“Lagoon Micro-ecologies”, is the title of the second series of itinerant conversations “Venice as a Model for the Future?” curated by Barbara Casavecchia and Pietro Consolandi for TBA21−Academy and Ocean Space.

This new chapter moves beyond the urban boundaries of the city of Venice towards the islands of its lagoon. The participants direct their steps and gazes to the land and the seascapes created by the interaction between various species, not only human, that inhabit them: from coastal sand to garden soil, from salt marshes, a thriving home to wild plants and birds, to seabeds populated by tiny fish and molluscs.

In inviting us to rethink landscapes as “assemblages” of coexisting life forms, requiring “habits of noticing”, scholar and anthropologist Anna Tsing reminds us that they are “open-ended gatherings. They allow us to ask about communal effects without assuming them. They show us the potential histories in the making.”*

With Marco Bravetti, founder of TOCIA! - Cuisine and Community, we will be developing a culinary, political and philosophical discourse based around the relationship between humanity and the territories we inhabit, exploring the edible ingredients they can offer us. The fermentation and transformation of things that become food, the act of cooking and sharing a meal with others, become fundamental elements in understanding what it means to cohabit and care for an ecosystem with other lifeforms. This is the second event in the series of “micro-ecology” walks starting from the steps of San Lorenzo, where we will introduce the series and then push on towards Spiazzi, found in the Castello district, where the TOCIA! food lab has been based and has put down roots in recent months.

6:00pm Meeting at Ocean Space. Departure for “Lagoon Micro-ecologies. Venice as a model for the future?”

Participation is free, please make a reservation at info@ocean-space.org. Limited places available.

Marco Bravetti is a Venetian chef. Born and raised in Venice, he returned to the city after a few years of wandering through the streets and kitchens of London, Sao Paulo, and Copenhagen. After bringing his research to some notable restaurants of the lagoon, he founded TOCIA! - Cuisine and Community, a proactive collective born of interdisciplinary and convivial research. Through the languages, practices, ingredients, and rituals of food and cooking, TOCIA! investigates the lagoon’s landscapes and the human relationships that inhabit them.

“Lagoon Micro-ecologies” is part of TBA21–Academy’s program, The Current III: The Mediterraneans: “Thus waves come in pairs” (After Etel Adnan), led by Barbara Casavecchia.

The Current III is a transdisciplinary program of perception, listening, thought and learning that supports projects, collective education, and voices on the shores of the Mediterranean through art, culture, science, and activism.

*Anna Tsing, When The Things We Study Respond to Each Other, in: More-than-Human, ed. by Andrés Jaque, Marina Otero Verzier, Lucia Pietroiusti, and Lisa Mazza, co-published by Het Nieuwe Instituut, Office for Political Innovation, General Ecology Project at the Serpentine Galleries and Manifesta Foundation, 2020.