THE RAPE OF VENICE + Create Your Own Scent at Palazzo Mocenigo

Rape of Venice

(Venice, Italy) The strong words: THE RAPE OF VENICE is the title of an installation by the Venetian multi-media artist Andrea Morucchio on the ground floor of Palazzo Mocenigo, the former residential palace of the San Stae branch of the prolific Mocenigo family that gave Venice seven doges. Opened to the public in 1985, Palazzo Mocenigo is now part of the Civic Museums of Venice, and is dedicated to fashion, fabric and fragrance. The elegant palace was completely restored two years ago, in 2013, with the enthusiastic assistance of the Venetian Vidal family and Mavive, their international fragrance company.

Mavive

Mavive uses provocative marketing to sell some of their brands like Police, Replay and Zippo Fragrances. Mavive is also the sponsor of The Rape of Venice by Andrea Morucchio, who was inspired by words from Joseph Brodsky's Watermark: "To be sure, everybody has designs on her, on this city. Politicians and big business especially, for nothing has a greater future than money. [...] The goal of all that is one: rape."

The installation bombards the senses. It features actual headlines like VENICE IS SINKING UNDER A TIDAL WAVE OF CORRUPTION from international newspapers that stream by on two large screens, accompanied by a cacophony of underwater recordings of maritime traffic in the lagoon. The ancient tiled floor of the Basilica of San Marco has been reproduced and recomposed with disjointed elements. The air is filled with the scent of the Essence of Venice especially created by Mavive for the installation, inspired by Brodsky's description of utter happiness after arriving in Venice, which radiates "the smell of freezing seaweed." (I am wearing the scent right now, and it is bewitching.)

Mavive's own Marco Vidal has written an excellent essay for the slim catalogue that accompanies the exhibition, which powerfully clarifies the situation Venice finds itself in today. Here it is in its entirety:

"I have always thought that Venice could become a model city in the world for its quality of life and a human and social dimension now lost in most modern cities, where meeting in the street and sharing public spaces has become something rare and sought after.

Marco Vidal

 

Having the chance to travel I have often had confirmation of this. The most advanced cities try to create pedestrian and social spaces within them. The more enlightened public administrations and town planners tend to try to create residential areas where social life is encouraged, with meeting places often enriched by fine architectural surrounds, offering museums and green 'lungs' where the external noise, pollution, advertising pressure and chaos are neutralised.

Thirty years ago this could have been the starting point for a new Venice projected toward the future; a place where this dimension already existed, enriched by a unique architectural and artistic heritage and an absolutely extraordinary environment, its lagoon.

The challenge was economic, to give the resident population prospects in terms of jobs, differentiated work sectors and fast connections with the surrounding district compatible with the speed of modern life.Thirty years ago, for example, it would probably have been possible to convert the Porto Marghera area in such a way that it could have accommodated the many extraordinary, non-chemical production plants that were scattered throughout the Veneto region in those years of economic growth. An economy related to Venice as its vital heart, in a few words, could have been able to present us as an advanced city.

This was a big lost opportunity for Venice. The political choices of the last thirty years have focused on an economic and social model contrary to what I have described above, a model based solely on the uncontrolled exploitation of Venice's land and beauty.

The only economy to which Venice opened its doors was tourism, but without any organisational or management plan that would draw on its proper value. Year by year the uncontrolled flows have grown to a level that seems to be 30 million visitors. I say 'seems' because not even the statistical analysis of the flows has been institutionalized, perhaps to arouse less concern.

But in these last twenty years as tourism grew to the point of reaching 30 million visitors, what happened to the city of Venice? Did the tourist economy correspond to any wealth for Venice?In the same years as the tourist boom there was a drop in the resident population from 93,000 in 1981 to 56,000 in 2014: about 40% fewer residents in the last thirty years.

Entire generations of young people born in Venice, or who have graduated from the prestigious Venetian universities, have been forced to pack their bags to find a job and a house to build themselves a future, away from Venice. Here there is no work outside the tourist sector, and the property market has surged due to the demand for holiday homes and space for tourism.

Every year tens of thousands of square metres of residential space once intended for residents have been the subject of a change of use allowed by the city council for tourist reception activities, room lets, B&Bs and hotels.

In the last three years the Venice city council has accumulated a budget deficit of several hundred million euros against the growth of the tourist economy, necessitating the cutting of some fundamental services and an increase in council taxes, which are now among the highest in Italy. The city council has for years not had the money to maintain Venice and its monuments, and has been obliged to sell its own prestige property holdings to cover only part of the hole in the balance, and to use the facades of the most significant monuments for advertising campaigns that can sustain restoration costs.

 

In addition to the flight of the resident population, thousands of historic Venetian activities and public and private offices have moved or closed down: all unable to maintain their base in Venice because of the property prices swollen by tourist demand and the pool of users now cut to the bone.

 

Alongside, commercial activities are now in the hands of big brands owned by luxury multinationals on one hand and of souvenir bazaars on the other, defined as Venetian but made in third world countries. Neither of these kinds of activity leads to any extended redistribution of local wealth; most of the goods sold in Venice to the 30 million tourists are not made in the area, residents are seldom employed in their sale and often their owner is not even a physical person.

