Paola Pivi

Paola Pivi was born in 1971 in Milan and currently lives and works in Timbuktu, Mali. Her photographic works express an insatiable desire to explore diverse places and realities, driven by a deep curiosity about nature and humanity's relationship with it. In Pivi's mind, visions of fantasy emerge, often infused with a playful element, thanks in part to her use of performance art.

At the core of her performative practice lies an essential connection to reality; for Pivi, interacting with and manipulating reality is synonymous with "making art." One of her notable pieces in the Iannaccone Collection, L’Asino e i due Struzzi (The Donkey and the Two Ostriches), originates from a performance set on Alicudi, one of the Aeolian Islands in Sicily, where she lived for some time.

The imagery of animals on a boat is nonsensical yet grounded in reality rather than being contrived. When Pivi created the prints, she remarked, “the donkey was indeed on the boat, just as the leopard wandered among the cappuccino cups.” Through this work, the artist aims to disorient the observer, drawing them into a vision of reality that is profoundly infused with fantasy.