>> From the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. ^M00:00:04 ^M00:00:22 >> Grant Harris: So, good afternoon. Welcome to the Library of Congress. I am Grant Harris. I am head of the European Reading Room over in the Jefferson Building across the street. Together with the Embassy of Italy and the Italian Cultural Institute, we are delighted to welcome our special guest, distinguished professor Salvatore Settis who will discuss his timely and acclaimed book, "If Venice Dies." Let me mention that the Library of Congress is proud of its 400,000 volumes from or about Italy. It includes an extensive collection of monographs on the subjects of Italians in the United States, for example. We acquire each year much of the best research level materials from or about Italy. And we are proud to have the works of Professory Settis in that collection. I counted well over 50 items in our collections where he's written maybe a forward, or edited, or curated so we're very pleased to have you here today. In talking about the collections let me also mention the two people within the library who have helped with this very much, Tirus Spiegel, if just raise your hand there, in the European Division. And Lucia Wolf who is our specialist for Italy. And if you have questions about using the collections, please get hold of Lucia Wolf now or later. The European Division is responsible for providing reference and for developing the library's collections relating to continental Europe and Lucia does that for Italy, and Malta, and Italian materials from Switzerland, Vatican City, and San Marino. I think I've listed most of it right. Now after the lecture we will have a few minutes for questions and answers before the book signing. We hope you have a pleasant time here today and that you'll come back and use the collections. Please turn off your cell phones and recording devices for the duration of the program. Also be aware that this event is being recorded for a later webcast. Renato Miracco, the cultural attache at the Italian Embassy cannot be with us today. He was instrumental in putting this together. Unfortunately he has a family bereavement back in Italy so we hold Renato and his family in our thoughts today. I welcome Michael Wise, co-founder of New Vessel Press, and publisher of the English translation of "If Venice Dies." New Vessel Press specializes in making foreign works available to English speakers. "If Venice Dies" has been ably translated by Andre Naffis-Sahely. Michael Wise has been a foreign correspondent for Reuters and the "Washington Post." He is the author of a book on German architecture and his writing has appeared in many publications that I personally like, "The New York Times," "The Wall Street Journal," "The New Yorker," "The Atlantic," and "Foreign Policy." That's quite a list. That's not all though. So I would welcome Michael to speak to us now and introduce the speaker. Thank you. ^M00:03:58 [ Applause ] ^M00:04:04 >> Michael Wise: Thank you very much. We are very grateful to the Library of Congress for arranging this program. I'm co-founder with Ross Ufberg of New Vessel Press and we're extremely pleased to be the publisher of the English translation of Salvatore Settis' book which appeared two years ago in Italy as [foreign language spoken] and now as "If Venice Dies," translated by Andre Naffis-Sahely. Salvatore Settis is an archeologist, and art historian, and former director of both the Getty Research Institute of Los Angeles and the Scuola Normale Superiore of Pisa. He's currently the chairman of the Louvre Museum Scientific Council and can be considered the conscience of Italy for his role in spotlighting the country's neglect of its national cultural heritage. And I think you'll soon understand why that is when you hear him speak today about his concerns that he so cogently lays out in "If Venice Dies." Washingtonians may remember that he delivered the Mellon lectures at the National Gallery of Art in 2001, and he also gave the Isaiah Berlin Lectures at the Ashmolean at Oxford in 2000. His research interests are centered on ancient and Renaissance art history and his many publications include "The Future of the Classical," [Foreign Language spoken], and he was co-editor of "The Classical Tradition." He has served as chair of Italy's high council for cultural heritage and landscape. And his most recent book, [Foreign Language spoken], deals with the current debate about constitutional reform in Italy in which Professor Settis has been extremely active ahead of a referendum to be held in Italy in early December. He finds time as well to curate exhibitions including last year's opening pair of shows at the Fondazione Prada in both Milan and in Venice about classical sculpture. And he's also now working on an exciting new exhibition that will be held in Rome in 2018 of the collection from the Museo Torlonia, the largest private collection of classical and Greek Roman sculpture [inaudible] in the world. As an example of this impressive array will be shown atop the [Foreign Language spoken] in Rome and we would be very fortunate if it comes to the United States as well. Finally, I'd be remiss as his American publisher if I didn't urge you to buy a copy of his book which is on sale outside. The book has received considerable acclaim, most recently a wonderful review in the "Washington Post." And as you'll hear now, "If Venice Dies" is an eloquent appeal to