"UMANALACUNA" - Giacomo Bianco
Artist Giacomo Bianco
Giacomo Bianco (b. 1994) is an Italian photographer who lives and works between Venice and Milan. He recently graduated from ISIA U with a MA in Photography and is currently the assistant of contemporary photographer Giovanna Silva with whom he also teaches at his former university. His photographic practice derives from the exploration of the natural world, particularly from observing the dynamics of coexistence between human and non-human living beings.
In his project “UMANALACUNA”, Bianco explores the lost role of Venice’s Lagoon, which he considers as an open space containing an allegorical ecosystem of amphibious inhabitants. He says: “For the last two centuries the Lagoon has become more and more exploited and weakened, a mere instrument of spectacle, continuously defaced by projects which promise the salvation of the city of Venice but to the detriment of the extremely fragile morphology of the lagoon.”
Seeking to return to the water’s harmonious state, Bianco utopialized a voluntary sinking of Venice to offer the necessary conditions for a reconciliation between its citizens and the water. For months, his gaze was directed towards the Lagoon’s territory, documenting the ACQUA ALTA (the high tide that floods the Piazza San Marco, Venice). Using underwater webcams, he recorded video footage of fish and non-human creatures that live in the depths of the oceanographic landscape and filmed human subjects in the sea with an impermeable camera. He later edited the collected screenshots in a way that emulates the aesthetic of the submerged camera to reinforce the hypothesis of sinking: imagining everyday life in the future and the prospective citizens of the Lagoon.