4.The soils of Venice: light footed on the ground

“Lagoon Micro-ecologies”, is the title of the second series of itinerant conversations “Venice as a Model for the Future?” curated by Barbara Casavecchia and Pietro Consolandi for TBA21−Academy and Ocean Space.

This new chapter moves beyond the urban boundaries of the city of Venice towards the islands of its lagoon. The participants direct their steps and gazes to the land and the seascapes created by the interaction between various species, not only human, that inhabit them: from coastal sand to garden soil, from salt marshes, a thriving home to wild plants and birds, to seabeds populated by tiny fish and molluscs.

In inviting us to rethink landscapes as “assemblages” of coexisting life forms, requiring “habits of noticing”, scholar and anthropologist Anna Tsing reminds us that they are “open-ended gatherings. They allow us to ask about communal effects without assuming them. They show us the potential histories in the making.”*

The soils of Venice: light footed on the ground - a traveling conversation around the Giudecca to see everyday places through new eyes. The themes of permaculture, hidden corners, abandoned areas, and degraded parks reveal untapped potential. Starting from Campo S. Cosmo, after an introduction the walk will continue on a conscious exploration of the island, following an itinerary inspired by games, stories, exercises, and reflections.

5.30pm: Meeting at Ocean Space. Departure for “Lagoon Micro-ecologies. Venice as a model for the future?”

Participation is free, please make a reservation at info@ocean-space.org.

Limited places available. We remind you that transport via vaporetto is at the expense of participants.

Sara Paolini, actress and theater teacher, and Michele Savorgnano, permaculturist, have for years been spreading a message that combines both theatrical and permaculture techniques, helping communities to design and transform the places in which they live, by caring for the people and the places themselves. Their starting point is the observation and the interaction between humanity and nature, which is the basis of the ethical principles of permaculture. In our laboratories, through a theatrical approach comprised of games and exercises, people get to know each other, creating a community spirit, in turn helping them to share and design green urban spaces together.

“Lagoon Micro-ecologies” is part of TBA21–Academy’s program, The Current III: The Mediterraneans: “Thus waves come in pairs” (After Etel Adnan), led by Barbara Casavecchia.

The Current III is a transdisciplinary program of perception, listening, thought and learning that supports projects, collective education, and voices on the shores of the Mediterranean through art, culture, science, and activism.

*Anna Tsing, When The Things We Study Respond to Each Other, in: More-than-Human, ed. by Andrés Jaque, Marina Otero Verzier, Lucia Pietroiusti, and Lisa Mazza, co-published by Het Nieuwe Instituut, Office for Political Innovation, General Ecology Project at the Serpentine Galleries and Manifesta Foundation, 2020.