Alternative Venice: A Look at the Last Twenty Years of Artistic Autonomy, Activism, and Research

Laboratory, observatory, model: As a city on the water and part of a lagoon archipelago that has always been strongly anthropised, in its environmental, social and cultural complexity and uniqueness, Venice is today considered an ecosystem that symbolises and tries to cope with the repercussions of the climate crisis. Imagining and practising possible alternatives to the stereotypical reality of a Venice agonising under the waves of ever-higher water, unstoppable depopulation and excessive mass tourism – the three major causes of fragility for the city and its lagoon – is a necessary form of resistance for those trying to regenerate, and not only preserve, both its environmental and its socio - cultural biodiversity. By adopting strategies against the neo-liberalist cultural hegemony, environmental groups, cultural associations and independent art collectives are among the most active and tenacious militants. This chapter aims to offer an account of some of the most effective – even if apparently unsuccessful – independent art and curatorial practices of the last two decades in Venice, which, through their reflections and actions, try to answer a fundamental ethical-political question: What is to be done?