Casa Museo Andrich: Discover the Silence of Venice

The island of Torcello is home to a wonderful place where silence, art, and nature coexist harmoniously: the Casa Museo Andrich is a hidden gem among mudflats and salt marshes, an art gallery that transforms into a vegetable garden, a historic garden of 11,000 square meters, and an educational farm where one can experience a slice of paradise.

In Venice, it is not easy to find a place where silence is capable of taking new and unprecedented forms. Traditional tourist routes often forget that the city is immersed in a realm of water and land, mobile and immobile, changeable according to the winds, tides, and the force of Man. Slowness is a precious gift that, when rediscovered, can offer unique emotions and unforgettable experiences, allowing reflection on oneself and the passage of time.

Casa Museo Andrich by Francesca Occhi

Torcello is a hidden island in the heart of the Venetian lagoon where time flows according to different parameters from those we are accustomed to facing and managing. A strip of land far from the historic center that exists in a surreal, almost alien dimension compared to the bustling life of the larger lagoon islands.

On sunny days, it is immediately recognizable by the square shape of its bell tower and the mass of its cathedral, suspended between water and sky on the horizon line facing east toward the Balkans. It seems to glide above the tops of the thick curtain of marsh reeds that surrounds the lagoon, occasionally revealing the pink and mauve color of limonium flowers that carpet the salt marshes enveloping it: this is beautiful Torcello, the violet island of the Venetian lagoon.

On this slice of Eden, only ten people reside, ten individuals who continue to live according to rhythms that embrace a reality waiting to be discovered. One of these is Paolo Andrich, who in 2003—upon the passing of his uncle, the artist Lucio Andrich—decided to leave his previous life behind and dedicate himself to art, nature, and silence.

In Torcello, Paolo manages and brings life to the Casa d’Artista Paolo Andrich, the estate that his uncle Lucio and his wife Clementina had chosen to devote themselves entirely to art. A professional urban planner, born in Switzerland and having lived many years in France, Paolo Andrich is an extraordinary character, the protagonist of a place and a story that demonstrates how life often takes unimaginable directions.

Casa Museo Andrich can be reached by taking line 12 of the vaporetto from the Venice Fondamenta Nuove stop, or line 9 departing from the island of Burano. Disembark at the Torcello stop and, after a short walk, take a path that after approximately four hundred meters, beneath the shade of a laurel and a black locust tree, leads to the Casa, a mirage between mobile waters and immobile lands, under a sky that often merges with the vastness of brackish water, here and there interrupted by the long, slender bodies of rushes.

Casa Museo Andrich by Hulya Ozkurt

Uncle Lucio Andrich, originally from Agordo, had long taught at the Academy of Fine Arts as a professor of mosaic. He later devoted himself to sculpture, painting, engraving, and glasswork. After his passing, Paolo inherited his house and now manages it as a residence, art gallery, and educational farm for tourists, students, and culture enthusiasts, but also as a haven for his friends, who arrive in the evening for dinner bringing fish and wine.

The Palude Rosa, as the lagoon area where Paolo Andrich’s Casa overlooks is called, is viewed “from above” from a small hill, a privileged place from which the master of the house observes the movement of the world.

Among flamingos and cultivations of violet artichokes, a true delicacy of the house, the residence presents itself as a genuine exhibition hall. It is decorated with the famous engravings on paper and glass by uncle Lucio Andrich, works that made him renowned. Adorning the house are also canvases created by his wife, which, thanks to their expertly interwoven texture, create surprising light effects.

A few hundred meters away is the celebrated Locanda Cipriani, where Ernest Hemingway resided for some time in 1948 while writing “Across the River and into the Trees,” but here the only things that matter are silence and nature.

“From here you can understand how Venice was born, you can imagine what the historic center was like without the palaces,” Paolo states in a beautiful interview with Silvia Zanardi. And how can one disagree: Venice before Venice, a space-time tunnel to discover what existed before us.

It is possible to explore the magic of Torcello and the Casa Museo Andrich thanks to the expert guidance of Paolo and his dog Wagner: a visit to the Casa Museo and the garden-orchard accompanied by the story of Venice’s history and its original founding nucleus of Altino-Torcello is an experience we recommend to everyone.

Casa Museo Andrich by Lorenzo Cinotti

Casa Museo Andrich and Venezia da Vivere for Art Biennale Experience
This year Casa Museo Andrich collaborated with #ArtBiennaleExperience for the #BiennaleInstameet, a project curated by VeneziadaVivere.com. The event was attended by a group of Instagrammers who came to the lagoon to document the Vernissage of the 2017 Art Biennale, titled “VIVA ARTE VIVA” curated by Christine Macel. Through live-blogging on Veneziadavivere.com, on the social networks of @Veneziadavivere and, naturally, on the respective social profiles of the instameet participants, we documented the event in Venice.

On Tuesday, May 9, the instagrammers, after being guided by Paolo Andrich to discover Torcello and his residence, attended a preview of Fatalità, a performance and exhibition by Laura Rambelli with music by Naomi Berril and styling by Ilaria Biggi, one of the numerous collateral events of the 57th Art Biennale intended to extend the exhibition’s boundaries to the Venetian peripheries.

The artist from Ravenna installed several sculptures created from ecological materials in the lagoon around and inside the Museo Casa Andrich on the Island of Torcello: during the inauguration, Laura Rambelli also performed a piece accompanied by musician Naomi Berrill and costumes designed by stylist Ilaria Biggi.

We thank Lieta Zanatta, author of the piece “In Hemingway’s Footsteps” published on the website www.museoandrich.com, whose words, impressions, and emotions dedicated to the Island of Torcello inspired this text.

The photos are by Lorenzo Cinotti, @celestalis, Hulya Ozkurt, @hulyaozkurt, Francesca Occhi, @venicevisions, and Paola Franqui, @monaris_, for Venezia da Vivere.