Pippa Bacca

Giuseppina Pasqualino di Marineo , known by her stage name Pippa Bacca (born December 9, 1974 in Milan , † March 31, 2008 near Gebze ), was an Italian performance artist . When she in bridal attire from Milan towards Middle East hitchhiked to advertise in this way for world peace, she fell in Turkey a murder victim, which attracted international attention.

To person

Pippa Bacca, a niece of the well-known artist Piero Manzoni (1933–1963), was a representative of performance art .

An example of her art was transforming objects into other objects, which she often did with simple scissors . This is how her work of art “Surgical Transformations” ( Mutazioni chirurgiche ) was created from leaves collected in the forest , which were cut so that they took on the appearance of leaves of other plant species.

"Brides on Tour"

In the course of her last art act, she was the victim of a crime. Pippa Bacca and her artist colleague Silvia Moro started on March 8, 2008 from Milan on a “peace journey” through a total of eleven countries in the direction of the Middle East. Disguised as brides, the two women hitchhiked through Slovenia , Croatia , Bosnia , Serbia and Bulgaria , from where they entered Turkey on March 20. They parted ways in Istanbul . They planned to take the route via Syria and meet again in Lebanon on March 31st . From there, the two wanted to complete the trip together in Israel and the Palestinian Territories .

On their homepage they had written that they wanted to wear the white, self-sewn wedding dress until their arrival in the Middle East, "with all the stains it takes on during the trip". In this way, peace should be promoted in areas where hatred for one another does not let go of people. The artists made a conscious decision to hitchhike to demonstrate their trust in strangers.

The crime

Pippa Bacca was last seen alive on March 31, 2008 in Gebze , a city on the Anatolian outskirts of Istanbul . After that she was missing and went missing. Her sister then went to Turkey to find her again. The body of the wanted was finally discovered on April 11, not far from Gebze in a forest. The man who led the police to the site was arrested. The police had tracked him down for trying to use Pippa Bacca's cell phone. The man confessed to raping and strangling the hitchhiker he had taken in his van.

Pippa Bacca, who usually captured the drivers of the cars she got into on her trip, is said to have photographed her alleged murderer Murat Karataş. The police were able to secure the artist's camera in the home of the accused.

Public sympathy and political reactions

The murder case caused great upheaval in Italy and especially in the Turkish public. Several daily newspapers appeared with headlines in Italian such as Pippa forgive us ( Sabah ). The tragic event was often linked to earlier criminal cases and internal Turkish issues, the discussion about violence against women, cruel traditions and the supposed “looking the other way around the judiciary and society”.

A leading newspaper in the country suggested that a Turkish artist should continue Pippa Bacca's interrupted journey and transform it into a “freedom march” for the Turkish women - in a white wedding dress and despite the danger that this might entail.

President Abdullah Gül expressed his condolences to his Italian counterpart Giorgio Napolitano on behalf of the entire Turkish people. On April 19, the funeral service for Pippa Bacca took place in Milan with great public sympathy.

Movie

The 2012 documentary film La Mariée ( The Bride ) by French director Joël Curtz tells Pippa Bacca's fate and uses video recordings from her camera.

The film Köpek (2015) by the Turkish-Swiss director Esen Işık is dedicated to Pippa Bacca.

Web links

• Brides on tour
• Pippa Bacca's website
• Fazile Zahir Muğla: Pippa Bacca: Dead but not forgotten , in: Sunday's Zaman , April 20, 2008 (English) political classification of the case
• Laura King: Italian Pippa Bacca's fatal journey , in: Los Angeles Times , May 30, 2008 (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Brides on tour - itinerary ( Memento des original of March 14, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed April 12, 2008 
2. ↑ Elisabetta Povoledo: Performance Artist Killed on Peace Trip Is Mourned , in: The New York Times , April 19, 2008
3. ↑ Missing Italian "World Peace" Hitcher And Artist Found Dead In Turkey ( Memento of the original from May 6, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. All Headline News, accessed April 12, 2008 
4. ↑ Turchia, uccisa l'artista scomparsa ( Memento of the original from April 14, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , in: La Stampa , April 12, 2008 
5. ↑ Pippa takes pictures of her murderer , in: Sabah , April 14, 2008
6. ↑ Kai Strittmaier: Per Hitchhiker's Guide to Death  ( page can no longer be accessed , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , in: Süddeutsche Zeitung , April 14, 2008  
7. ↑ Mehmet Yilmaz: "peace walk" of Pippa, "freedom walk" of Turkish women , in: Hürriyet , April 15, 2008
8. ↑ The Bride (La Mariée) . Joël Curtz.
9. ↑ The Bride . International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam. Archived from the original on October 29, 2013. Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved February 4, 2016. 
10. ↑ Interview with the director . In: Tages-Anzeiger , December 8, 2015, accessed February 4, 2016.