13 images to discuss Venice in the future. Discover the creatives and works from the first ideas competition conceived by e-concept, the Venetian sustainable mobility start-up
Wednesday, November 30 at the The St. Regis Venice hotel, we will discover the winner of Venice in the Future, the first edition of the image contest conceived by e-concept with Repower, Lightbox, and Venezia da Vivere.
e-concept is an innovative start-up in the green economy sector committed to the future of Venice through the evolution of electric boating. The competition selected 13 creatives invited to represent through an image their vision of Venice in the future to raise awareness about sustainability issues and climate change.
Artists, graphic designers, photographers have imagined a future for Venice: Sofia Bisoffi, Alvise Bittente, Marco Camuffo, Zaccaria Canal, Mattia Caracciolo, Giacomo Cosua, Alex Cottin, Irene Fuga, Giacomo Gandola, Nicolò Giordano, Jacopo Rosati, Marco Valmarana and Lucia Veronesi.
The St. Regis Venice on the Grand Canal is the first Venetian hotel to have equipped itself with a Palina for recharging electric boats.
The e-contest jury is composed of Claudio Iannelli founder of e-concept, Mara Sartore director of Lightbox, Sergio Pascolo IUAV professor and president of Venice Urban Lab, Jane Da Mosto co-founder of the NGO We are here Venice, and Laura Scarpa co-founder of Venezia da Vivere.
Sofia Bisoffi Temporal Glimpse on the Grand Canal
The image represents a collective vision, between the dreamlike and the real, of Venice in the future. A temporal portal powered by an e-dock allows one to see reflected a Venice in which greenery and technology coexist with harmony and discretion, alleviating the struggles of today’s city.
Sofia Bisoffi became passionate about photography and photo editing during her law studies, learning as a self-taught artist and experimenting with the most immediately available subject: herself. Photography is now her secondary profession and surreal self-portraits are her stylistic signature, but she especially loves portraying the people she meets on her travels who have a story to tell. She has exhibited her works in three collective exhibitions in Padua and teaches photography and Photoshop courses.
Alvise Bittente Souvenir d’e-venise
“Ooh, stop Ooh Ooh With your feet in the air and your head on the ground […]” (Where is my mind? Pixies)
Venice, in high tide like a souvenir, is upside down: legs are in the air and heads are embedded like Venice’s foundation into the bottom of the lagoon.
Alvise Bittente (born in 1973) is a Venetian artist who portrays everyday life and the objects that surround it, focusing on small and apparently insignificant details through which the artist’s unusual point of view about the reality of our contemporary state emerges, so as to generate doubts and criticism about certainties and clichés.
A graduate of the Academy of Fine Arts in Venice, he quickly began his career, collecting awards and participating in numerous events, especially in Venice.
Marco Camuffo More people
The fingerprints represent people, the Venetians, increasingly rare. Marco Camuffo is CamuffoLab, an interdisciplinary studio of designers driven by passion and curiosity. The studio is in Cannaregio and specializes in the design and creation of complex visual identities, offering creative solutions in environmental design, editorial and digital design, in the fields of culture, art, and design.
Zaccaria Canal Venice, 2200
One of the effects of climate change in the last century was the rise in water levels. Venice, being a city at sea level, was submerged. Citizens evacuated the city and settled in neighboring territories. Thanks to the economic resources made available and the work of the best engineers, the city managed to save itself with a true engineering miracle: the city’s foundations were raised. Today, Venetian citizens, survivors of the catastrophic events of past centuries, manage an important port. By beginning the conversion of boating toward electric motorization, it will once again be able to establish itself as an example and guide in the great global Pantalassa.
Zaccaria Canal is 21 years old and was born in Venice, the city where he lives. He graduated from the State Art High School of Venice, graphics section. He is currently a university student at Iuav in his second year of the Product Design and Visual Communication course. His interest has always been directed toward the world of drawing, art, and imagery in general, passions that later led him to discover the vast world of graphics, also studying as a self-taught artist. All this has allowed him to gain work experience already in high school, ranging from cover art for artists, event posters, brand identity, and exhibition stands.
