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Raffaella Carrà, esthetic and social icon in the eyes of Prada
The Prada Foundation and the artist Francesco Vezzoli showed in 2017 “Fenomenologia Di Raffaella” and the impact that the artist
would have on Italian TV.
There really are phrases and expressions that we keep repeating no matter what time it is and in this case the one that comes to mind is “life never ceases to surprise us”.
Now that this new issue of whitepaperby.com is dedicated to the wonderful and beautiful Italy, this and the rest of the world receives the news of the death of the great diva Raffaella Carrà on July 5 at the age of 78.
Sometimes it is difficult to assess the significance of an artist’s work, how deeply it has touched people and how it has influenced the thoughts and feelings of several generations. This is the case of Raffaella Carrà.
I think somehow something similar must have happened to Italian visual artist and director Francesco Vezzoli when he devised—together with Miuccia Prada—and presented at the Fondazione Prada the exhibition entitled “TV 70 Francesco Vezzoli guarda la Rai” in 2017, a production of Italian television reflecting the 1970s and its connections with the arts, politics, and society.
This “Maratone TV 70” included “Fenomenologia di Raffaella Carrà” presenting several seasons of the programs Milleluci and Ma Che Sera. Two great successes of Italian television where Carrà gave free rein to all her qualities as a show-woman.
Both the Prada Foundation and Vezzoli himself saw the need to transport the viewer and be able to place them in a time when television coexisted with a very complicated political climate that was framed in the socalled Years of Lead in Italy.
Therefore, the impact of a program like Milleuci directed by Antonello Falqui (1974) is not surprising, a black and white variety program co-presented by two singers, Mina and Raffaella Carrà, who not only gave way to different guests with the traditional formula of a TV program where both artists also sang. It was the first time that two women were in front of a space of these characteristics, a fully male-dominated field until that moment.
Ma Che Sera, directed by Gino Landi (1978) was a musical variety show in color, where Raffaella showed her most transgressive and ironic side.
The incombustible artist who would captivate several generations had also had time to make her debut on TVE in the program Señoras y Señores (1975), a very successful appearance that years later allowed her to have her own program called La Hora de Raffaella (Raffaella’s Hour).
As the documentary Fenomenologia titles, Raffaella Carrà became a social phenomenon and a point of reference in all aspects of society. Italy watched as Carrà was censored for showing her navel, heard conversations in the lyrics of her songs about subjects that no one dared to talk about, much less on public television, and the gay community adopted her as an idol with a voice of her own.
Her perfect platinum bob was immortalized in her choreographies with a head bob and twist that stayed in people’s minds forever.
A true aesthetic icon, the world of fashion and in particular show business could see how she made her own bodysuits with glitter, ball gowns, tight latex pants, jumpsuits, mini dresses, and hundreds of looks perfectly designed to tell a story and a statement of intent.
The complicity between the artist Francesco Vezzoli and the Prada Foundation continues to create and show the evolution of the media and the impact on society of the moment. In 2020, “Love Stories” was presented where Vezzoli shows the ephemeral nature of social networks, in this case Instagram, a social and cultural research where he asks 50 questions associated with images that create visual shocks. The artist composes a whole narrative and exposure of various universal themes such as love, loneliness, diversity, and the future, creating an artistic and cultural reflection.
Oreste del Buono, Federico Fellini, Vittorio Bruno Cinema 70, 1970 - Courtesy Rai Teche