Artist Eva Rebecca Borjaille
Some conversations arrive naturally around the table. Eva Rebecca Borjaille joined us at Fritto Misto Comune one evening to share her finished postcard, and like many good things here, it unfolded over food, wine, and stories. Mostly in a mix of Italian and English..
Dinner that night was simple and seasonal: a farro and spring-vegetable salad, flat beans cooked in a Lebanese-style red sauce (our take on loubieh bi zeit), and a galette made with rye and wholemeal flour, filled with Swiss chard, chicory (from the garden), and feta. Aperitivo was a Milano–Torino (naturally) followed by a bottle of exceptional local wine.
Between bites and laughter, Rebecca told us about the piece she had just completed.
Eva Rebecca is something of a fritto misto herself — a mix of places, cultures, and influences. Her parents’ roots weave together from places like Paraguay, Spain, Algeria and Italy. Her family moved to Fabriano when she was 3, but she has grown up moving between worlds. Over the years, she has left the town more than once, yet always finds herself drawn back and then leaves again.
“The people bring me back,” she tells us. “The mountains, too. You can feel very alone there, but in a good way. My heart is divided in many places, but Fabriano always pulls me home.”
Eva Rebecca studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Urbino and previously spent years working in kitchens before fully immersing herself in her artistic practice. Her work moves between painting, mixed media, screen printing, and performance. Much of it happens outside the traditional studio, sometimes painting on the walls of abandoned buildings, responding to the atmosphere of a place and letting the moment guide her. (Well, this is her current obsession)
Her philosophy comes from something a professor once told her.
Keep moving your brush. Try, make mistakes, and try again. Scratch the surface, and eventually you reach the real meaning.
When we ask what drew her into the postcard project, she laughs and answers simply.
“Good vibrations. Karma.”
In fact, our paths first crossed at Osteria San Biagio, over a drawing she had made for the owners, a beautifully loose illustration of cutlery (seems fitting). The conversation that evening drifted naturally toward art, place, and ideas. Not long after, we reached out to ask if she might like to be involved.
For her postcard, Eva Rebecca chose to focus on something that sits at the centre of life here: the table.
Union. Food. Conversation. Creativity. Conviviality.
The image is intentionally abstract but full of warmth — a reflection of the feeling she associates with Fritto Misto Comune and with Fabriano itself. There are hints of artists she admires, like Lorenzo Mattotti, but the spirit is very much her own.
“The postcard format is perfect for this,” she explains. “It’s about sharing. About sitting together.”
What matters to her most is the act of beginning — planting a seed and seeing what grows from it.
“It’s important to recognise the seed,” she says. “And to make the effort to plant it.”
Before the evening ends, we ask Rebecca one final question: what would she hope someone feels when they receive her postcard somewhere in the world?
She pauses, then smiles.
“It’s like a bridge,” she says.
“When someone receives it, I want them to feel like they’re here at Fritto Misto Comune. That feeling that something magical is happening, and that anything is possible.”
