INTRODUCING SEASON 1 EXPLORING THE VENEtian LAGOON

Hello my name is Sarah Rhodes. I am an artist based in Lutruwita/Tasmania and I am the host of this podcast Art Destinations. Art Destinations is produced in partnership with the Sicily Art Residency Program, also known as SARP. Alfio Puglisi set-up the SARP residency program inside his family’s art hotel Palazzo Previtera, which has been in his family since 1649, in the town of Linguaglossa, on Mt Etna. 

Alfio and I met during my SARP art residency in June 2023. I found shared experiences between the town of Linguaglossa and many towns in Lutruwita | Tasmania, including Queenstown which has been the focus of much of my work. Through our conversations about the relationship between art and the islands we live on, we decided to embark on this podcast Art Destinations. Each season will explore one place. Venice will be the first destination and then we will move to Lutruwita | Tasmania for the second season and then Sicily, and so on.  You can find more information about the interviews and the artists themselves on our website artdestinations.org and on Instagram at artdestinations.podcast. 

In these first seasons, we will focus on the relationship between artists and islands. What is particular about these islands? What political, environmental, economic and social issues are artists exploring in these islands? How do these issues influence the art they make? And what do their artworks reveal about the islands themselves?

I was in Venice during the finissage period of the Venice Biennale Architettura 2023 where I was one of five creative directors of the Australia Pavilion. I took this opportunity to meet people living and working in the Venetian lagoon as a way of learning about the magical city island and how it connects to the other islands in the archipelago. 

I recorded this first season of Art Destinations with artists, curators, and publishers about their work and how the Venetian lagoon influences their practice. While each has a very different experience of Venetian, most artists are working in a site-specific way. 

Those interviewed were acutely aware of the importance of shifting focus away from the centre, away from Venice island to the smaller islands in the lagoon. Places that have been traditionally seen as the periphery. This is to both release pressure on Venice city, as well as to give the other islands an opportunity to flourish. Ideas around centre and periphery are key to the premise of Art Destinations as we focus on islands off their main lands. 

As we shine a light on the periphery, ideas on working collaboratively across the archipelago emerged in each interview. I couldn’t help but wonder if there was a parallel between the desire to connect within the archipelago of islands and artists collaborating together on projects that relate to place.

Venice is situated in the Adriatic Sea, facing North Africa and the Mediterranean countries. Historically, Venice has been a major trade route between Asia, Africa and the Americas, bringing a long history of cross-cultural influences. What influence has this had on Venice’s identity? Does it see itself as a small island nestled off the coast of northern Italy or does it see itself as a hybrid of cultures, a central melting pot, an amalgamation of peripheries. These influences are explored through various interviews, in particular the one with the Wetlands Publishing House Enrico Bettinello where he talks about commissioning African fiction writers writing in Venice.

For many artists, the subject of Venice is political. Venice is a microcosm for many of the concerns around the social fabric of society and environmental issues, such as salinity and sea level rising, brought on by climate change. This suggests art has an important role to play in conveying some of these issues. How can art reveal history through storytelling? How can site-specific art installations change how we experience a city? Curator Alice Ongaro Sartori has been involved in many projects that make us question how we use public space. The Garden of the Unaccompanied Children questions the boundaries between public and private space by making a performance piece about the Biennale Giardini that is closed to the residents despite being on public land. She also curated the Floating Cinema, an outdoor cinema on the water in the lagoon, which changes our relationship with the body of water from a place to pass through to a place to be still. Theatre manager and performance artist Cosimo Ferrigolo talks about his involvement with Metaforte, a former naval base in the lagoon that became a site where artists worked together to restore the historic building. Carolina Mazzolari activates the streets of Venice with an outdoor film projection onto washing hanging from the balcony to remind the city of stories of women coming together to wash clothes in the streets. Nuvola Ravera collaborates with a psychotherapist to make a clinical session with the city of Venice as a way of reimagining the island as a person. Each of these artists are exploring the relationship between water and land to reveal new ways of understanding how we think about, and experience, the Venetian lagoon. These interviews invite us to ponder what we learn about ourselves through these artworks and how they shape our sense of belonging.

I hope you find the series inspiring. There will be something for everyone whether you are an artist, plan to visit Venice or are an armchair traveller. 

Please sign up to our newsletter on artdestinations.org to keep updated on new episodes and see these artists’ work on Instagram at artdestinations.podcast. The first episode in the series will be an interview with freelance curator Alice Ongaro Sartori on her projects in the Venetian lagoon. I’m your host Sarah Rhodes. Ciao for now.