Salon Suisse 2021: Out of the silo

The Architecture Biennale is one of the most important events taking place in Venice this year. However, the exhibition is only marginally related to the city itself. The Salon Suisse 2021, the accompanying event organized by the Swiss Arts Council Pro Helvetia, on the other hand, seeks to engage with the venue. That goes down well.

Ilaria and Savino are a little worried. The two organic farmers from the vegetable island of Sant’Erasmo in the Venice lagoon had expected 60 visitors, maybe 80, but 100! The two operators of “i&s Farm”, the only fully organic farm on Sant’Erasmo, have agreed to organize a picnic with their products for the Salon Suisse 2021 excursion participants. That the boat trip into the lagoon would be so well received. Neither the organizers nor the farmer couple had expected this. But in the end, it was no problem. There is plenty of food and wine and, as it turns out, the question of where to sit is quickly resolved. The sun is shining and anyone who can’t find a chair at the tables simply sits down on the grass. After all, this is a picnic.

Ecological balance at risk

The day excursion organized by Salon Suisse on its second weekend of events in 2021 is entitled “The State of the Lagoon”. Stanislas Zimmermann, professor of architecture from Bern, and Tiberio Scozzafava-Jaeger, spatial planner and one of the most profound experts on the lagoon’s fragile ecosystem, want to demonstrate to participants how versatile, but also how changeable, the waters that surround Venice are.

They explain this to their audience right at the beginning: The lagoon in its existing form is the result of centuries of hydraulic engineering by the Venetians. For a long time, the city’s inhabitants feared that the lagoon, which formed the basis of their security and prosperity, could silt up. As early as the Middle Ages, they therefore began to divert the boulder-rich mountain streams that flowed into the lagoon. The mouth of the Brenta, for example, was relocated several times by the Venetians for this reason. In the 21st century, the lagoon suffers from the exact opposite problem: the openings of the lagoon to the Adriatic have been widened and deepened for the huge cruise ships and the MO.S.E. flood barrier. This has led to a noticeable increase in erosion in the lagoon. This poses a serious threat to the ecological balance.

Lazzaretto Nuovo: the world’s first quarantine station

The “MS Palladio” sets course for Lazzaretto Nuovo. The small island is a special reflection of Venetian history. The extensive salt marshes surrounding the island bear witness to the time of early settlement in the second half of the first millennium AD. Salt was initially the most important product and commodity of the lagoon islands. This was long before today’s Venice was built around the Rialto. An educational trail leads around the island and explains the special features of the local biosystem. Half a millennium later, when the Serenissima had risen to become the most important trading power in the Mediterranean, the island was given a new purpose, which is reflected in its current name.

The world’s first quarantine station was set up here. Every ship that wanted to call at Venice and was suspected of carrying an epidemic into the city first had to head for Lazzaretto Nuovo. The crew and cargo were then isolated here for forty days (quaranta means forty). Of the once extensive facilities, only the large warehouse remains today. Inside, the walls are covered in graffiti. Workers have left behind the texts and drawings that were enclosed there in the 15th and 16th centuries to disinfect ship cargoes. The island, once a place of fear and uncertainty, is now an idyllic spot where few tourists stray. There is no regular service there. The direct transfer to Lazzaretto Nuovo is therefore a rare privilege for excursion participants.

Temporary artist’s apartment in the palazzo

The Salon Suisse had already provided rare insights on the first weekend of the event in September – in this case into the lives of (urban) Venetians. The organizers had put together a tour of five equally typical and different homes in Venice. The tour led from an apartment of barely 20 square meters, which many young professionals can barely afford, to one of the city’s 40,000 Airbnbs. They are one reason why living space is so scarce in Venice. The number of vacation apartments in the city has quadrupled in recent years, as we learned during the tour.

We continued on to Santa Elena, located just behind the cruise port. Over the last few decades, the district has changed from a working-class area to a popular residential area for students and the middle class – because Venice is relatively “un-Venetian” here, interest from tourists and speculators is limited. In the Catholic student residence “Domus Civica” in Sestriere San Polo, students vacate their single and double rooms during the semester break. Their rooms are then rented out to tourists. Last stop: a student apartment in a Venetian palazzo. The Swiss Forberg Foundation makes the magnificent six-room apartment in the Palazzo Castelforte right next to the Scuola Grande di San Rocco available to artists for stays of several months.

On the last weekend of the Salon Suisse 2021 in November, there will be another excursion into the urban space with performance artist Davide-Christelle Sanvee. The focus will be on personal artistic engagement with the city. Even more than on the two previous tours, the Salon Suisse will take the exploration of art and architecture out of the “silo”, the narrowly defined places of culture, and onto the alleyways, squares and canals of Venice.

This article was produced with the kind support of Laufen Bathrooms AG. The company has been the main sponsor of the Salon Suisse of the Swiss Arts Council Pro Helvetia since 2012.

Salon Suisse 2021: “Bodily Encounters”

November Salon: “Alterations”

November 18 to 20, 2021

Palazzo Trevisan degli Ulivi

Campo S. Agnese, Dorsoduro 810

Venice

prohelvetia.ch

Read the interview with Evelyn Steiner, the salonière of this year’s Salon Suisse, here.