Pinocchio Nero

Pinocchio Nero (Black Pinocchio) is not a fairy tale for children. As well as the tale Pinocchio by the italian writer Carlo Collodi, also the OOOPStudio‘s reinterpreted Pinocchio is characterized by an harsh realism. The formal medium chosen by OOOPStudio for its first artwork, animation, might suggest that Pinocchio Nero is aimed at a children’s audience. We must take into account of the ideal educational choice that characterizes Collodi’s tale, though. Pinocchio Nero is a tale for adults, a fairy tale that we can define also “illustrated documentary” because it is fostered by disillusion.

Pinocchio Nero is not the pine-wood Tuscan puppet: it is a tide of inaudible voices, of eyes to the ground and suspicious, evasive looks, of body accustomed to the worst, most to suffer that to be. Pinocchio Nero is a migrant, the immigrant who arrives on our shores and who is at the core of political debates and pub’s speeches. But we can scarcely recognise him as thinking human being with personal dignity. Pinocchio Nero departs from a desolate land in which sharp contrasts prevail, in which there is no color. A worthless advice by Jiminy Cricket, empty words that fail to let Pinocchio desist from undertaking his journey. And Pinocchio Nero’s journey starts from a sea, outwardly promising, hostile actually. Pinocchio falls at the mercy of the waves and he is carried away in this sea full of bottles until a white whale saves him. The Barge-Whale rather swallows him and in it Pinocchio Nero finds other overcrowded puppets, tackling with them a violent and ferocious trip. Pinocchio Nero does not tell the story of a single: it is spokesman for the story of a myriad of individuals who share the same cravings. Pinocchio Nero wakes up alone, shipwrecked on a beach. Here he begins his march, punctuated by OOOPStudio’s original music. Dazzled by dodgers’ and rogues’ promises, Pinocchio meets two unsavoury characters who convince him to bury some money in a field to chase the Prosperity’s Dream. Pinocchio Nero continues to be chased, threatened, arrested and hanged, imprisoned and deprived of his freedom.

Once fled, he gets acquainted with Candlewick and with Never Never Land. The Pinocchios look around, they do not believe there could be so much wealth. To get riches they have just to become freaks, subjugated to others’ will. Pinocchio Nero’s journey never ends, it does not seem to ever appear on the horizon the classic happy ending. The only way to regain their freedom and their power of decision seems to be violent rebellion. But coercion will never be deleted with the same violence. The wandering of Pinocchio Nero restarts from the same inhospitable land that he had left. The possibility of redemption is still far away.  Raw images are those used by OOOPStudio, where colour plays a decisive role precisely in its contrast with the non-colour. The visual effect is entirely original and meaningful: we are catapulted into an augmented reality where each line becomes a metaphor. The characters, well characterized and inspired by the photographic series Pinocchio Nero by Raffaello De Vito, speak thanks to images and they build a true story, starting from the awareness that art must first be something useful, something that nourishes and reports. The video clip Pinocchio Nero has already been exhibited at the Galerie Eulenspiegel (Basel, CH) in September 2012. The video installation played on the images’ deconstruction and on the multiplication of visual stimuli. The installation highlights the active role of the viewer, who identifies with Pinocchio. A project aimed to raise awareness to immigration’s and integration’s issues, a story in pictures: Pinocchio Nero is close to us.