May 10th, 2020
The image of Venice. During the lockdown, the images of the empty Venice, especially captured by drones, went viral on the net. Even the mayor of the City - who doesn't live in the Municipality of Venice - went in the City a couple of times just to use St Mark Square as a set designed background for a couple of political demonstrations and for an ambiguous promotional tourism video inviting the singer Zucchero (partly paid with the municipality's money). What do these empty pictures say? Show us the architecture of the city that until recently was hidden from the shoulders of tourists while taking a selfie? Unfortunately, they say nothing if they do not lead to a reflection. To say that Venice is beautiful is the banalest and reductive thing ever, it means that who assists remains at the first step, the amazement at the epiphany of Venice and the lack of ability to read the city. To the glacial images made by drones (where I see the checking intention of the military police) I prefer the images taken by local photographers and by residents. In the last week, few tourists have been seen in Venice, even international photographers trying to take the pictures of the total lockdown, the total empty. But in the last week, luckily the City is proportionally much more alive. Here Venice by my sister Chiarastella Seravalle on a boat last night, passing under the bridges as between the legs of a woman. Yes, because a Venetians has a physical and corporal relation with her/his City, because Venice wets, smells, lets itself be passed through, from the bottom and from above. Here this empty Venice is not spooky at night, is the empty city for the people who sleep and live in Venice, because the night belongs to lovers, belongs to locals.