Mattia Caracciolo Lagoon Dream
Through his work, the artist states that he wants to represent an increasingly inclusive and sustainable future for Venice. A love letter to the city but also between two lovers, who live it and celebrate every day their deep bond with it. It is the story of a return home, after a journey away from the island. It is 2050 and a couple flies on an electric boat toward their love nest. A sense of deep belonging and communion with one’s place of origin or adoption. Venice becomes the spokesperson for an increasingly contemporary, welcoming, inclusive, and sustainable vision. Despite the problems that currently afflict it, it is and will always be able to adapt and transform according to circumstances. A future of water and new life solutions. It is a city that knows how to change century after century, here represented as a warm and romantic embrace, for those who want to live there, stay there, and celebrate it every day with unconditional love. “Lagoon Dream” is a dream come true of a near future, a love letter to the city and to the love it can give and generate.
Mattia Caracciolo is an Italian illustrator who lives and works in Venice. After studying illustration, he began his career as a freelance illustrator and digital content creator for various brands such as: Marzotto Fabrics, Lush Cosmetics, Roberto Collina, Ippolita Jewelry NYC, Alberta Ferretti, and Saatchi Saatchi. He currently works as an illustrator and content creator for the online psychology start-up “Unobravo.” His work is a mix of minimalism, abstract, digital, and street art. Essential, dreamlike, surreal, with a retro touch, where love, self-affirmation, curiosity, and sensitivity meet to create a parallel universe made of freedom.
Giacomo Cosua Midsummer Dream
The photo was taken in summer 2015 while I was working on an assignment for the Financial Times, during a journey around the lagoon islands documenting life on Venice’s islands. The photo was taken at the S.Erasmo “Capannone” stop, while a group of young people were swimming and diving from the pier as they used to do in the lagoon.
Giacomo Cosua was born in Venice in 1983. He works as a journalist and photographer. Master’s degree in photojournalism and documentary photography from the London College of Communication. He has published his work in international publications such as Financial Times, Le Monde, Vice, Monocle, L’Espresso, D Repubblica, Rolling Stone, and others. He recently published his first book together with journalist Rachel Spence, Venice Unclocked, published by Ivory Press.
Alex Cottin Tomorrow’s Venice
With his project, the artist wanted to represent his vision of Venice in the future through an illustration. He first thought of Venice as a woman, creating a true personification of the city, whose face lying on the water, a key element of Venice’s life and central theme of the competition, fits among the buildings and iconic elements that make it so characteristic. The theme of sustainability in electric boating emerges in the depiction of the new e-dock charging station, also a characteristic element of the city, whose cable, before reaching the boat, symbolically travels through the streets and intertwines with the city’s buildings to symbolize the way through which all of Venice can choose a path toward sustainability. The face lying on the water symbolizes the act of listening that the city endeavors to perform toward the lagoon, toward the water and nature to hear their needs and problems due to climate change and the attention that Venice wants to give to this important theme.
Alex Cottin is a 24-year-old who has been passionate about design and creativity since childhood. A graduate in Graphic Design, he is now studying to specialize in communication graphics and occasionally, for about a year now, enjoys creating digital illustrations. He earned his degree in Graphic Design and is currently attending the Master’s program in Adv Communication Graphic. In the future, he would like to specialize in UX/UI design. He has been working as a graphic designer since 2015, creating logos, rebrands, posters, and other graphic products for companies and private clients, but for about a year now he has started creating digital illustrations, having the opportunity and pleasure to collaborate with creative teams such as Accenture Interactive and with companies such as Accenture and Fila.
Nina Fuga Coffee with mask
The artist describes her work as a portrait of “a city in a mask between abuse and loss of history and identity.”
Nina Fuga is an artist. She lives and works in London. Her pencil is a catalyst for understanding the world and for creating a connection between her and what surrounds her. A graduate of the Royal College of Art, Nina has illustrated for American Express, Bompiani, Bulgari, Faber Faber, Ferrari, Harper Collins, Max Mara, Pan Macmillan, Random House, Vogue, World of Interiors.
Giacomo Gandola Lagoon – yesterday, today and…
Triptych of three photos taken in analog on multiple exposures, framed by the Venetian ecosystem in its most evocative representation, that of the salt marshes.
