“Like the hummingbird (Kolibri), the only bird able to hover in place and fly backwards, I see paper collage as agile, delicate and nostalgic yet quietly powerful.”

Michela Paolicelli is a multidisciplinary artist originally from Apulia in southern Italy. Working primarily with mixed-media analog collage, she explores themes of migration, ecological boundaries, and relational complexity.

Her practice draws from a nomadic personal history and from years spent collecting paper fragments across different European cities, which are later reassembled into layered, symbolic compositions.

In early 2025, she initiated her self-directed artistic practice under the project Kollibri. Her work engage with ideas of identity, transformation, and reinvention, often staging a dialogue between the built environment and natural elements through vivid color palettes and elements of magical realism.

Michela’s works have been exhibited in group shows in Berlin, Lisbon and Bucharest. She was recently featured on Planet 2030 by Corriere della Sera.