Francesca Pola is a contemporary art historian and critic, with a focus on Optical Art, Conceptual Art, and Video Art. She is an Associate Professor at the Faculty of Philosophy at the Vita-Salute San Raffaele University in Milan, where she teaches contemporary art and art criticism. In 2016, she was appointed Fulbright Distinguished Lecturer Chair in Italian Studies at Northwestern University in Evanston (Chicago). Her numerous essays include Manzoni: Azimut (2011) and Piero Manzoni and ZERO. A Creative European Region (2014). She has collaborated with galleries and museums, including the Macro in Rome and the Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice.