NonTribute to Mike Bongiorno

Illustration, 2010

NonTribute to Mike Bongiorno, Silvio Lorusso, 2010

«Mike Bongiorno is an ideal that nobody has to strive for, because everyone is already at its level» – Umberto Eco, Diario Minimo, Bompiani, Milano 1963

Mike Bongiorno has been a well-known tv showman. Present from the birth of television, he contributed to the cultural decay of italian society through a character proud of his clumsiness and mediocrity and through several quiz based on sciolism and on absence of thinking. Today more than ever italian television promotes such attitude.

I developed this illustration during a workshop about calligrams held by Luca Barcellona. Starting from a series of Mike Bongiorno’s pictures, I tried to obtain a synthetic and recognizable image of the showman. Letters’ design is influenced by tv-shows of quiz and cartoons from paleo-television. Then I chose vintage, hallucinatory tones, to have an image that was an icon and at the same time an emanation.