On Friday, June 17, I will be in Padua for a very unique event, an evening devoted entirely to taxidermy and the sociological, psychological and cultural implications of the art of stuffing animals.
At 9 p.m. inside the prestigious Zuckermann Palace there will be a screening of Taxiderman, directed by Rossella Laeng, a documentary focusing on the work of taxidermist Alberto Michelon.
I wrote about him five years ago, in this post: besides being the only taxidermist in Italy to offer “artistic” (i.e., non-naturalistic) taxidermy creations, Alberto also specializes in taxidermy of pets.
I have always found it very moving that different species manage to create a deep relationship with each other, in spite of (or perhaps because of) the coldness of the world; when the affection between a human being and another animal becomes so intense, it is clear that grieving can be difficult and painful. For this reason, on Friday we will also discuss taxidermy in relation to pet grief with various personalities from science and culture: in addition to the meeting with Alberto Michelon and director Rossella Laeng, the evening will therefore include talks by Anna Cordioli (psychoanalyst), Stefania Uccheddu (Head of the Service of Behavioral Medicine, Clinic S. Marco), Gianni Vitale (journalist, President Promovies), and myself. I will talk about the history of taxidermy and its relationship to other types of remains preservation, such as relics.
If you would like to reserve your ticket for the evening, you can do so on Eventbrite. I look forward to seeing you there!
On November 22, at 4pm inside the beautiful Civic Museum in Reggio Emilia, I will talk about macabre wonders together with historian Carlo Baja Guarienti.
Our chat is part of a series of lectures called Il Tè delle Muse (Tea with the Muses): I find this title quite gorgeous, because the ironic reference to the etymology of “museum” highlights its original function of being a place of enchantment and inspiration. There is therefore no better place to talk about what I have often called dark wonder; on these webpages I have been suggesting for years that we should overcome the prejudice attached to the word “macabre”, and understand that many of the so-called “morbid” curiosities can turn out to be noble and sometimes necessary passions. We will be discussing exoticism, new trends, wunderkammern and intersections between art, science and the sacred.
On that saturday morning, September 27, 1986, Cleveland was ready for an explosion of wonder.
For six months a Los Angeles company, headed by Treb Heining, had been working to organize the event which would break, in a spectacular way, a weird world record held at the time by Disneyland: in the first hours of the afternoon, a million and a half helium-filled balloons would be released simultaneously in the city sky.
The event was planned by United Way, a nonprofit organization, as part of the fundraising campaign for its activities supporting families in Cleveland.
In Public Square, Heining and his team mounted a huge structure, 250×150 feet wide, supporting a single, huge net built from the same material of the Space Shuttle cargo nets. Under this structure, for hours and hours more than 2.500 students and volunteers had been filling the colored balloons which, held by the net, formed a waving and impressive ceiling. After a first few hours of practice, their sore fingers wrapped in bandage aids, they had begun working automatically, each one of them tying a balloon every 20 seconds. Originally two millions baloons were meant to be prepared, but since some “leaks” had occurred, with several hundreds balloons escaping the net, it was decided to stop at a lower number.
Every precaution had been taken so that the release was completely safe: United Way worked together with the city, the Federal Aviation Administration, the fire and police department, to avoid unpleasant surprises.
Furthermore, the balloons were made of biodegradable latex, and organizers estimated that they would pop or deflate right over Lake Erie, only to decompose quickly and with no environmental impact.
With all this apparently meticulous preparation, no one could suspect that the joyful, colored party could turn into a nightmare.
Weather conditions were not the best: a storm was coming, so the organizers opted for an early release. At 1.50 pm the net was cut loose, and a gigantic cloud of balloons rose up against the buildings and the Terminal Tower, amidst cheering children, the applause and whooping of the crowd.
Like the mushroom cloud from an explosion, expanding in slow motion, the mass ascended in the sky to form a multicolored column.
That is when things took an unexpected turn.
The balloons met a current of cool air which pushed them back down, towards the ground. In little time, the city was completely invaded by a myriad of fluctuating balloons which covered the streets, moving in group, obscuring the sky, preventing drivers from seeing the road and hindering boats and helicopters. According to the witnesses, it felt like moving through an asteroid belt: some cars crashed because drivers steered to avoid a wave of balloons pushed by wind, or because they were distracted by the surreal panorama.
But the worse was yet to come: Raymond Broderick and Bernard Sulzer, two fishermen, had gone out the day before, and were reported missing; the Coast Guard, who was looking for them, spotted their boat near a a breakwater, but had to abandon the search because balloons filled the sky and covered the surface of the water, making it hard for both boats and helicopters.
The two bodies later washed ashore.
During the next days balloons kept raising concern: they caused the temporary shut down of an airport runway, and scared some horses in a pasture so much so that the animals suffered permanent damage. The balloons ended up on the opposite shore of Lake Erie, some 100 km away, so complaints began to come even from Canada. Also because, according to some environmentalists, the plastic was not at all “biodegradable” and would have soiled the coast for at least six months.
Other criticism involved the waste of such large quantities of helium, a gas that is a non-renewable resource on Earth, and which some scientists (including late Nobel Phisics Laureate R. Coleman Richardson) believe there already is a shortage of.
This attempt to create something unforgettable, in the end, was meant to be one of those joyful, purely aesthetic, wonderfully useless experiences that bring out the child in all of us. As laudable this idea was, it turned out to be maybe a little too naive and planned without taking into account with the due consideration all possible consequences. The game ended quite badly.
United Way was sued for several million dollars, turning the fundraising campaign into a failure. The due damages to one of the fishermen’s wife and to the horse breeder were settled for undisclosed terms. This disastrous stunt, which ended in the red and in wide controversy, is the perfect example of a world record nobody will attempt to break again.
