modi di essere
Master’s Thesis 2021
Quarta Venexia
Cat. 2 [4]
“Cultural
heritage and urban form are the foundations of collective identity.”
Maurice Halbwach
Maurice Halbwach
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Quarta Venexia
The marvelous island of Venexia was a floating treasure filled with uniqueness collected by her ships from lands far away. This conglomeration of people and cultures was her driving force. The trade brought crafts from numerous distanced countries which flourished on her precious ground. With time, her glory grew. The tale about her magnificence reached every earthly piece of land. Everyone desired to see her splendor. The pieces created by her artisans were so beautiful that everyone wanted to have one, to bring a piece of the city at home, an evidence for the fairytale tour.
With time more and more foreigners came to the city and wanted to have more and more from it, more pieces, more evidences. The old crafts could not fulfill this never-ending desire. The island started to congest with replications created by the conveyer belt of the consumerist factory. The authenticity lost its relevance. In every store, the same objects were presented. The huge numb masses of man which flooded the streets of the city were cheerfully triumphing. In every home around the world a dubious piece of Venice was to be found. The Venetian artisans started to fade. They were not willing to obey to the hollow cult of fraudulence.
The Cittadini voted for the salvation of the old crafts from the cult of the object. For them those ancient arts were embodiments of their history, of their cultural belonging. This uniqueness had to be preserved and passed on to every new generation. The knowledge of the old artisans was collected and encrypted on the fourth disc of the Brain and saved for eternity in the boundless space of the data-cloud.
The knowledge bearers, the master artisans were meant to pass on the secrecy of their art to those who were chosen to become artisans themselves. Their ateliers were spread around the city, hidden from the eyes of the blind consumerism and visible only to those who were deeply willing to open their mind to the essence of the city. They created a marvelous diverse pattern in the city fabric full of astonishing treasures – countless fabulous pieces made of colourful glass, lace and wood, gorgeous books and masks.
The ateliers were called ‘Capsules of Time’. They were meant to safeguard these fragile treasures of Venice. They were connected with each other through the Matrix and through it also to the Brain. The System was supplying them with what was needed. Those foreign men and women, who were truly admiring and fathoming the significance of those marvelous pieces of belonging, were allowed a possession.
All Cittadini were guarding these indispensable bridges to their past, to all the previous generations.
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