Lacuna/ae: Identity and Modern Architecture in Venice

Identity and Modern Architecture in Venice is a unique photography project ideated by Eleonora Milner and curated by Elena Caslini and Eleonora Milner.

The exhibition will be hosted in the Torre Massimiliana in the island of Sant’Erasmo from May 29th to August 28th 2016.

Eleven rooms will display about 100 photographs documenting the architecture of former industrial sites in Venice, most of which were redeveloped in residential areas by some of the most famous Italian architects of the 20th century. Some of these areas have been built ex novo on former swamplands; others were built on old, long decayed, enormous industrial complexes. It is difficult to imagine the aspect that the Venice city area had during its industrial past, since only a few traces of it remained. Few people know that Venice, between the 19th and the 20th century, was a powerful industrial pole. In fact, located on the islands surrounding the city, were mills for pasta or bread as well as industries dedicated to pearls and event watches, which employed over a thousand people. With the establishment of Porto Marghera and the Petrochemical plants (1917), Venice’s industrial activities were gradually moved to the mainland. The islands closed definitely their activities in the ’50s, albeit the remains of their industrial building remained visible for almost thirty years. Later on, towards the ’80s, new urban renewal programs started to reconvert industrial archeological sites into residential areas. The project was born a year ago as an idea of Eleonora Milner, curator and photographer. “To me, photography is one of the best mediums to analyze a landscape, to discover its cultural and physical expressions” says Eleonora “The project shows a different and more authentic city, the contemporary one. Venice belongs to our living present as well as to our past. For this reason, we have started researching and writing this missing part of our city’s history”.