From Naples to Porta Venezia: interview with LA NIÑA "It's much better to lose followers than yourself"

The beginning of Spanish domination of Naples dates back to the mid-1500s. A domination that, like that of the French that followed, deeply marked the Neapolitan culture, so much so that it changed its language, aesthetics and even topography. And then there’s the music, which over the years has suffered an increasingly strong contamination: many of the greatest Neapolitan authors - from Pino Daniele to Nino D'Angelo - have reinterpreted their classics in Spanish, up to the genesis of what can be defined as "Spagnoletano", a new language - which makes the pair with Spanglish - that mixes dialect and Spanish. LA NIÑA - Carola Moccia's new artistic life, after Fitness Forever, Cyen and YOMBE - perfectly reflects the canons of Spain's aesthetic and cultural influence on Naples, inserting herself within the Neapolitan artistic renaissance in a rather peculiar way. It’s not easy to find - if not in specific contexts of the entertainment industry - female protagonists able to carry on the Neapolitan pop imagination, made of contrasts between high and low, passion and aesthetics. 

Don't miss the concert of LA NIÑA tomorrow, January 25th at the Apollo Club in Milan starting at 23:00. Click this link for all the informations.

What kind of story did you choose to tell LA NIÑA? 

I tell several stories, I don't always talk about my story. I like to empathize with other people's lives, to play diametrically opposite female roles. I draw from mythology or the Bible as well as folk tales or the street. I want to "give voice" to people or characters to which history has not done justice. Women of power, divinities, transsexuals; for me they are all fascinating stories that I tell by lowering them into a hyper-contemporary context. Salomè is the glaring example, she is a woman who screams for revenge but does so dressed in latex riding a racing bike. 

There is more and more talk about the new Neapolitan aesthetic, from fashion to music to cinema. Often, however, they make purely masculine references. What did you think you had? 

Boh, none. But I look around and see very few women worth talking about. I don't think it's my job to investigate the reasons for this. 

I think every artist would give you the same answer: the last thing I did is the best. If I came to LA NIÑA, it's because I wanted to look more and more like myself. I wanted to blur the line between life and art, and I certainly feel closer to this goal than before. I no longer have to strive to please someone because what I have to say is exactly what I am and I can no longer change it. 

You took part in “Le Ragazze di Porta Venezia”. How do you think that kind of message can spread to Naples and meet the Neapolitan aesthetic? 

Well Naples is a gigantic Porta Venezia. It’s a city that for centuries has welcomed and incorporated diversity and culture for the historical reasons mentioned above. The figure of the "Femminiello" (a term used to refer to a population of homosexual males with markedly feminine gender expression in traditional Neapolitan culture, ndr) for example was always well liked by popular culture, even before we began to talk about "gender equality". This is not to say that today it is no longer necessary to reaffirm and celebrate diversity. Unfortunately, we live in a country where, from time to time, we must remind some decerebrate that the colors are as many as those of the rainbow and they are all beautiful. That’s why I love “Le Ragazze di Porta Venezia” any other manifesto that fights against ignorance. As I recently sang live on stage with MYSS KETA in my verse of the song: "Porta Venezia o Porta Capuana, puortace rispetto a Napule e a Milano" (translation: “May it be Porta Venezia or Porta Capuana, respect both Naples and Milan”).