 

The land is then exploited without any logic of organisation or flow distribution, with the result that Venice suffers overcrowding at various times of the year, while other parts of the council's territory have been completely forgotten: the Lido di Venezia, antique pearl of elite international tourism, is in a state of abandon; Porto Marghera, which was one of the biggest industrial areas in Europe, is now empty, does not offer jobs and is a decaying industrial desert. After thirty years Mestre is still in search of its own identity.

These are the results of political choices made and supported for decades in Venice by a local political class that has been distinguished by numerous corruption scandals, the squandering of public money on pointless public works, favours in exchange for patronage votes and insufficiency on all sides.

This political class is certainly supported by a population that is in some cases compliant, in some myopic and in others resigned, but certainly needs replacement with new lifeblood from outside.

Because of the active rejection I feel towards this model that is killing Venice, as an entrepreneur and citizen of Venice I support Andrea Morucchio's work and his political message.

It is a message that starts with the hundreds of articles in international papers dealing with Venice that genuinely report the outrage every person feels in knowing the condition towards which the most beautiful city in the world seems destined.

 

An exposé of the shame we feel at having to read all over the world about scandals that concern us directly, from the big ships that continue to sail undaunted through St. Mark's Basin, to the corruption of a political class that in any case continues to govern the city, and the depopulation of a city that is becoming a themed amusement park.

 

Venus Anadyomene by Titian (1520)

But it is not a resigned message. Together with the artist, it is precisely the path of smell that marks a call to what is the essence of Venice and around which the future of the city must be built. This primordial perfume, extrapolated from a passage by Brodsky defining the essence of Venice as that of algae frozen in winter, a mixed green and vegetal perfume, takes us back to the natural and primordial essence of the 'Anadyomene' city, born from the water like Venus Anadyomene.

 

In order to create this essence we made use of a great Italian 'nose,' Maurizio Cerizza of AFM, a highly experienced master perfumer who has created hundreds of successful perfumes during his professional career. On a winter's day we accompanied him by boat to immerse himself in the smells of Venice and the most unpolluted part of the lagoon in order to perceive the same smells that inspired Brodsky's piece and recreate them for our installation. We then made a very limited production of it for those wishing to possess the 'essence of Venice.'

 

Morucchio's work is intended to recreate a synaesthetic atmosphere that envelops the visitors' senses, striking their sight in strong tones with the shocking headlines of international papers exposing the speculation on Venice, and their hearing with the sound of underwater recordings of maritime traffic in the lagoon. But finally, through smell, the visitor is recalled to the primordial essence of Venice, a smell that leads the mind to its water, its vegetation, its delicate and most real dimension.

And with respect for its natural dimension and appreciation of this unique heritage, the artist and all of us who worked on the project entitled The Rape of Venice want to attract the attention and active involvement of all those who will synaesthetically experience the work in favour of Venice."

Inside Palazzo Mocenigo

Now, this is Cat: In 1900, Marco Vidal's great-grandfather, Angelo Vidal, created a small perfume laboratory at San Stae, in the center of Venice. He began by manufacturing household products, then went on to create soaps, and finally perfumes and cosmetics. In keeping with tradition, Mavive is offering 2-hour perfume composition courses inside the majestic Palazzo Mocenigo, where participants will learn the basics and then create their own scents. The €80 price of the course includes the kit and perfume, requires a minimum of six participants, and can be held in Italian, English or French. The link to book doesn't seem to be running yet, but it will be found at mocenigo.visitmuve.it.

Venice Lagoon Bird Strikes "La Fenice" Pose

Like Marco Vidal, I, too, have always thought that Venice could become the model city of the world, with solar-electric hybrid boats inside the lagoon, and green areas where people can relax, children can play and dogs can romp -- even a baby park like the one in the Hudson River Park in Manhattan. If the State and the City of New York can work together to create an immense 550-acre park which transformed the decrepit area along the Hudson River into something splendid, then surely the Region of the Veneto and the City of Venice can do something similar here in Venice.

I recently attended a Webinar conducted by the International Center for Climate Governance entitled Impact of Climate Change on the Venetian Lagoon. I was amazed to learn that Venice could have the capacity to produce its own energy due to the natural gasses produced by the salt marshes in the lagoon. Venice could even sell the energy for a profit:) The focus of the conference was:

"The importance of protecting and restoring coastal wetlands and specifically salt marshes, mangrove forests and seagrass prairies will be discussed during the seminar, using the Venice lagoon as an example. These ecosystems have a direct ability of mitigating climate change since they are able to sequester large quantities of carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere and store it in the soil (blue carbon) as organic matter and peat. Once the peat is stored underground, the preservation of these reservoirs should be a priority, since these areas, once drained and cultivated, become an important source of CO2. The example of the Bacino Zennare, a very productive agricultural area in the South basin of the Venice Lagoon, will be presented during the seminar and the hypothesis of re-wetting the basin will be discussed, also showing the results of a costs-benefits analysis."

Joseph Brodsky also said that Venice is "the greatest masterpiece our species produced." Venice is a great work-in-progress, a masterpiece that needs to be restored, and then transformed into a shining example of a model city for all humanity.

The Rape of Venice runs through November 22, 2015. Click for more information.

CLICK to read the My Art Guides interview with Andrea Morucchio.

Ciao from Venezia,

Cat

Venetian Cat - The Venice Blog