(Other) Adventures of Pinocchio

Lorenzo Tricoli
(Other) Adventures of Pinocchio

Photographs: Lorenzo Tricoli

Text: Carlo Collodi

Publisher: Skinnerboox

216 pages

Year: 2016

Price: 27 €

Comments: Softcover, 210 x 140 mm. First edition, 2016. English edition. Text in english. Black & white photographs. Design by Kummer & Herrmann. Edition limited to 400 copies. Shortlisted for the Kassel Photobook Award.

Italy's XXth Century is narrated through extracts of Carlo Collodi's novel, matched to a selection of Italian images coming from the web. An angry and ironic piece of art. Surreal and conceptual.

“The real motivation came from a feeling of indignation, and it pushed me to realize the project. A feeling of anger and consternation in front of international mockery for the public and private shenanigans of the then PM Berlusconi. Italy through the filter of ‘berlusconism’ philosophy had become a ridicolous circus, staging depressing shows. So…it made sense to spotlight that pathetic nonsense. Indulging in the luxury of denouncing, with a lot of smiling” L.T.

Lorenzo Tricoli is an artist who uses photography as his privileged expressive tool ; in this case, to realize the project, he has chosen the modality of appropriation. The artistic gesture is confined within editing choices. Choosing the images, as a result of an extensive online search; choosing the extracts from Collodi’s novel, and then match them together.

The justapoxed texts and images tell a story of their own. The artist doesn’t create or transforms but nevertheless ignites a metamorphosis that takes shape in the matching of images and texts, creating a radical change of meaning of both. Dramatic moments in Italian recent history – like the Years of Lead or enviromental catastrophes– get mixed up with scandals and corruption, and blend with lighter and funny events of popular culture, bringing everything back on the same level. At the center of everything, the artistic operation of reshuffling the meanings attributed by the media to images. Characters of the events are treated like clowns or unaware comedians in a circus-like show, in which the daily tragedy and comedy mixes together and blend seamlessly.