The Venetian Lagoon needs to share its cultural heritage with citizens and visitors. SALT's project aims to preserve people’s identity through learning actions taking place in 15 squares. The storytellers chosen by partners will collaborate in 15 events sharing with the audience the civic, social, cultural, and economic values of each island. The primary objective is to promote stronger relationships among all the actors through a lagoon itinerary by E-boats: connection is the keyword.

Project's itinerary: 15 neglected sites in the Venetian lagoon, in the province of Venice, Italy

The Lagoon is a constellation of islands floating on a common water mirror. Venice is very ‘connected’ and suffers from overtourism, while the others are more isolated and neglected, with no interconnection. The SALT project aims to bring together and enhance these outlying communities. The Venetian Republic’s fortune began with the production of salt in the lagoon, the ‘white gold’ of medieval commerce. Today this unique territory and its population are threatened by environmental decline and isolation. This issue is often overlooked by policymakers who are more interested in making profits than in people’s well-being and in climate change issues. The few inhabitants are still the witnesses of the real life of the Venetian lagoon, which we want to explore, safeguard, and navigate.

SALT's primary target group are the island's inhabitants. Our action, encouraging partners' initiatives, intends to involve local policymakers to reinforce identification and inclusion, heritage preservation and responsibility towards younger generations. Our goal is to disseminate the oral material and the multidisciplinary documentation provided by our team to international audiences. The challenge is to berth boats -either rowing boats or E-boats fully-equipped for disable people- and let anyone come on board and follow the navigation from one square to another. Each storyteller will become the chairman of a round table discussion on community heritage, citizens’ needs, ideas and proposals, and different islands’ peculiarities.

The plan is to engage institutional, social, and business bodies on a participated enhancement of local anchorage piers, which can empower and unlock the lagoon’s cultural and environmental resources. The first step will be to promote a sustainable transportation system, which can compete with the traditional rowing: the E-boat is the response. A few E-boats already plough the lagoon and a new one, designed for disabled persons, will be available to reach each island. Our team will moor at the lagoon docks and then take a seat in the square. Each hosting partner will be engaged in the organization of a site-specific narrative ‘performance’ regarding the local characteristic and cultural heritage. Our journey in stages around the lagoon is a traditional way to consolidate relationships.

The project will increase the participation in adult learning education and cultural exchange. An inclusive process will help inhabitants to retrace their identity and keep alive social practices. We aim to engage the community in specific themes that are crucial to their existence. Through the development and the definition of the common tasks, we expect to receive a government and policymakers response. Our action fosters authorities and whoever else is involved, to provide strategic anchorage points in order to reconstitute the lagoon system as a whole. The same approach can be extended to all the mainland smaller cities and villages overlooking the lagoon. The impact of our activities can revitalize the ancient and important role of the internal waters.

Our idea is to stimulate the most authentic activities and traditions, artifacts and culture, in order to define the identity of people living in the Venetian lagoon. We believe that direct actions -storytelling in squares- will add meaning to democracy. Our challenge is to assemble the local communities, inviting them to a civic participation in squares overlooking the lagoon, where people can gather and discuss a wide range of topics and issues. Anyone may sit on comfortable chairs, apart from the mainstream lifestyle, enjoy listening to stories which enhance the sense of community, reassess former connection between the islands while bridging the generation gap.

We believe in the interrelationship between the tangible and intangible heritage, and in the territory itself. The Venetian Lagoon can be a wonderful showcase for the dissemination of good practices: how to empower a joint action of divided actors on a common, but isolated, landscape. An historical and narrative approach is the first step towards a participated change in locally rooted civil society organizations; but without an efficient and sustainable mobility system all the islands will remain cut off from one another. We need to build bridges, not only virtual ones, but real pathways over water. Each island become a meeting place for different actors in society; the participation to a common objective offers many benefits to all the activities linked to it.

Euro 2000 web site and digital platform
Euro 6000 short video shooting and editing 300€ each event (15), plus 2 general video
Euro 7500 events
Euro 4000 candidature
Euro 10000 coordination expenses
Euro 10000 local expenses
Euro 2000 Press Office
Euro 7500 buying chairs (20 chairs for 25€ each, for 15 sites)
Euro 8000 contribution Venti di Cultura for an E-boat for all the events
Euro 15000 contribution Euro 1000 each local partner

All the help you would kindly provide is very welcome.