How do you envision Venice in the future? Alberto Cavalli, Homo Faber

Alberto Cavalli, Homo Faber Curator and Cologni Foundation Director, for #RiscrivereilFuturo is proposing a city, full of artisans, where you can study, discover, and create the applied arts of the future.

How do you envision Venice in the future?
Like a place of authentic wonder, where the splendor of the past and the future anticipations coexist in a profitable way. Let us not have the hordes of distracted tourists, but the many people who seek and recognize true excellence in the arts and that can find not a museum-city but a vibrant, alive city. Rich in high-level craftsmen. A city where unique exhibitions and events are produced. In which the rich museum network can produce culture, wonder, and nourish the creativity of designers, architects, stylists, etc. Where university and scientific research leaves a visible mark in everyday life of Venetians and visitors. Where new currents and new perspectives can arise. Where the life of the spirit, linked to San Marco, can affect the perception of beauty as something inclusive and as an opportunity for redemption, through talent and work.

What can politics and the citizens do for a rebirth of Venice?
Privilege and enhance competence, at all levels. And not be afraid to invest in excellence: in craftsmanship, in art, in the production of exhibitions, but also in the image of the city and in cutting-edge solutions. Citizens must feel they live in an experimental laboratory of beauty, and politics must be able to protect and enhance the role of Venice as a place where beauty takes life and form. Beauty is linked to change: for this reason, the city must be alive. Museums and palaces must be places where culture is produced and movements are created, not just collections receptacles. The citizens are Venice main protagonists: they must be the ones reclaiming their possession, asking politics for a competent management of multiplicity and diversity. Venice must welcome all those who arrive with the talent and the desire to do well. Politics must ensure these possibilities. And investing in the territory: Venice must shine, not sink!

Could you propose a specific idea in at least one of these areas: environment, housing, work, culture, safety, tourism?
It is necessary to invest in epochal exhibitions, especially in applied arts. This is a subject area that is still under-developed. After Le Stanze del Vetro and Homo Faber, Venice is ready to open to a new experience as prestigious as the Bienniale: to become the place where the applied arts of the future are studied, discovered, and created.

Alberto Cavalli, General Manager, Cologni dei Mestieri d’Arte Foundation and curator of the exhibition dedicated to European craftsmanship Homo Faber

For the #RiscrivereilFuturo project Venice Venezia da Vivere and Associazione Piazza San Marco have interviewed entrepreneurs, curators, cultural institution directors, university deans and teachers, hoteliers, event organizers and citizens, who live and work in Venice. An open debate with the citizens to create a city in harmony with the environment, work and its civitas.