Metagoon: Chronicles of Future Geographies
March 2nd – April 1st, 2024
D.H. office, Salizada Malipiero 3208, Venice

Free entry upon request: info@metagoon.net

A wooden table sits in the center of a room. The wood comes from a bricola in the Venetian lagoon, and the table is named Tysbe, in dedication to a departed friend (the scientist Davide Tagliapietra). On the table sits a small wooden library, sourced from the timber archive of the Neringa peninsula (Nida), Lithuania. This library is there for reading and exploration. Discussions revolve around Venetian tales, maps of the Adriatic Sea, lagoons, and new geographies. People gather around the table, sharing and listening to stories. There’s space for drawing. Brick walls display film photographs, windows into the lagoon discussed at the table or out in the calle on a beautiful day.

Metagoon: Chronicles of Future Geographies is a laboratory that combines meetings, stories, and drawings to explore possible visions of the Venetian lagoon in the future. What might it become in 500 years? Following a creative writing workshop organized for La Parabola della Montagna at the Panorama space, the project takes another step forward. With a program of meetings focused on mapping, in the workshop and working space of D.H. office on Salizada Malipiero, Metagoon aims to promote diverse perspectives on the future of the lagoon, encouraging reflection and reinterpretation of its geography. From historical maps to those of science fiction inspiration, from bathymetry to urban projects never realized to utopian ones yet to be conceived. Imagining new geographies becomes a tool to visualize desires and risks, but also, and above all, to raise questions about the present. The creative effort in tracing future maps forces us to reflect on the complexity of geographies, their arbitrary nature, and the hierarchies that often remain hidden.

Metagoon: Chronicles of Future Geographies is also a recording studio. The program’s meetings will be documented and uploaded to the Metagoon website, updating the platform with audio-video and textual contributions in the new blog section, which you are currently reading. Curious minds and ironic spirits are welcome, those eager to imagine a meta-lagoon, making an interpretive and imaginative effort to go beyond the geographic-environmental, cultural, and temporal boundaries that geographies often present to us.

The exhibition is the result of a collaboration between Metagoon and D.H. office.

Acknowledgments:
Cristina Baldacci, Maria Ida Bernabei, Enrico Bettinello, Barena Bianca (Fabio Cavallari, Pietro Consolandi), Alessandro Ceregato, Amina Chouaïri, Emanuele Garbin, David Hrankovic, Egija Inzule, Tommaso Lodi, Macedoniasintetica (Carlo Camerin, Mattia Rigon, Simone Carraro), Camilla Mazzocato, Nicola Pavan, Giovanni Paolin, Eleonora Sovrani, Davide Tagliapietra, Eleni Tsopotou.

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Public Program

Friday, March 1st, 6:00 PM, D.H. office, Salizada Malipiero 3208, Venice
Opening

Thursday, March 14th, 6:00 PM, D.H. office, Salizada Malipiero 3208, Venice
Prospettica and the Ark: reflections on the floating future of humanity. With Giulia Callino, Matteo de Mayda, and Nicola Feninno. Prospettica. Journal of Habitable Futures, issue 2: the Ark. We will talk about visions, dreams, speculations, and solutions to floods and submersions, investigating the broad theme of sea urbanization from an architectural perspective, projected into the future and often already present.

Wednesday, March 27th, 6:30 PM, Teatrino di Palazzo Grassi
Metagoon: Water Communities across the Adriatic and Pacific with Cristina Baldacci (Ca’ Foscari University, Venice and NICHE), Maria Ida Bernabei (University of Turin). In collaboration with CSC-Cineteca Nazionale, D.H. office, Ocean Space, TBA21–Academy, and THE NEW INSTITUTE Centre for Environmental Humanities (NICHE). Live music by Macedonia Sintetica (Carlo Camerin, Mattia Rigon, Simone Carraro). Free admission until seats are filled.

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Workshop [D.H. office, Salizada Malipiero 3208, Venice]
To participate, please write to: info@metagoon.net

March 2nd, 3:00 PM
Historical Maps of the Lagoon. A conversation with Alessandro Ceregato (CNR).

March 7th, 7:00 PM
Lagoon Sci-Fi. A conversation with Enrico Bettinello and Matteo Stocco on the results of the creative writing and science-fiction workshop held at the Panorama (Venice).

March 13th, 6:30 PM
The Abandoned Islands of the Lagoon: Drawings. A conversation with the Crovato brothers and Tommaso Lodi.

March 15th, 6:30 PM
Project Raccogliere. A conversation with Sigrid Schmeisser (a project conceived with Daniel Garber & Amalia Magril) and Alberto Barausse. For the first time, Project Racoogliere is presented to the public in Venice, with some of the voices interviewed and part of the publication.

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Team
Matteo Stocco: video-maker
Luca Coppola: web e graphic designer
Alice Ongaro Sartori: editor & program
Sara Mattiazzi: communication, D.H. office
Camilla Violo: communcation and production, D.H. office

Metagoon: Chronicles of Future Geographies
March 2nd – April 1st, 2024
D.H. office, Salizada Malipiero 3208, Venice
Free entry upon request: info@metagoon.net