save the soul of one of the world's greatest cities and a wake-up call for us all to heed what's happening to our own lives and what could happen to historic cities everywhere. ^M00:06:44 [ Applause ] ^M00:06:51 >> Salvatore Settis: Thank you, Michael, for this generous introduction. I'm particularly glad to be here. And thank you all for inviting me to give a talk here about my book and about Venice more generally. I'm very grateful to the Italian Embassy and to Renato Miracco particularly and Angela [Inaudible] who is here now, and to the Library of Congress, particularly to Lucia Wolf and Tirus Spiegel for organizing this event. And I particularly like to thank Michael Wise for translating my book in English. My lecture is, you will understand quite soon, is based on my book but not identical with my book. By way of introduction let me make two short remarks. First, while my book's focus from the title on Venice, it is not only about Venice. It is about the destiny of historical cities around the world, in Italy but not just in Italy. Second point, "If Venice Dies," putting death in the title is not necessarily a good idea but I what I wanted to stress is that death is a good vantage point where from we may look at trauma, at problems of life. So as in private life when we have a trauma from some death of a mother, father, of a person who is dear to us, this will bring us to think more about our life and in different terms. So "If Venice Dies," this is not just to comply with the [inaudible] of death in Venice, but to reflect what will happen, what might happen if Venice dies. And just to start with, what you see on the screen is not Venice but Las Vegas. ^M00:08:54 [ Laughter ] ^M00:09:00 Of course you may recognize the proximity of different buildings, the Rialto Bridge which is much nicer than this one and the Doge's Palace. Okay. Cities die in three ways. When a relentless enemy destroys them like the Romans did with Carthage in 146 BC. When a foreign nation installs itself with force, driving away the natives and their gods like the [inaudible] land before it was transformed into Mexico City and wiped out in 1521 by the conquistadors. Or when the inhabitants of a given city lose the memory of themselves and without realizing it they become strangers to themselves. They become their own enemies. ^M00:09:51 This was the case for Athens which, after the glory of the classical polis and evidence of culture, art, and history opened up by the likes of Sophocles, Euripides, Pericles, [Inaudible], and so forth and so on, lost first it's political independence and later ended up forgetting every memory of itself. We often tend to consider Athens as unchanged the remaining centuries, and able and tend to believe that it flowed with renewed splendor when Greece became independent in 1827. But this is not the case. It was the end of the twelfth century when the [inaudible], Michael Choniates, arrived from Constantinople as the new bishop of Athens. He was shocked, as he tells us in a text which preserved, he was shocked at the terrible ignorance of the Athenians. He says, "They no longer knew anything of ancient glories of their own city. They cannot even identify the [inaudible] which are still intact. They were not able to indicate where [Inaudible], or Plato, or Aristotle had taught. The Parthenon was at the time a Christian church which was covered in icons and where liturgical songs were heard and incense filled the air. It was [inaudible] cathedral. It was plundered repeatedly by Italians, by Florentines and Venetians particularly, without the thing as lifting their finger to defend the Parthenon or the monuments. When Athens was [inaudible] by the Turks in 1456, three years after Constantinople, the Parthenon was transformed into a mosque as you can see here and even the name of the city was forgotten. What remained was a small village with outgrowing here and there and Athenians, reduced to a few thousand people called it Satinee [phonetic spelling], Satinus [assumed spelling], a mispronunciation of the name. So even, Athens had lost even its name. But Athenians had begun to forget themselves long before this time. Already by around 1430 AD, the new Platonic philosopher, Plautus, who lived very close to the Acropolis, tells of having seen Athena, the goddess of the Parthenon, in a dream, who, having been driven from her seat asked for hospitality in Plautus' house. This nostalgic dream clearly conveys decline of a culture and its self-awareness. Now today we have forgotten that even Athens eventually forgot itself. But perhaps we should recall the darkness of the forgotten memory if we want to avoid suffering in our contemporary world the same affliction. Now we come to Venice, a special city, greatly loved and very fragile. We all know the monumental areas frequently visited by tourists including ourselves even if we have never explored its [foreign language spoken] or minor churches which are extraordinarily rich in urban and artistic merit. Let me mention very briefly some unique characteristics of Venice such as an urban framework which has evolved over centuries always maintaining only two means of getting about for people and wares, by foot or by waterway. An extraordinary richness of monuments or works of art which reflect the enormous prosperity of the [inaudible]. The constant decrease in the resident population, which I will come to later, the continual increase