Docu-reality · Rai 2 · 2009

La Tribù Missione India.

For the Rai studio set of the docu-reality shot in India we sculpted a female deity with a golden third eye and an installation of stepped pink LED panels.

Story

One act

A female deity
for the Rai studio set.

La Tribù: Missione India aired on Rai 2 in 2009. It is an entertainment docu-reality set in India, with a studio segment in Italy that closes the expedition narrative and connects with the television audience.

For that studio set we were asked for a scenography that would convey Indian iconography without slipping into brochure decorativism. We built two key elements: a large scenographic head of a female deity in the round — close to Kali, Durga or Lakshmi — with a red-orange complexion, a golden third eye in the middle of the forehead and a white spiked halo; and an installation of pink-red LED panels arranged as steps, acting as a luminous backdrop for the studio.

The challenge here was not the sculpting craft — we know that. It was visual philology: the Rai 2 audience had to recognise "India" at a glance without us stumbling into cliché. Proportions, attributes, colour palette — everything had to be faithful enough not to offend the original iconography, and legible enough on camera to require no explanation.

The deity's head belongs to our religious-mythological iconography strand, the same one that produced the monumental Anubis figures of Gardaland Adventure Hotel and the Winx statues at Rainbow MagicLand: imposing figures, hand-finished, conceived to be admired by the public at close range.

Scenographic head of an Indian female deity sculpted in the round for the Rai 2 studio set of the docu-reality La Tribù: Missione India (2009): red-orange complexion, golden third eye in the middle of the forehead, white spiked halo around the head, solemn frontal expression — **The deity's head.** Red complexion, golden third eye, white spiked halo

Installation of pink-red LED panels arranged as steps for the studio scenography of the docu-reality La Tribù: Missione India: a female figure in the foreground, in the background the luminous backdrop with horizontal rows of coloured lights — **The stepped LED panels.** The luminous backdrop that closes the studio

Behind the scenes

Indian philology,
television legibility.

The scenography of a television docu-reality must balance faithfulness to the culture being told and immediate legibility for the Rai 2 audience. Two demands rarely reconciled — here resolved through monumental modelling and a calibrated colour palette.

The deity's head

Sculpted in high-density expanded polystyrene, reinforced with fibreglass, hand-finished in its chromatic details. The golden third eye and the edges of the halo are painted one by one; the red-orange complexion follows the iconographic tradition of the subcontinent's female deities. Frontal, solemn, popular-cult expression.

The stepped LED panels

Load-bearing structure in metal carpentry, themed LED panels with horizontal rows of pink-red light, arranged as concentric tiers. The backdrop is designed to breathe with the direction: the LEDs can change intensity during the show, accompanying the hosts' background without stealing the scene.

The exotic TV iconography

In those years Italian TV was going through a phase of exotic scenographies for expedition shows (Rai and Mediaset alike). Rai 2, in particular, experimented with docu-reality formats that used monumental scenographies as a recognisable visual mark. Our Indian deity is one of those marks.

2009

the year the docu-reality aired on Rai 2

Rai 2

the network and the audience of the docu-reality set in India

2 pieces

the deity's head in the round and the stepped LED panels documented

Second life

The religious-mythological
iconography strand.

The head of the female deity is one of the most successful pieces in the religious-mythological iconography strand of our workshop. It belongs to the same production line that, in other projects and other years, built the monumental Anubis figures of the Gardaland Adventure Hotel, the Winx statues at Rainbow MagicLand and the friezes of Paolo Sorrentino's Young Pope.

The reference culture changes — pharaonic Egypt, fantasy mythology, papal Catholic iconography, Hindu pantheon — but the craft is the same: polystyrene + fibreglass sculpting, hand-finished polychromy, balance between philological fidelity and immediate legibility. It is the most transversal strand of our repertoire.

Tech sheet

All production data

Type: Scenography for television docu-reality · studio set
Show: La Tribù: Missione India · Rai 2 · 2009
Network: Rai 2
Format: Entertainment docu-reality set in India, with a studio segment in Italy
Pieces built: Monumental head of an Indian female deity — sculpted in the round, red-orange complexion, golden third eye, white spiked halo · close in attributes to Kali, Durga or Lakshmi · Installation of stepped pink-red LED panels — luminous backdrop for the studio
Techniques: Hand-sculpted expanded polystyrene · layered fibreglass reinforcement · polychrome glaze finishing · metal carpentry for the LED panels
Our role: Construction of the scenographic pieces for the Rai studio set · sculpting, polychrome finishing, on-set delivery
Craft strand: Religious-mythological iconography · same strand as Gardaland Adventure, Rainbow MagicLand, Young Pope
Second life: Modelling techniques for monumental heads now part of the workshop's standard repertoire