In Venice general rehearsals for rebirth

This article is published in number 23 of Vanity Fair on newsstands until June 8, 2021

With the Venice Biennale everyone leaves for the lagoon. It is not that of art, it is the version of architecture, therefore less glamorous, and usually, for professionals. Then compared to the past there are no parties, there are no brochures, everyone is wearing a mask. Contingent. Yet there is something in the air. Everyone wants to be there. He had been missing for three years, not two. But it seems like a century after Venice has been deserted for so long.

I have never seen so many people interested in architecture. Boys walking barefoot in the meadows. File at the Arsenale. Euphoria of spritz. Dj sets spaced but not too much. My entire bubble only posts photos of pavilions in the Giardini or the Arsenale with projects that are not very easy to understand. All architects, then? No. There is a desire to be there, to participate. It is the first major event of the near-post Covid. As soon as the Biennale is over, we run to the Prada foundation or Punta della Dogana. Collateral events are sought. There is a desire to go out, to be together, even the notorious great events that once would have been avoided. Even tourist restaurants that once would have been discarded. Also of the Biennale which once aroused fears of inadequacies, such as “intelligent holidays”, with Alberto Sordi and his lady who was mistaken for a work of art by improvised visitors. But today it is enough to be there. It’s the dress rehearsal, it’s the post-Covid “Black and white ball”. Everyone wants to be there to close an era. Then the Salone del mobile and the other great rites will come. They are tests of normality. We are ready.

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