Anyone who knows me knows that one of my greatest passions is snakes.
As a kid, I would have loved to own a python (today I prefer to think of animals as free in their natural habitats) which I would have naively called Pito Pito.
Pito Pito was the iconic boa of the pop-porn-star Cicciolina (aka Ilona Elena Staller) with whom the actress performed in her hardcore shows and which I had heard about casually in a television interview given by the artist at the end of the 90s.
Cicciolina had conquered me with her body squeezed in sensually romantic dresses, a crown of flowers on her blonde head, the blue eyes illuminated by pastel eyeshadows.
When I used to see Cicciolina as a child I didn’t see the scandalous diva of sin but a sort of fairy capable of talking to the Care Bears, the Popples, the My Little Pony protagonists of the cartoons of the time.
Ilona Staller had skilfully known how to cross, circumvent and transcend the social role that society wanted to impose on her, transforming herself into a transversal, ironic, irreverent and modern expression of a historical moment until she was elected as a deputy in the Italian Parliament (from the ranks of Marco Pannella‘s Radical Party).
Born in Budapest, at the age of 13 she began working as a model in the state photographic agency MTI. Later, she found work as a waitress in the Danube Continental hotel, and was also contacted by the Hungarian secret services to become a sort of spy against American businessmen.
In 1973, she met Riccardo Schicchi (who would become her husband) with whom she hosted a radio program entitled Voulez-vous coucher avec moi? on Rome’s private broadcaster Radio Luna: it was a radio program with a strong and explicit eroticism, broadcast at night, from midnight to two, entirely dedicated to erotic phone calls from listeners, with whom Ilona interacted by calling them Cicciolini and Ciccioline (hence her nickname Cicciolina).
In 1976, she brought full nudity to Italy for the first time in a public place (a nightclub).
In 1979, she arrived on television, taking part in Enzo Trapani‘s variety show C’era due volte, alongside Daniele Piombi on Rai 2. Her debut in the pornographic field took place in 1983, with the film La conchiglia dei desideri, directed by Schicchi.
The latest pornographic film was Passione indecente, shot in 1991.
Again together with Riccardo Schicchi she founded the Diva Futura agency which discovered, among others, Moana Pozzi and Barbarella.
She recorded records (Muscolo Rosso is now a cult one).
She participated in other (numerous) television shows, chosen politics, changed his skin, not substance.
She elevates herself to a pop-icon.
We met Ilona a few weeks ago on the occasion of the republication of the biographical photo-book Memories – Racconto Fotografico di un Mito, a 230 page limited-edition hard-back book.
Hi Ilona, how are you? Would you define the concept of art for us?
I’m good, thank you!
Art has many facets, it has both moral and practical value and connection with Heaven since spiritual values are sublimated.
I have been painting for several years and I am in contemporary art (take a look at ilonastallercicciolinacontemporaryart).
On social networks you will find all my beautiful and beautiful paintings with my original signature that the interested public can purchase.
I am a multi-faceted artist, I write books and sing and I have 50 songs made by me in French, Italian, Spanish and English.
I do reality shows all over the world and I go to events hosted in nightclubs and large restaurants and I participate in art exhibitions.
Who is Ilona Staller?
Ilona Staller is an artist known throughout the world, a living icon who invented the name Cicciolina in 1975 over the air via Radio Luna and from that moment Ilona Staller also becomes Cicciolina, a mixture of sensual eroticism, a mystical girl with the appearance of a nymph.
Who was Cicciolina?
Cicciolina still is and continues to be so forever. I am preparing live events through social media such as TickTock, Instagram, Twitter and Facebook.
I am very active as an artist and still work for LGBTQ+ events and events all over the world, also being a gay icon and I love my gay friends.
Cicciolina is colorful and almost mythological flower and there are already many rumors about Cicciolina’s personality in a very positive tone.
Why do you think Ilona-Cicciolina was able to cross the boundaries of pornography and transform herself into a pop icon of the 80s and 90s?
I have become a pop icon of the 80s and 90s because I am the character with a crown and long blonde hair.
In a way, I fully represent “the flower children”, even teenagers know me and ask me for my autograph in the street due to the uniqueness and unrepeatability of my character.
