Marta Bridi is a multifaceted, inspired, and inspiring woman. Originally from Verona, she arrived in Venice thirteen years ago to study. She left, came back for love, and eventually stayed for herself. Marta manages an art gallery (IN’EI), is a creator of jewelry and ceramics for Terraugusta and Limonium Studio, and a kundalini yoga teacher. She practices dance, poetry, theater, and meditation. A profound connoisseur of Eastern cultures, Marta possesses a spirituality and introspection that allow her to have a keen and sensitive eye for the aesthetics and humanity of Venice. In this interview, she tells us about her path towards self-awareness, the encounters that have changed her along the way, and some of her favorite places in and around Venice.
INTERVIEW BY VALERIA NECCHIO
PHOTOS BY MARTA BRIDI / PORTRAITS BY VALERIA NECCHIO
Listen to Marta’s playlist x Gli Incurabili
V: Let’s start from the beginning. When and why did you arrive in Venice?
M: I arrived 13 years ago to pursue a Bachelor’s degree in Languages, Cultures, and Societies of East Asia at Ca’ Foscari University, specializing in the Chinese language. During my time at university, I spent a period in China, and after completing my studies, I returned to Verona. Subsequently, work brought me to Milan, and now I have been back in Venice for eight years. The spark that brought me back here was love – while I was living in Milan, I was with a guy who lived in Venice. We had been together since university, and Venice had a strong connection for both of us. So, I decided to say goodbye to Milan, where I felt that life, work, and people no longer represented me. After a couple of years, our relationship ended, but my love for Venice remained. He left for Portugal, but I was too content to decide to leave. I felt that Venice was now my place, where I should be and where I should stay. It wasn’t my time to leave, and maybe I feel that it never will be.
V: What keeps you here?
M: There is a very powerful energy here. I studied Eastern cultures, so I’m familiar with concepts like Feng Shui – “feng” means wind, “shui” means water, and they are the elements that shape the earth, and their flow identifies well-being, creating a healthy place for the body, mind, and soul. For me, this city embodies these characteristics. There is an energy, a magnetism that attracts people here and retains them. And then there is also an awareness, in the sense that if you are here, you know why you are here – not on a rational level, but from the heart. If you are here, it’s because you have an open heart, and this city keeps you because you are predisposed to be here with your heart. Venice is an all-encompassing city, so you can’t truly experience it if you live superficially; you can’t be here if you’re not involved. In fact, when people tell me, “I don’t know if I’ll stay here, how can you enjoy living here, maybe I’ll leave…”. Well, maybe it’s because there isn’t enough involvement, because their hearts aren’t open enough to embrace the totality of this place, its universality, its foundational elements – water and wind, precisely. The constant flow of water here is not a trivial thing; it’s something unique, and it influences our way of life.
V: Indeed, it’s a city that puts you to the test, so it’s easy to give up if you don’t feel this sense of rootedness.
M: Certainly, it’s not a static city because the energy here is powerful, and you feel it. If you listen, you feel it a lot. And you have to move at the same pace as this city. This city is a continuous pilgrimage. You can see it in the metaphor of walking. Venice asks you to move forward in life, to progress in everything: emotions, body, relationships with people.
V: Tell me about the people you have encountered here and how they have influenced your journey.
M: I was reflecting on this just a few days ago, thinking that Venice has a feminine name, and as I thought about it, I looked around and realized that the women are what inspire me in this city. If I look at who I have as reference points, as sources of inspiration, I see these women – in various fields, from yoga to theater, dance, work, and friendships – and I think, wow, the social and anthropological fabric of this city, in my case, in my dimension, is made up of women. Women of all ages, peers but also older women. I realize that this aspect is very evident in my case, and I wonder if it’s me who seeks this, if it’s me who attracts these figures. I believe so because it’s what I need to live well in this place.
V: Even for my own experiences, there’s something about the people here that resonates with me in a different way.
M: We are like poles, attracting and pushing away. Meetings, departures, meetings, departures, and each encounter is enriching, creating a bond. So, if you zoom out and look at it from above, you see that a whole network has formed, an alternative map of the city. Have you noticed that, if you don’t want to meet someone, there’s like a universal energy that nine times out of ten prevents you from meeting that person? The more I delve into these Eastern philosophies and let them settle, the more I believe in this – there’s a path, and that path creates sense for you, and the people you meet make sense for you. Living in Venice has brought me this awareness.
Then, when I discovered that my great-grandmother came here to treat her asthma and would go to Pellestrina – spending summers in San Piero in Volta doing crochet – I understood why that place is so powerful to me, because it’s a refuge, a tremendously powerful recharge. In the end, you always come back to go forward and go back again.
V: And then there’s this dimension of care, which is both about taking care and being cared for by this place if you allow it.
M: You are protected, others are protected, and you protect others. There’s this form of protection, but there’s also a very powerful spiritual presence. If you look at all the ex voto around, all the Madonnas—even in the sea, in the lagoon—people have always sought protection. The spirit is the soul. That’s what we nurture. We try to nurture that to live well and try to feel good in every moment.
V: You are very versatile. You do a lot of things, from yoga to theater, ceramics, and jewelry. What is the common thread, if there is one?
M: The common thread is the heart. Everything I do comes from within because for me, it’s an expression, an extension of myself. This city has brought everything to me. It has truly given me a true identity. Not that I didn’t have it before, but it was unexpressed. I had convinced myself that I liked working in a certain field with a certain pace, I believed it represented me. Then I realized it wasn’t like that, what was inside me didn’t resonate with what was coming out, and that’s something that weakens you. This city has given me this clear understanding, not overnight, it has been a journey, but it helped me understand the direction my soul was going. So, I started with ceramics, dance, jewelry, and it was always women who guided me, showed me the way. Until at some point, I was able to say: this is me. If you don’t immerse yourself with your heart, what you do is sterile, and for me, that’s not acceptable. When you do things with your heart, there’s no effort. Of course, there’s commitment, processing, but it’s a positive evolution without fatigue.