Treb Hining and his company, in the meantime, still are in the balloon business, working for the Academy Award, the Super Bowl and many presidential conventions: his team is also in charge of dispersing three thousand pounds of confetti (yep, 100% biodegradable this time) on Times Square, every New Year’s Eve.
Fra pochi giorni sarà finalmente disponibile il secondo volume della Collana Bizzarro Bazar. Intitolato De profundis, il libro esplora le suggestioni del Cimitero delle Fontanelle di Napoli portando il lettore faccia a faccia con le “capuzzelle” e il loro significato simbolico grazie alle fotografie di Carlo Vannini.
Logos Edizioni in collaborazione con Ateliers ViaDueGobbiTre, nell’ambito della manifestazione internazionale Fotografia Europea, ha organizzato una mostra fotografica che presenterà in esposizione i migliori scatti dei primi due volumi della Collana. All’evento, intitolato Keep The World Weird, ovviamente sarà presente anche il vostro affezionato Bizzarro Bazar, che aprirà le danze parlando della “meraviglia nera” e del suo potere sovversivo. L’appuntamento è per venerdì 15 maggio alle ore 19, presso l’atelier Laura Cadelo Bertrand in Via Due Gobbi, Reggio Emilia.
Per i due giorni successivi, sabato 16 maggio e domenica 17 maggio, mi troverete intento a firmare e dedicare le copie di De profundis al Salone Internazionale del Libro di Torino, presso lo stand Logos. E per la gioia di grandi e piccini sarà anche possibile impadronirsi di un profluvio di golosi gadget (shopper, spille, magneti, cartoline, e chi più ne ha più ne metta); tutti accessori imprescindibili per ostentare con classe il vostro orgoglio weird!
Per eventuali ulteriori aggiornamenti, ricordo che ora esiste anche la nostra pagina Facebook.
Una bizzarria assolutamente americana ed oggi molto controversa è quella dei Child Beauty Pageant, ossia dei concorsi di bellezza per bambine – qualcuno di voi se ne ricorderà per via dello splendido film Little Miss Sunshine (2006).
Nati negli anni ’20 ma esplosi negli anni ’60, i concorsi per bambine e teenager di cui stiamo parlando hanno ciascuno regole leggermente diverse, ma tutti prevedono determinate categorie di eventi e “numeri” di vario genere, sulla base dei quali la giuria assegnerà i premi. Proprio come in un regolare concorso di bellezza, ci sono quindi prove di canto o danza, interviste con le candidate, sfilate in abiti sportivi o da spiaggia, ma anche abbigliamento a tema, per esempio in stile “western”, e via dicendo. Di queste bambine si giudicano qualità come il portamento, la fiducia, l’individualità, l’abilità.
Ma il tipo di evento che maggiormente colpisce l’immaginario è quello che vede le bambine sfilare con l’abito da sera. Quello è il momento che tutti attendono, nel quale si deciderà la vera reginetta della serata: le partecipanti si sottopongono anche a diverse ore di preparazione in camerino con una truccatrice professionista. E, infine, salgono sul palco.
Messe in piega elaboratissime (e pacchiane), denti finti, make-up pesantissimo, abbronzature spray, perfette manicure, abiti su misura glamour e kitsch: gli occhi dei genitori brillano di orgoglio, ed è difficile scuotersi di dosso l’angosciante sensazione che queste bambine non siano altro che delle grottesche bamboline lanciate sulla scena proprio per il compiacimento ossessivo di mamma e papà.
Cosa può spingere due genitori a far partecipare la figlia in tenera età ad uno di questi concorsi? Certo, può essere l’ammirazione “cieca” per la propria bambina. Può essere anche che, come dichiarano molti genitori, spedirle sul palco sia un modo per educarle, per migliorare la loro autostima, per insegnare loro a parlare in pubblico… Eppure, c’è anche qualcos’altro.
Ogni anno negli Stati Uniti si svolgono 25.000 concorsi di bellezza per bambine. Le quote di iscrizione vanno da poche centinaia fino a svariate migliaia di dollari. I vestiti su misura da soli possono costare anche più di 5000$, senza parlare degli accessori di trucco e dei compensi per parrucchiere e make-up artist professioniste. Visti le spese altissime, le bambine che partecipano a un solo concorso di bellezza praticamente non esistono: se si fa l’investimento, tocca almeno rientrare della spesa.
Così, la maggioranza dei genitori accompagna le figlie da un concorso all’altro, spostandosi di stato in stato, seguendo un calendario serrato ed estenuante. Nonostante per la legge americana i concorsi di bellezza non possano essere considerati un lavoro (e non ricadano quindi nelle leggi sullo sfruttamento del lavoro minorile), per le piccole miss si tratta di un vero e proprio impegno a tempo pieno. I premi e i trofei — talvolta più alti delle vincitrici stesse! — implicano vincite in denaro, contratti con riviste di moda e sponsor, più tutta una galassia di beni di lusso come vestiti, elettronica, ecc.. È un’industria da un miliardo di dollari l’anno.
Per questo motivo la controversia riguardante questi concorsi è tutt’ora aspra. In particolare, si è molto discusso sulla sessualizzazione infantile messa in scena in questi eventi, anche in relazione alla pedofilia. In questo strano e assurdo contesto, infatti, i genitori possono trasformare le loro figliolette di cinque anni in vere e proprie femmes fatales, con rossetti di fuoco e ciglia lunghissime, tacchi alti e abiti da sera. Cercando di fare delle loro bambine proprio quello che terrorizza gli altri genitori: un oggetto del desiderio.