You have (fortunately) dropped some, many taboos.
Yes, and I have changed the common sense of decency in Italy by doing shows in the largest Italian and world discos and I am proud of this way of being without shame and with a character full of facets.
You were the first in Italy to completely undress during a show in a nightclub in 1976.
Do you feel more like an icon or an iconoclast?
I am an Italian and global pop icon and not an iconoclast, my role is constructive and not destructive.
I am an icon of Pop Art and muse of the famous American artist Jeff Koons who was my husband from 1991 to 1994.
He depicted me in his famous Made in Heaven series sold all over the world and currently present in contemporary art museums all over the world.
My great masterpiece was my son Ludwig born from my marriage to Jeff in 1992 on October 29th. Ludwig is a fantastic scorpion artist too.
If I say Partito dell’Amore , what do you say?
I thought about building this Partito dell’Amore already when I was a parliamentarian of the Radical Party from 1987 to 1992.
But at the time of Partito dell’Amore I was pregnant with my son Ludwig and I could not actively campaign as I did with the Radical Party.
A few years earlier, in 1985, you had been the first porn star in the world to have been elected to Parliament (specifically in the Italian Parliament from the ranks of Marco Pannella’s Radical Party). What did that moment represent for you?
I met Marco Pannella, a fantastic politician who I have always admired, and I asked to put me on the Radical Party’s list.
I helped in the streets in numerous demonstrations with 10,000 members of the Radical Party. I campaigned with a Frog convertible with my breasts out.
I was inviting people to vote for me in the discos where I sang and in the squares where I carried out my colorful electoral campaign.
I was elected with 20,000 preferences in the Italian parliament and I still miss Marco Pannella very much, he was a politician and a man of value.
I have brought 19 legislative proposals to the Italian parliament in 5 years of legislature.
The unforgettable Moana Pozzi (like her discovered by the Pygmalion Riccardo Schicchi) was his adventure companion on that and on many other occasions (including television ones). What relationship existed between you?
Actually, I would like to point out that in the past Riccardo Schicchi and I had a 50% partnership.
I posed countless times for Riccardo in photo shoots like for many other photographers and when I met him we were two young people who were starting to enter the world of entertainment. I lived with Him for several years, and since I was very beautiful I was in great demand on all Italian and foreign TV so I discovered myself. Schicchi was my partner, Moana worked for us like many other artists.
I recently listened to you in an interview conducted by Enzo Biagi in 1977 on the Mixer program.
On that occasion, the Proibito column placed the emphasis on the role of women in society and the avoidance of imposed conventions.
Do you believe that, in your own way, you have contributed to the liberation from certain bigoted cultural legacies that saw women almost exclusively as wives and mothers?
The broadcast was a great success and Enzo Biagi, a great journalist, defined me as Maria Callas of sex.
I was alongside another artist Eleonora Giorgi who passed away prematurely recently.
I am saddened by his untimely death.
I am a feminist, I am a loving mother and an ideologically open woman.
Over the years you have experimented with the radio (before porn itself, with the program entitled Voulez-vous coucher avec moi?), television, music, politics (we’ve seen). What did you enjoy most?
In 1975 I did the radio show on Radio Luna Voulez vous coucher avec moi? where I whispered to my Cicciolini 360 degree eroticism.
I enjoyed the show a lot due to its variety in terms of both female and male listeners and audiences.
After all, I enjoyed all the things I did over the years. I have never stopped being an artist, I sing in nightclubs, I host programs and reality shows and I am involved in politics as an animal rights activist.
Memorie – Racconto Fotografico di Un Mito is the photographic book that tells your story. There are 230 color pages through which your extraordinary life is retraced through images. It is an autobiographical journey.
When does the need to publish an autobiography arise?
Is there a favorite photo?
By popular demand of the world public.
Thinking about the past and projecting ourselves towards the future, what would you write to the self of the past and what to the self of the future?
I live in the present.
My future life it’s a mystery, something a world to imagine and invent when I grow up.
Images courtesy of Ilona Staller
Books can be purchased for Euro 100 plus shipping with a special dedication from Ilona and a lipstick kiss from Ilona https://cicciolinaonline.com/it/content/memorie-il-mio-libro-fotografico