V: I have often thought about the idea that if you give yourself to this city with trust, if you jump in, this city gives back so much.
M: It’s true, there’s something greater, mysterious, and if you have faith, it will provide for you. This doesn’t mean you won’t face challenges. Difficulties exist, you may fall, but it’s not a problem because then you get up and move on. The important thing is to be open-hearted, listen, and have trust that what needs to happen will come. I have opened myself to listening, I have accepted what has happened to me in recent times even with fear, pain, anger, but in the end I see everything will gain value and make sense over time, and as I am on a journey, I keep walking.
V: Your ceramics and jewelry are unique pieces that converse with each other. When and how did it all start?
M: I started working with ceramics when I returned to Venice eight years ago. I felt this curiosity, this inspiration. That’s how I met Daniela Levera, a great ceramicist. She had a studio in Castello and was the president of the Bochaleri. I started with her. Now, for almost four years, I produce ceramics at Forte Marghera, as well as jewelry. This is because Chiara Zandarin, the president of the Pandora association and now a dear friend, introduced me to goldsmithing, which quickly became a natural flow within me. It’s a bit anarchic and unconventional but also very disciplined. The two things now run parallel paths, so depending on how I feel at the moment, I create either jewelry or ceramics. However, the two often merge, and I see them as a single entity. They influence each other. My jewelry has organic forms, and so do my ceramics. In my perception, they are things that come from within me.
V: What inspires you?
M: Ancient forms. Etruscan forms – here, the Etruscans are a people that I will never cease to study. I see that in my creations, forms and designs that were part of this civilization reappear, and at the same time, they are natural and spontaneous visions in connection with everything – for example, the spiral motifs that I love to include. And then there are the colors of Venice. Everything in this city inspires me – sunsets, sunrises, geometries, water. I feel that color is deeply rooted in my being. In fact, it is interesting when I see people choosing certain jewelry with certain colors. It is very interesting to see who goes where. For me, these are very instinctive pieces of jewelry, and I notice that people’s choices are also instinctive, and I enjoy seeing what others perceive from my projection and where they orient themselves based on their own perception.
V: I know you read a lot. What are you reading now, and what is this reading giving you?
M: Right now, I’m reading “A Fortune-Teller Told Me” by Tiziano Terzani. I took it from my home library, one of my mother’s books, as she is an avid reader. I’ve always seen it on the shelf for as long as I can remember, next to the sharp-witted Oriana Fallaci, whom I greatly admire. I felt that it was the right time to read it. The protagonist, journalist Terzani himself, is warned by a fortune-teller that he should not take any flights for a year. This slow form of travel leads him to encounters and experiences he would have never had otherwise. It’s interesting how certain elements from this book are now resurfacing in my life. Beyond walking and meeting people, as it happens in Venice. For example, the name of the gallery where I work here in Venice, called In’EI, which means shadow. Terzani mentions the book by Tanizaki, from which this fascinating Japanese concept about the beauty of darkness originates, a concept that is very different from the Western perception. And there are other connections as well. One might think that these are coincidences, but it’s never the case in the universal order of things. If you remain attentive and open, nothing is by chance. So, it’s precisely the book I needed to read now, and I’m reading it.
V: I see that you brought a copy of “Fondamenta degli Incurabili” with you!
M: Yes, my aunt Gaetana gave it to me as a gift six years ago. I have vague memories of this book, perhaps because I read it at a time when I wasn’t receptive. I have fragments of images, suggestions – the fog, the winter, the lagoon – but if you ask me what it’s about, I don’t remember.
V: It’s an ode to winter in Venice, which is definitely a time that predisposes you to connect with it.
M: A time that leads you to have conversations with yourself, and if you’re not at peace with yourself, it’s challenging to be present in that moment. Venice is a city that forces you to look at yourself without structures, without masks. If you wear masks here, your stay will be very short.
V: Which is interesting because Venice is known as the city of masks. But you wear them only for that period of the year, and then you’re asked to remove it.
M: Exactly, but if you always wear masks, after a while, you want to leave because it means you’re not honest with yourself. This city compels you to be honest with yourself and consequently with others – about who you are, what you do, how you relate to others. Otherwise, it’s exhausting; it excludes you because the proximity to others requires openness and honesty.
V: What do you enjoy doing the most when you have free time?
M: Ideally, if I had a day off tomorrow and the sun was shining, my day would look like this: I would prepare a small packed lunch, take a vaporetto (water bus), go to the Lido, and take a long walk all the way to the end, to Alberoni, where the ferry leaves. I would embark on the ferry to Pellestrina and then walk, walk for all seven kilometers, walking among the houses, greeting people, stopping where there’s that small church, San Piero in Volta, tiny and beautiful, taking a moment of reflection and then continuing. It would be like a pilgrimage in the middle of the sea.
V: Do you have any favorite places in the city?
M: The Centro Teatrale di Ricerca (Theater Research Center) in Giudecca, which is the island where I live. I have taken dance and theater courses there. It’s a wonderful place to experiment with the body, mind, and soul—a magical place. And I also enjoy having lunch in typical Venetian osterie (taverns). My parents have a family trattoria, and there I find that same spirit, very simple and honest. In the end, that’s what I love about Venice—the honest places that maintain a social and human spirit.