First of all I’d like to introduce myself to you all. My name is Katia, I am an artist and a writer and – last but not least – I am italian.
The aim of my presence here is to let you know something more about Italy and what is actually happening here.
Reading the foreign press I made myself sure that you know about italian politics and economy much more than Italians do.
Something strange is going on in our country: media, common sense and art are changing, often worsening. Sometimes I feel like a fish living in a pink glass bowl from where I can see “la vie en rose”. This positive attitude toward everything around is artificial. In Italy the same phenomenon occurred during the ’30ies.
At those times cinema, theatre and arts in general were inspired only by positive thinking.
Movies were just romantic comedies or plots about ancient history with a propagandistic purpose.
It’s what we call the “Telefoni bianchi” [white telephones] Era, named after a particular use of design and aesthetics in movies. The black bakelite telephones were not considered stylish enough, so the director Alessandro Blasetti required to paint the telephone in white to get a perfect delightful scene since the telephone was the only dark element in a room furnished in white. Nowadays, in Berlusconi’s Italy, the “think posive” attitude is turned from an ethereal white into a more fleshy pink. Pink is the dominating colour and female flesh is its perfect backup.
The pleasures of Venus are the main theme of a propaganda created to make Italians think everything is all right. Advertising, entertainment, politics, are carried by the use of female bodies… we will see how next time.
Follow me!

In the picture: a video still from the ADV of a famous italian drink.