Desnua – stripped, undressed. It was the same Venice we experienced this year that captured the attentive eye of Marco Valmarana, photographer, born in 1990. DESNUA – La spoliazione di Venezia is the photographic exhibition which tells us about the swift change of a city that went through two crucial events: the high waters of November 2019 and the desertification of 2020. The first time – even for us – in which we savoured the unique beauty of a stripped city, and not without pain.
A story told through pictures – the photos were taken in the last two years – which wishes to become the watershed between a before and an after, an occasion to recall the traces this city bears, the role each one of us plays in its present and future.
Staring at these images in silence feels like being questioned, called to action: and you, what will you do? The same street: first, thriving with people, and then with only an anonymous figure crossing it: too much space for 50 thousand citizens. These are pictures, slices of daily life that speak by themselves and speak clearly and loudly: it is time to take another route.
How? Starting from us, from our community, by trusting new generations, by valuing local activities to support each other like team-members, by creating a space for new perspectives and ideas. By going back to being Venetians for our own self. Dulcis in fundo, the solution comes from an intuition that we read in the last part of the exhibition, a message of hope and an example we can begin from: we will leave you the element of surprise.
In short, an exhibition of triple importance, which raises a necessity, sees an opportunity and gives a good example, by choosing the support of the Cameraphoto Epoche laboratory for the fine art prints and the artisanship of Francesco di Pumpo for the custom made frames.
On one side, a declaration of love to one of the most loved cities in the world, and on the other, a year 0 Venice in which we all wish to have a new beginning – inevitably changed as individuals – to paint a new future on it, this time with everyone’s collaboration. Those who live it daily, and those who only savour it for a brief time.
Desnua, La Spoliazione di Venezia, Marco Valmarana, Art Events – Archivi della Misericordia, until the 31st of May, booking required.
F.M.
