Elena El Asmar’s practice unfolds as a continuous “exercise in distance”: a dialogue between the mental dimension of places and their tangible reality. Working across painting, drawing, installation, and works on paper, she draws upon a layered memory shaped by both her Italian origins and Lebanese heritage. Her work investigates themes of memory, migration, and cultural identity, constructing visual landscapes in which Arabic calligraphy, Mediterranean architecture, and everyday objects coexist as fragments of an emotional archive. She is among the founders of the artists’ organisation Madeinfilandia and the exhibition space COSMO in Florence. Her work has been exhibited at venues including Galleria Bianconi, Milan; Fondazione Palazzo Magnani, Reggio Emilia; the Aga Khan Museum, Toronto; the Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna, Rome; and collateral events of Manifesta 12 in Palermo. She lives and works in Milan.