of mass tourism which invades most famous areas of the city, and finally, the fashion of having a second home in Venice which most of us would like to have as many have which has the effect of inflating prices and transforming Venice into a city of second homes which often remain empty for almost the whole year. Venice is enclosed in its lagoon like a pearl in an oyster but few understand the nature between the lagoon and Venice. The city extends into 118 islands linked by bridges but to this should be added other islands such as San Giorgio or Torcello, accessible only by water. City, islands, and lagoon make up an ecosystem unparalleled for the balance between natural environment and human places. Lagoon has never been for Venice either a limit or a neutral space. It has been and it is, it should be, the very condition of its existence. And this transforms itself over time in harmony with the city, reflecting its beauty and its history with the sort of counter melody [foreign language spoken] I would say in Italian without which even the voice of Venice would fade. This intimate union was represented in maps. For example, in the plan by Benedetto Bordone, 1528, which the islands of the lagoon and the ring of land around the city from Mestre to Lido, were considered as a sort of periphery [inaudible] into the urban dimension by means of accurate [inaudible] in indicators. In this plan we already see, for example, Marghera, which is highlighted on the corner of top left, where a place I will mention later. Marghera is indicated by name so it does belong to the urban space although it is rather on the terra firma than in Venice itself. The territory of the community of Venice, [Foreign Language spoken], in current administrative [inaudible] includes a vast area of mainland of which Marghera, Mestre, and other areas is shown on the slide including the Tessera airport are part. And the population is moving towards this areas in recent decades especially the younger generations but mostly, not because they like it better there, but because it's much less expensive and they don't have enough money to live in [inaudible]. If we look at the population statistics for Venice [inaudible], we see a noteworthy drop of 100, 000 fewer inhabitants in the last few decades. But if we distinguish, as it's necessary, the mainland from the historical center, we see that the situation is much more dramatic. You have the statistics as reported in my book in the English edition, which is updated by in relation to the Italian edition, but I add for this lecture a [inaudible] slide with the statistics count on June thirteenth [inaudible] a few days ago but a few less, that now we are at 54 thousand and a few hundred. Now we know that 2.6 people on average move away from Venice every single day. All the progress I was talking about had to be seen against this very worrying backdrop. Decrease of population in Venice has started [inaudible] in other words, doesn't necessarily mean increase in numbers of mainland Venice inhabitants as shown by the chart here. You see the historic center is in blue and the terra firma is in red. The [inaudible] of terra firma is declining. Now if Venice is to die, it will not be on account of enemy invasions. It will because most of Venetians and most of Italians have forgotten about Venice. And forgetting [inaudible] for a community today, that's not only mean forgetting one's own history. It also means the lost understanding of the specific role of every city with respect to others of the uniqueness and diversity of every city which is perhaps no other city in the world possesses as much as Venice. Which is that I think as necessary in a world which the urban dimension is not only grown enormously but has been distorted by the growth of gigantic mega-cities, human [inaudible] where in name of productivity tens of millions of people gather often condemned to conditions and patterns of life that have little to do with the original sense and spirit of the city. Let me mention as an example a place where I've never been, Chongqing in China which in 1930 had 600,000 inhabitants and today has almost 34 million people living in it. Thirty-four million people in last few decades. The very notion of a city, a cultural creation which is a hotbed of thought and civilization, elaborately for social relations and culture tends to become the shell of the shapeless of apparently spontaneous [inaudible] by small, wealthy minorities while the majority of citizens are holed up in squalid housing blocks and are considered of not the citizens but this workforce. This development is coming about with unequal speed in various parts of the world. [Inaudible] to perceive the difference between the old former [inaudible] and the [inaudible] idea of megalopolis. In Italy distinction between the old city of citizens and the new form of worker ants which are also a necessary consumer ants is expressed in the harsh contrast between historical centers and peripheries which besiege them. ^M00:20:09 Having grown up in [inaudible] in less than a few decades under the push of property speculation in land rents, Italian [inaudible] are in general [inaudible] by an architecture of extremely poor aesthetic quality. [Inaudible] with their respective historical centers by the poverty of spaces for social life. In hilltop cities like Sienna we still see its form from far away but in other cities, like for