Norway, Germany, Mexico, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Rooted in the principles of Social Sculpture, Dr. Fazzio views pedagogy not as separate from studio production, but as an integral, dialogical extension of their artistic research and practice. This manifests as a diverse educational career, lecturing in art history and photography, and engaging a vast spectrum of learners—from university graduate programs to community-based workshops, Public schools—as active participants in collective inquiry.Dr. Fazzio earned a practice-based PhD Artist Research from the University of Plymouth (UK) and holds an MFA in Visual Arts from the Miami International University of Art & Design. They established their foundational technical and pedagogical roots in Buenos Aires, graduating from the Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes Rogelio Yrurtia and earning a degree in Photography and Audiovisual Techniques from the Escuela Departamental de Artes Plásticas (E.D.A.F.) in Avellaneda. 
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Ph.D. RESEARCH ABSTRACT (2015-2021)
Joseph Beuys, the originator of the term ‘Social Sculpture’, stated that the objects he made were stimulators for the formation of thoughts, i.e. that they were intended to mold or to shape thoughts. Beuys believed that the essence of Social Sculpture was to shape and mold the world by working with invisible materials to make new thoughts. His aim was to develop an evolutionary process to share his ideas about the universal nature of plasticity, and thus the ability we all have to be constantly transformed.
This practice as research PhD explores Social Sculpture as a contemporary process of transformation. The evolution of my practice from the start of my PhD has moved from producing objects in my studio (and then subsequently destroying them), to working with participants of different ages and from different institutions in a variety of settings. Through this journey I expanded my understanding of plasticity and came to recognise that my practice too could be understood as ‘Social Sculpture’.
In this iteration of Social Sculpture, plasticity manifests as ‘liveliness’, the “live” element consists of being fully present in both senses: i.e. being in the present time (simultaneously) and being present in space, being there physically. In my work, I perform for and with the camera: I cannot make Social Sculpture without the camera, as it crystallizes the process of making Social Sculpture - its presence opens the space for the self-awareness that making Social Sculpture requires to come into being.
While the camera has the potential to be a documentation tool, and performs this role for me, in my work the camera is more than that: it is a presence that offers many possibilities, each of which affects the performance itself. I perform for the camera and with the camera. I argue that the objective lens is subjective, even though is more objective than subjective, because there is no consciousness in it that gives the capacity of subjectivity. In conclusion I can only talk about the impossible objective (noun) of the objective (lens) to be objective (adjective).
Joseph Beuys, the originator of the term ‘Social Sculpture’, stated that the objects he made were stimulators for the formation of thoughts, i.e. that they were intended to mold or to shape thoughts. Beuys believed that the essence of Social Sculpture was to shape and mold the world by working with invisible materials to make new thoughts. His aim was to develop an evolutionary process to share his ideas about the universal nature of plasticity, and thus the ability we all have to be constantly transformed.
This practice as research PhD explores Social Sculpture as a contemporary process of transformation. The evolution of my practice from the start of my PhD has moved from producing objects in my studio (and then subsequently destroying them), to working with participants of different ages and from different institutions in a variety of settings. Through this journey I expanded my understanding of plasticity and came to recognise that my practice too could be understood as ‘Social Sculpture’.
In this iteration of Social Sculpture, plasticity manifests as ‘liveliness’, the “live” element consists of being fully present in both senses: i.e. being in the present time (simultaneously) and being present in space, being there physically. In my work, I perform for and with the camera: I cannot make Social Sculpture without the camera, as it crystallizes the process of making Social Sculpture - its presence opens the space for the self-awareness that making Social Sculpture requires to come into being.
While the camera has the potential to be a documentation tool, and performs this role for me, in my work the camera is more than that: it is a presence that offers many possibilities, each of which affects the performance itself. I perform for the camera and with the camera. I argue that the objective lens is subjective, even though is more objective than subjective, because there is no consciousness in it that gives the capacity of subjectivity. In conclusion I can only talk about the impossible objective (noun) of the objective (lens) to be objective (adjective).
An interactive project, inspired in both The Babel Tower story and the recent attacks in Europe and Middle East.
The sound of the video features several women's voices. All of them are reading a homemade bread recipe; each one in her own language.
The pre-recorded video, which depicts an image of me seated and reading my grandmother’s homemade bread recipe from my mother’s cookbook, will be projected on to the screened, front windows of the ACSF 924 building during Art week. The screen is divided into three panels. In one of the three panels, I appear standing and reading the same recipe live, in real time. In order to accomplish this live component, I will stand in front of a green screen in a room, from which my image will be projected onto the one third of the three panels screen alongside the other two other images of me. Simultaneously, pedestrians on Lincoln Road (where the screen will be installed), will be invited to read a homemade bread recipe (in various languages) while seated in a red chair, identical to the red chair in the video. The images of pedestrian participation will appear intermittently on the screen, alternating with the image of my live performance; either me or the person reading will appear on the third part of the screen.
There are no statements for this piece but rather provocative shots. Womanhood and bread as unifiying, universal elements; language as symbolic representation of separation and division. Issues of cause and effect are explored as well.
The different vocal recordings are manipulated as sound tracks, creating a sense of space and giving control to each language during different moments in the chair.
The sound of the video features several women's voices. All of them are reading a homemade bread recipe; each one in her own language.
The pre-recorded video, which depicts an image of me seated and reading my grandmother’s homemade bread recipe from my mother’s cookbook, will be projected on to the screened, front windows of the ACSF 924 building during Art week. The screen is divided into three panels. In one of the three panels, I appear standing and reading the same recipe live, in real time. In order to accomplish this live component, I will stand in front of a green screen in a room, from which my image will be projected onto the one third of the three panels screen alongside the other two other images of me. Simultaneously, pedestrians on Lincoln Road (where the screen will be installed), will be invited to read a homemade bread recipe (in various languages) while seated in a red chair, identical to the red chair in the video. The images of pedestrian participation will appear intermittently on the screen, alternating with the image of my live performance; either me or the person reading will appear on the third part of the screen.
There are no statements for this piece but rather provocative shots. Womanhood and bread as unifiying, universal elements; language as symbolic representation of separation and division. Issues of cause and effect are explored as well.
The different vocal recordings are manipulated as sound tracks, creating a sense of space and giving control to each language during different moments in the chair.
