MISS PIGGY OUT! / SAM’S REVENGE,2014, photographic print, 70 x 100 cm, Courtesy Galleria Fonti, Napoli.
In the photografic collage titled “Miss Piggy out! / Sam’s revenge”, I refer to the episode of the television serie “The Muppet Show” in which Rudolf Nureyev took part in 1978. The Tartar Dancer agreed to take part in the program, as a special guest, as long as he could have danced the “pas de deux” from “Swan Lake” with Miss Piggy, ridiculing and humiliating her. Nureyev was a revolutionary in many ways, especially in the dance world; he managed to overshadow the figure of the female dancer, the undisputed star of the stage, and put the focus on on the male figure, who until then was used almost exclusively to support the partner in the scene. The episode of the Muppet Show is a glaring example of this conflict and his competitive relationship with the female figure. In this new diptych, Miss Piggy is thrown violently out of the theater, as if Nureyev throw her against a brick wall. Sam the Eagle, the most severe and grumpy of the whole Muppet team, played in the series by Frank Oz, the puppeteer creator of the show, takes revenge against Nureyev, who made fun of his creation (Miss Piggy), turning him into a puppet. My attempt with this work, is to restore the dignity that Nureyev had robbed not too gallantly to the gentle sex.