A longing to see
My train’s goes from Mestre to Udine, I left Venice behind an hour ago. I am on my way to Palmanova, an Italian renaissance nine-sided star shaped fortress.
Once in Palmanova I will walk across Borgo di Udine in the direction of the main square, to the Piazza Grande. In the very center of the square I found a well and on the top of the well a mast with a tiny flag of the Venetian Republic. I stayed at the Piazza Grande for a while walking in circles, trying to understand the city, taking out-of-focus photos and looking for some guidance. The orientation is not easy in a city like this, I would have liked to have a drone to enable me to see from a higher perspective.
Why isn't there any tower and what was the reason for not building it?. I have been thinking about Palmanova’s tower and its absence is full of meaning to me.
The presence of absence.
I do believe that a tower in that position could be a powerful tool of orientation and visibility, ‘from the Piazza you could control all of the fortress’.
The absence of the tower means to me an unfinished part of the for Palmanova utopic plan.
And now, I want to tell you a short story that appears in The book of imaginary beings by Borges. The legend tells us the story about A Bao A Qu, a creature that lives on the staircase of the tower and its relationship with the climbers of the tower. As soon as visitors starts to climb the tower A Bao A Qu changes and evolves following the climber on the way up, but almost all the time, the visitor can not reach the top. Only once happened the climber and A Bao A Qu could see the ‘loveliest landscape in the world’.
Palmanova was founded in 1593 by the Republic of Venice and designed by Vincenzo Scamozzi.
The spot for the city was chosen for strategic reasons to offer protection of the Italian peninsula from further Ottoman attacks. But also was built to celebrate the 22nd victory of the Republic of Venice again the Ottomans.
However, the paradox takes over this city when you realize that no invasion has ever occurred, that none battle has ever been fought, and even more paradoxical is the fact that none wanted to move there although the people who were supposed to live in this city would share the same amount of land and responsibilities.
In the 1622 the promoters of the city were so desperate that they released many prisoners and gave them property in Palmanova.
The History of the city counts with a military settlement in the 1800 when Napoleon conquered the city and a second wall was built to strengthen the security.
In the 19th century the city was part of the Italian unification, since then most of the population living in the city has been military.
Palmanova is a past model of Utopia in a moment where we question and rethink what our new utopias may be.
I see this fortress, Kometa fortress, as a contemporary path to discuss the shared and how we share, build and construct together - utopias as a way to bring people together.
For me, there is an utopian potential in the technique of reverse motion, in revisiting, in the action of passing through the heart again (Recordis in latin) but with the pulse of new blood.
My aim is to find people interested on auto-construction and collective efforts and in this sense, I am attracted by the idea of building a utopian tower in Palmanova, as a tower built by many where the process is the outcome
And the process of building the tower would allow us to imagine as many futures as there are people.