In Venice, space is a fluid and ever-evolving entity, a matter of negotiation. It’s as if the amphibian nature of the city—the presence of water brushing its banks, seeping through, emerging from underneath the pavement, sliding in from the waterfront, climbing the marble steps one by one, narrowing the pedestrian passages—this very presence informs the nature of space as it fulfills and realises itself here. Nothing is ever set in stone, even when it’s upon stones that we walk, go about our days, rest, and live our lives.
Negotiating space sometimes means occupying it, defending it, reclaiming it. At other times, it means giving it away, compromising it, or wasting it. And yet at others, it means sharing it, shaping it, and remaining open to the forms it might morph into. The best posture, it seems, is akin to that of a body wishing to stay afloat: rigidity causes it to sink; what keeps it on the surface is a fine balance of strength and surrender.
The surface of Venice is the space we see and the space we have the ability to shape through the ways in which we relate to it. We thought a good way to begin was through observation and restitution.
Shaping Spaces is a series investigating the ever-elusive idea of space and the concept of enoughness in relation to life in Venice. By observing how we exist within it—we, all of us: locals and visitors, young and old, individuals and the collective, fast- and slow-moving bodies and objects—we can, on one hand, begin to grasp its underlying paradigms, the silent rules that govern it; and on the other, shift our perception and, perhaps, our way of inhabiting it.
What happens, for instance, when the narrow space of a calle is invaded by entities and quantities that it was not designed for? What happens when the pace of one’s life—and thus time itself—is influenced by the speed at which we are able to move through the space allotted to us? How is life changed by the absence of vehicles arrogantly reclaiming space for themselves, or carrying things for us?
The series is co-curated by Giacomo Gandola and Valeria Necchio for Inside Venice and will unfold in four chapters, each revolving around a theme, an archetype, and each reflecting, through words and visuals, on the physical and symbolic shapes we contribute to creating within the spatial nature of the city, casting light on gestures, trajectories, movement, obstacles, and bits of beauty as we find them along the way.
Words by Valeria Necchio | Photo by Giacomo Gandola
