IO 2 Venti di Cultura Summary report

Following the process of the project and each event, the first post was about the visit of Venice by Sweden partner, Intercult. They spoke about this fantastic experience here and here. And you can find a video of the journey here.

Then VdC went to Lithuania. A great step for its process, also because of Avril which made suggestions to reflect on how these Lithuanian inspirations could be new tools to
help VdC find solutions for the Venetian issues. So, VdC uploads its post on the page. You can find it here.

After each partner having visited another one on BtoB base, all partners met in Stockholm for summarizing experiences and learning processes. In fact, one of the main aims of the project was to learn through a different and informal learning, valorizing the experiences that each of us lived, “accepting that all of us are different and have various possibilities to extract learning from an everyday experience”. In this occasion VdC have presented his board game “Arsenalia”: a game that aims to keep alive the memory of a place – the Arsenale - and of its profound meaning and role in the Venetian context through an entertaining activity that could bring an old and new public to develop awareness around this area. You can find the experience and reflection here, under the voice “Venti di Cultura”.

Then the Covid19 pandemic arrived. People couldn’t meet in person no longer, but the partners went on with their project and set up online conversation to speak about how each partner was growing during the project’s years, looking forward to the end of the pandemic. You can see the VdC’s conversation here.

Due to the pandemic, social activities were stopped. In February 2020 VdC was only able to partially carry out the planned sharing labs (E2), with a limited audience. Lab that the cultural association resumed and completed when the pandemic was tamed, in June 2021. The sixteen months of restrictions were not static: VdC gave substance to the decision, taken at the Transnational Meeting in Vienna (TM4).

The prototype of the board game was combined with an urban game, "Hunt for the pearls at the Arsenale" (video), capable of involving the community of people interested in discovering the hidden Arsenal, even crossing the barriers between the different stakeholders. The choice went on an interesting precedent invented and conducted by Marisa Convento: a treasure hunt for Venice on the trail of the “impiraresse”. In June the game was experimented with a test in a restricted format, for the pandemic, in the Arsenale, thanks to the support of the Navy and Vela, where an audience of actors and associations was involved, including the third decisive stakeholder, La Biennale di Venezia.

You can find post about it here, on the VdC Facebook page this link and on the I_improve Facebook page at this one. Then, also the newspaper, Il Gazzettino di Venezia, spoke about the initiative: here the article. In this occasion the third level of the game, the digital one was presented.

After all of those discussions and events to present the idea, the board game was presented (link) and so, at the end of the process, hosted by Council of Europe, VdC discussed with the stakeholders about the entire Arsenalia project and its three different games: all together they will try to give a concrete and shared future at the project. You can read the report of the conference at this link.

Recently, VdC has worked on other projects and initiatives, also taking advantage from what was learned from the I_Improve project. For instance, Francesco Calzolaio designed a new kind of boat (BEPI) devoted to people with disabilities: the post about it was upload on the web site due to its important meaning: you can read the article here.

Also, in the framework of the Biennale Architettura di Venezia, VdC replied to a call for architects with the aim of finding a new ways for living together. VdC, with the participation of Carla Ferraro and Marisa Convento, sets up a conversation square where people could discuss about tradition and innovation with artisans and artist. You can read about the initiative on VdC Facebook page or on the I_Improve web site.

The initiative and the entire project were exposed at the Olivetti space in Venice with other projects in the same framework.