Sissi (Daniela Olivieri, Bologna, 1977) is an Italian artist who lives between Bologna and London. Sissi's investigation into the subjectivity and into the social and emotional construction of the body starts from a performance and it is linked to an emotional anatomy which is constantly experimented through different media: performance, sculpture, drawing and photography.
Biography
After studying at the Academy of Fine Arts in Bologna, she is selected by Antonio Ratti Foundation in 2001 for the Advanced Course in Visual Arts held by the artist Marina Abramovic.
Early works and career (1999 - 2007)
With the performance "Daniela ha perso il treno / Daniela lost the train" in 1999 the artist adopts the pseudonym of Sissi, abandoning her real name. The international art world soon recognized Sissi's work as original and innovative as it has been testified by her performance Aerea at MOCA in Miami (2001) and in the same year by Vetroninfea in Watou in Belgium. Acclaimed by the curatorial world, in 2002 she is awarded with Premio Furla / Furla Art Prize at the Querini Stampalia Foundation in Venice.
As concerning Sissi's early works, the artist is focused on the practice of intertwining, realizing works where wool, iron or plastic wires, or natural elements like rattan, are hand-woven by the artist in the form of placenta cocoons and nests which become shelters for the body and are animated by Sissi herself with her performative act, as in Secondo Mezzo Piano at Palazzo delle Albere at Mart in Trento-Rovereto (2002), or in Phantom of Desire at the Neue Galerie am Landesmuseum Joanneum in Graz (2003), or during her first solo show Nidi (Nests) organized by MACRO in Rome in 2004. The year before, Sissi was dedicated a double exhibition with Ian Kiaer at W139 in Amsterdam, titled The Walk (2003). In 2005 she won the New York Prize for the young Italian Art with a residency at the Italian Academy of Columbia University. In the same year she made the installation Nature for her first solo show in New York at the Chelsea Art Museum. During this time in Sissi's art the body undergoes a further evolution and it gets a physical external structure in order to be protected from the outside world, as it happens in The wings have no home (2007). This performance has been realized during the exhibition "Global Feminism" at the Brooklyn Museum in New York where the artist literally hung under the ceiling of the museum. Today the artwork belongs to the Elisabeth Sackler Foundation's collection.
Works and International Exhibition (2008 - today)
Starting from 2008 there is a further evolution in Sissi's art that from performances leads to the sculptural installations which is now enriched by new elements such as: ropes, ceramics, drawings, canvases, clothes, as for example in the work Over the glances tie the rope (2008) presented at the Tokyo Wonder Site - Institute of Contemporary Arts and International Cultural Exchange. In 2008 Sissi has been invited to the Quadriennale in Rome and in 2009 she represented Italy at the 53rd Venice Biennale with La deriva è il nodo della mia gola, an installation made of sculptural elements in ceramics, a material which is going to become more and more important for her art. Between 2010 and 2012 Sissi is included in several group and solo exhibitions: from Tate Modern in London (2010) to Fondazione Pomodoro in Milan (2010), from Turku Biennial in Finland (2011) to the Museum of Contemporary Art in Zagreb (2012), to Fondazione Volume in Rome (2015). Recently, she also took part in 2022 group exhibition titled CRAZY - Madness in contemporary art at Chiostro del Bramante in Rome and in 2021 Bodies horizon
Everything starts from the artist's body and then it goes towards a more and more universal body, as explained in the performance which is the symbol of Sissi's art: Anatomia Parallela in Tour / Parallel Anatomy on Tour (2014). The artist travels to historical anatomical theaters around Europe (Bologna, Padua, Pistoia, London) giving lessons of "emotional anatomy" where the drawing is the protagoinist and it becomes bigger in size, turning into an ephemeral intestine-brain traced with flour on the Palatino's ground during her performance Diary of and hallow abdomen (2016), held at Fori Imperiali in Rome for the show "Par tibi Roma nihil". However Sissi finds the most original means to leave a trace of her unique performative acts with the sculpture Motivi Ossei / Bone Motifs (2016), the large installation of ceramics realized for the solo exhibition at Galleria d'Arte Maggiore g.a.m. in Bologna. This work has its roots in the performance L'Imbandita, a "thematic dinner" held inside the Oratory of San Filippo Neri (2015). "Dinner" is another thematic cycle by Sissi: since 2004 she has been doing performances where voluptuous banquets become landscapes where the public is invited to take part in a collective consumption experience.
Special project
From 2010 to 2013 Sissi collaborates with the fashion brand Furla for the creation of the advertising campaigns which become also performances with Candybrissima show (2012), an itinerant workshop held in different cities like Moscow, Dubai, Hong Kong, Tokyo, New York and Paris. In 2012 with Aspiranti Aspiratori Sissi enters the world of industry design in collaboration with Elica. That year her performance becomes a collateral event of Salone del Mobile in Milan and it will be the protagonist of the namesake solo show at Aike-Dellarco Gallery in Shanghai in 2013. The work has been selected by the Permanent Observatory of Design ADI - Associazione per il Disegno Industriale (Association for the Industrial Design) and included in the book ADI - Design Index (2012). In 2021 she realized a site-specific installation for the forth edition of Arteparco at Parco Nazionale d'Abruzzo, Lazio e Molise, with the support of Maggiore g.a.m.. In 2022 Sissi was the winner of the contest A sculpture for Margherita Hack, promoted by Comune di Milano, Casa degli Artisti and Fondazione Deloitte. Her sculpture is now standing in front of Università Statale in Milan.
Books dedicated to Sissi
Abitanoidi, Sissi, Ed. Corraini, 2020
Vestimenti, (edited by Antonio Grulli and Mariuccia Casadio), Ed. Corraini, 2020
Sissi, (edited by Antonio Grulli), Electa Editori, Milan, 2018
Lezioni di Anatomia, (edited by Sissi), Corraini Editori, Mantova, 2016
Sissi. Motivi Ossei, (edited by Maura Pozzati), Silvana Editoriale, Milan, 2016
Anatomia Parallela, Nero Editori, Rome, 2014
Sissi: Aspiranti Aspiratori, (edited by Sissi and Fondazione Ermanno Casoli), Corraini Edizioni, Mantova, 2012
Abitanti, (edited by Danilo Eccher), Mousse Publishing, Milan, 2011
Voliare, (edited by Giuliano Gori), Gli Ori, Pistoia, 2007
Sissi, (edited by Roberto Daolio. Short contributions by Fabio Cavallucci, Ludovico Pratesi, Claudio Marra, Sandra Borgogelli, Jolanda Nigro Covre, Ferruccio Gard, Silvia Grandi, Fabiola Naldi, Fabriano Fabbri, Guido Bartorelli), Mazzotta, Milan, 2007
W139 Amsterdam, Report of an Ongoing Journey (edited by Ann Demeester), Roma Publications, Amsterdam, 2005
Nidi, (text by Pierluigi Tazzi, conversation between the artist and Christa Steile), MACRO - Museo d'Arte Contemporanea Roma, Electa, Rome, 2004