Cinepreso
Sissi. Homage to Bruno Jori, 2017
The first sculpture catching the eye along the Passer Promenade is an artwork by London- and Bologna-based Italian artist Sissi (real name: Daniela Olivieri; Bologna, 1977). Since the beginnings of her career in the early 2000s, Sissi has explored the human body and the social dynamics connected to it. She avails herself of methods of scientific branches like anthropology and anatomy, and uses them in a creative process incorporating art forms like performance art, installation and sculpture.
For Meran/Merano, Sissi researched the life of film director Bruno Jori (Meran, 1922-1970) who produced groundbreaking documentaries after World War II.
The artist initially drew inspiration from photographs showing Jori holding a cinepresa movie camera. She was struck by the high symbolic value this type of camera had, especially the models with two large reels mounted on top. She transformed this trademark object into an abstract representation by merging the filmmaker with his camera, and by changing the role of the film director from the one recording to the one who is recorded. Its painstaking manual creation is another striking feature of the sculpture, which was actually conceived as a clay model. This is clearly visible in the fingerprints left by the artist in the bronze cast during the modelling of the clay.