“Venice, victim of its environment and its own success? – writes the artist – Local residents, now reduced to a number in free fall, observe the decline and decay of the city. Venice’s survival as a living and vital city is at risk. But there is still hope. New ideas, spirit of collaboration, and imagination. And the need to start precisely from its fragilities, from that trampled ecosystem, stripped of its very essence. Protection is a necessity, rebirth is a duty.”
Giacomo Gandola holds a degree in Art History and Design with a specialization in Show Business from IULM University in Milan and PSU in Portland. Concurrently, he attended a professional photography course focused on Henri Cartier-Bresson and the ideal of “Instant Décisif.” Recently, he obtained his Master’s in Curatorial Practice at IED in Venice. His works as a photographer and artist address the importance of landscape and cultural heritage. As a curator, in the future, he would like to participate in the production of projects on how contemporary living spaces could be improved, recreated, or redesigned in an idyllic way.
Nicolò Giordano As Sustainable as Drinking a Glass of Water
The artist represents sustainability as a small symbolic gondola, which remains on the surface carrying residents and tourists to admire the wonders of Venice, while the large cruise ship, which pollutes the environment as much as the urban landscape, sinks in a glass of water.
Nicolò Giordano is 21 years old and has a passion for graphics in all its facets, from digital photography to videomaking. He is currently in his second year of the Graphic Design course at the International School of Comics in Turin. Besides graphics, he is an enthusiastic traveler and sportsman.
Jacopo Rosati Enigma
The future of Venice is an enigma that the artist has chosen to represent through an impossible architecture where the boundaries between present, past, and future blend together.
Jacopo Rosati (born in Venice in 1987) is an illustrator. Over the years, he has experimented with various techniques, from collage to digital drawing. He collaborates with publishing houses and communication agencies in Italy and abroad.
Marco Valmarana Beyond the Fog
The photo was taken on March 25, 2021, the day of Venice’s 1,600th anniversary. That day, the artist went out at dawn to photograph the city immersed in fog; he wanted to add shots to the final selection of his first photographic exhibition Desnua. This particular shot had been discarded. Previously unpublished, today it takes on new meaning. The city is submerged and hidden in fog, visibility is reduced, but here is a light, a fog-cutting beacon illuminates the way, a metaphor for giving new light to the city and finding ideas for new possible futures.
Marco Valmarana was born in Venice in 1990. He inherits his passion for water, the lagoon, and Venetian traditions from his Venetian father. From his mother, a former PR from Mexico City, he inherits a great interest in communication, which he would later develop in the world of social media. Passionate about photography and travel since adolescence, in 2012 he began taking his first steps as a photographer documenting the daily life of his city on his Instagram profile. In a short time, thanks to his love for his land, for photography, and for travel, Marco transformed his hobby into a profession. Today he is an established content creator and manages content for various brands in different fields, from hospitality to FB to the world of art and automotive.
Lucia Veronesi The Cosmic Perspective
The artist explains that change is considered a value, but when it comes to Venice, one always hopes it will remain as it is. Venice has imposed its architectural, urban, and technological principles on one of the most improbable places to found a city. But now that nature is rising up, what will happen? In Cosmic Perspective, I tried to imagine the coexistence of these two competitors: civilization and nature. The title is also a hope: will we be able to look at these elements from another point of view that contains and harmonizes them?
After graduating in Painting from the Brera Academy of Fine Arts in Milan, Lucia Veronesi moved to Venice in 2003. She works with collage, fabrics, painting, drawing, video, and installation. She has exhibited in numerous galleries, museums, and foundations including Museo Pino Pascali, Polignano a Mare, Alberta Pane gallery, Venice, Casa Testori, Milan, Fondazione Michetti, Francavilla al Mare, Fondazione Bevilacqua La Masa, Venice, Museum of the City of Rimini. Her videos have been selected for numerous national and international festivals including the 32nd Torino Film Festival, 4th Jerusalem Biennale, Oodaaq Film Festival, Rennes. In 2011, she co-founded Spazio Punch, a non-profit space in Giudecca, which she co-directed until 2015.
Who will be named winner of this first edition? Let’s find out together. Follow our live coverage, the stories on Instagram and meet the 13 finalists and the winner. We look forward to seeing you online on November 30!
Images not referring to e-concept finalists are by Marta Formentello and Laura Scarpa.
