“I had had my dreams of Venice, but nothing that I had dreamt was as impossible as what I found” – Arthur Symons
Venice is a lot of things together to me. Venice is not a place, but a set of tiny magic. Magic memories of people I met, collection of dreams not yet fully realized, never ending inspiration and fascination that influence me in a subtle and hidden way. It has been more than ten years since I’ve started going to Venice at least once a year and every time I add something to the collage of pieces that build up the image of something that is much more than a city.
Venice is perhaps too many things at once. Melancholic and nostalgic in her atmosphere.
Mysterious in her infinite beauty hidden behind the gray cloak of humidity constant.
Sophisticated and indifferent. To the tourists who walk in a long and wide way her tiny streets. To the time that passes and does not seem to scratch it. To Water that sometimes overflows transforming it into a unicuum. And so it was on Saturday and Sunday when the lagoon and its city were presented to my eyes, for the first time, seamlessly.
And I could not stop looking to see how a city could have been founded and stand on water. Venice is a mystery. A mystery that we can not help but admire without understanding whether it is really her beauty or her charm.
And then the Biennale of Architecture, which is a little bit like a home to me, where I grew up and which reminds me that being an architect is a lot of things together.
