A che ora chiude Venezia

2015 – 2016 Venice Film Photography

 

What is the city but the people.
True. The people are the city.
Coriolanus, W. Shakespeare

 

Venice, the city, operates 24/7, surpassing Disneyland as the ultimate always-on amusement park. Consequently, it offers trinkets and pictures to take home, along with boutique hotels, pizza slices, and kebabs. Moreover, churches readily dispense entrance tickets, gondolas offer their musical rides, and bridges serve as belvederes to capture made-in-China carnival masks. Furthermore, at sunset, similar to amusement parks worldwide, the buzzing question in everyone’s mind is: “A che ora chiude Venezia?” (What are the opening hours? At what time does everything close?)

Therefore, what becomes of a city after removing its inhabitants and filling it with tourists? Additionally, what remains of the public spaces? And the private ones, when houses are no longer homes?

Consequently, Venice stands on the front line of Europe’s displaced cities, with their layered and historical communities joyfully ejected under the pressure of mobile wealth. Following this, these living cities then morph into museums, shopping malls, grand hotels, and plastic mementos.

By capturing this transformation, we glimpse the future of all cities. This is why I have chosen this photographic method to unveil the face behind the mask. As a result, a pictorial still life of the city explores a backdrop morphing into theatrical representation, all shot on film in medium format. Since today’s city consumption also occurs through the predatory capture of digital images, shooting on film brings back a mental and physical attitude of slowness, a reflective and instinctual vision that embraces the time, research, and effort required to dive into this displacement.

Venice Film Photography