PINOCCHIA! DON'T LIE TO ME.
2012
Video, HD 16:9, color, sound, 11'
c-prints, variable size

Director and editor: Sissa Micheli
Cameraman: Klemens Kosher
Camera assistance: Marie-Therese Jakoubek
Assistant directors: Isolde Christandl, Carola Annoni
Costume consulting: Matthew Fenner

The video installation Sissa Michelis tackles the fragile clichéd image of Italy, which is stubbornly advertised to the outside world. In her video "Pinocchia don't lie to me!", models reminiscent of the "Veline" known from Italian TV, dressed in high heels and uniforms, promenade through the Palais Sternberg, the headquarters of the Italian Cultural Institute in Vienna. They wear vibrating stacks of piled up ice cream wafers on their noses, with which they first caress each other, but which hinder them in their being in such a way that they gradually and brutally free themselves from them. This simple game makes one think of many things that are part of Italy's image today, such as the supremacy of outward appearances, an all-encompassing sexualization, and the ridiculousness to which the country was exposed, not least through politics. Bettine Susanne Ties (Article published in the "Dolomiten", on 31.5.2012)