Close Looking
Performing architecture into political
The place:
A foreign location, the British Pavilion, in an Italian city overcrowded by tourist and composed for one third by no-venetian students and another third by immigrants – invisible workers in one of the most visual-mediated cities in the world. A place located in the most important Biennale of the world, The Venice Architecture Biennale: a Biennale dedicated to the places in themselves, and to the life in the places, to architecture, and, as the curator of the 12th edition said, to people that meet in architectures. A place in a city ill by the architectonic and industrial speculation plagues as well as low-quality mass tourism exploitation.
The time:
The 21st of November, a day dedicated to the Holy Mary of the Health, in memoriam of the end of the XVII century plague. A day officially dedicated to Venetians. And the last day of the Biennale exhibition, the only one that usually is free for local citizens. (However if you hadn’t had an updated IC that shows your Venetian pedigree you were not admitted to free entrance).
The object:
The life of the city and the possible lives of the city.
A discussion about the survivorship of Venice and its Lagoon, about its anthropological, architectonical and natural resources.
The way:
A discussion between Venetian citizens and between the different Committees engaged against the powerful speculation of the city. An exhibition of the extinguishing population of a western city. A discussion between researchers and scientists, independent politicians, teachers, social workers, students, cultural workers, people engaged in environmental defence and in arts and heritage conservation.
The aim:
Let people meet each others, in a public spaces usually interdicted to local population.
The result:
Everyone spoke about its life and engagement in Venice, highlighting what strategies to adopt to maintain the city as a place where to live, and which rights and resources have to be defended.
If in the morning one of the most important point was the choice between the conservation of Venice and the conservation of the Lagoon natural life, during the afternoon meeting the main core was the definition of Venetian citizenship itself.
New considerations had been opened: what we want to do with our life, are we able to guide naturally our development in the territory in equilibrium with environmental needs and limits? At which costs? Are we able to let us be guided by natural limits or our idea of progress implements the result of a total destruction?
During the afternoon everyone was able to define a way to protect the life of the city and of its citizenship, to conserve the traditions of the place, opposing the hotelization process. Everyone used this moment to start to define what is the Venetian community.
This was a first step to know who we are, what we want to choose, which kind of relational architectures we want to build together, without a competitive model, but involving each others in a collaborative resistance and production of the welfare and of the political.
It has been a performative moment, in which the public desire took collective expression.
