Venice, Italy

Vittorio Marchiori

Everything is more difficult in Venice.

In a space intended to be kept "as it was, where it was" under the oxygen tent of mass tourism (if it is such), any activity seems to be perturbing the lagoon's microcosm.

Even everyday's life seems to be disturbing the sleep of the lagoon pond. It is much simpler to find a relic of its past ­ no matter whether made in Murano or Hong Kong ­ than a pack of milk or a CD.

And yet, the structure, the history and the life standards of our city hide unexpressed potentials.

And yet in the 18th century formalin surrounding the 21st century's men and women a civilization has been growing which mingles present needs with an old-fashioned sensitivity and the implied relationships, more human one would be tempted to define, by now forgotten or unknown in the mainland.

With and among these acquaintances the Dressed House has been conceived, discussed and created.

Thanks not only to their clothes, but also to the ciacole (small talks) ombre (glasses of wine), spritz (the typical Venetian drink), everything which has made Campo Santa Margherita an outstanding place in the ordinary life of Venice and his new inhabitants has had an opportunity to live.

To dress a house ­ and not a trivial one ­ is also to provide a community with a voice, a community which is not confined to the natural borders of the Lagoon, but which is present everywhere: in Pennac's Belleville, in Acheng's China, among Oldenburg's artworks and Calatrava's architecture.

The roots of this reality are not to be denied, not in the plastic, artificial version reconstructed in Florida, but that of Castello, Santa Marta and Giudecca.

In those places linen hanging fill the gap between one house and the other, almost a countermelody to Matej's work, the necessary complement of an evolving city, eternally in balance between an identity which has been irremediably lost and another to be invented.

Speaking of human evolution, Stephen Jay Gould describes "hopefulmonsters"; mutant beings living in the dark while waiting for the development.

I'd like The Dressed House to be meant as a monstruum full of hope.