Wonderful moody street photography shot on film in Venice by photographer Gabriele Bortoluzzi.

Photographer: Gabriele Bortoluzzi — instagram.com/gabri_brtl; gabrielebortoluzzi.com

“L’immenso acquitrino celeste” shows an imaginative landscape, almost fake, yet strongly present in those who have Venice in their mind even without necessarily having been there. The project examines what there’s left to say of a place that seems to have said enough, a city that everyone sees but nobody looks at. It takes as reference a text found near “Campo San Giacomo”, which compares the city of Venice to a starship full of lights sailing the immense celestial marshland (“Astronave tutta luci che solca l’immenso acquitrino celeste”).

The photographs show a different lagoon, made of both real and imaginary places, human and marine entities, knowledge, rituals, myths and legends. We cannot see the people from the stage who have always been able to entertain thanks to a powerful script, although fake; Now it collapses, old and warn-out from the never-ending treading and the tides. However, the place we see is not clear. We perceive it as a commonplace, yet never obvious; A typical yet undefined city. As we explore the lagoon through the photos, we can identify topics closely related to a city struggling to keep up with the times. Inhabitants forced to leave the city, the loss of tradition and authenticity replaced by fakes in a land that has become a scenography, the constant menace of water, even though being the soul of Venice, and the hyper-tourism that became a socio- environmental plague that everyone despises yet essential for many. The city has always been a dreamlike place, but now become a broken dream. All these topics come literally to the surface during our “visual Flânerie” at the discovery of this Acquitrino Celeste, now ideal vessel, that tries to raise and escape this inconsiderate world that keeps it enchained to a life of abuses.

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