instance Naples, we see that they are [inaudible] by an apparently unstoppable urban sprawl that actually translates in a relentless erosion of the varied idea of a city, or more accurately, immense metastasis in lots of indecipherable growth entailing the destruction of everything with surrounding spaces. The center is old, city, countryside, harmony which made Italy the garden of Europe has died a violent death and at the hands, not of invaders, but of the Italians themselves. Cities are not only made of buildings and roads but of men and women with their cultural, religious, and social connections. Urban form has been created and modified over time according to powerful mechanism which Henri Lefebvre has termed "the production of space," [foreign language spoken]. The space in which we live, being by its very nature a social space, is indeed the product of people and results from economic processes, from political decisions, from cultural choices which come together. Therefore the space for industrial civilization is radically different from that of another culture. For this reason Venice, with its unique history and relation with the lagoon, [inaudible] of the centuries [inaudible] itself a culture and social space of [inaudible] and originality with very few possible comparisons. Beyond the visible city of buildings and roads there is an invisible city, a city I would say with a soul. It defined by a double relationship, a relationship of the city with the human body, i.e. the citizens who inhabit that city. And there's a relationship with nature, the surrounding countryside, in the case of Venice, the lagoon. And it entails a relationship of proportions between the body of the citizen and the body of the city. I would say that the body of the city mimics, repeats, enhances the citizen's body. It welcomes and guides the citizen. It echoes the voice, and steps, and leads him or her to streets and bridges, to [inaudible] grace with a lift and flow that in Venice, as much as elsewhere historic cities, is a collective creation involving aristocrats and merchants, artisans and sailors, glass workers and [inaudible], men and women. In its long history Venice conquered the right to the city for those who dwell in it which in this city also means the right to nature, a right to the wellbeing of the lagoon which has been integral to Venetian life and history for millennia. Today though hundreds of million people live in [inaudible] areas called [inaudible] by tens of millions of people, areas made to increase the production for goods for all and to increase the profits for a few people without limit. And this process of concentrating people into giant beehives seems destined to expand in the future. It's difficult, at least for me, to believe that those who live in such [inaudible] better lives than those who live in historic cities reflecting [inaudible] urban culture such as Venice. Yet mega-cities have become an [inaudible] icon for our time and are conventionally identified with the very idea of modernity. Yet do we really want to think that megalopolis will supplant all other urban forms forever? Or will it instead be worthwhile to keep other alternatives in mind when we think of the city of the future? Do we wish, that's the question, to nurture or to destroy the multiplicity and diversity for urban forms? Venice and Chongqing are two quite different models of communal living thus in order to better understand Chongqing we must inevitably think also of Venice. Like megalopolis the skyscraper is taken as an icon of modernity especially where skyscrapers are not so common, such as in Italy. And it is perhaps for this reason that as part of the project presented the Venice [inaudible] in 2010 [inaudible] architect with Italian assistance to save Venice from the high waters by surrounding it by what, a corona of skyscrapers built on artificial reefs which surrounds the city, protects it from the seas and populates it with Venetians. Let me read from the site of this [inaudible] study, the [inaudible] text. "When looking at the not so distant future, they say, we have a few certainties. Sea level will rise and global warming will affect climate. Aqualta 2016, that's the name of the project, is an attempt to describe this scenario. How do we protect the city from the sea? What if we consider bringing a new [inaudible] a linear city merging from the water around Venice, a new frame and a new perspective toward Venice to preserve and enjoy the historical city. What does this city look like? If it's along waterfront stretching in front of Venice and if the weather is warmer, why not think of it as the Italian Copa Cabana." ^M00:26:21 [ Laughter ] ^M00:26:22 I'm quoting. "A long beach submerged by tropical vegetation." What a nice view. What a nice perspective. "A vision of a vision," they continue. "The old Venice overlooking the Bay of Ipanema. The new town beaches and houses will have the glorious backdrop of an unseen Venice." So for the quote. Let's highlight two points of this text. On one hand Venice is being [inaudible] on two other latitudes like might be sort of periphery of Rio de Janeiro. On the other it is no longer a city which to live but rather a city to observe from afar. In order to enjoy the view of the historical city indeed it is good to think of it as glorious backdrop for whoever will live in skyscrapers which is the real place, the place for real human beings. In a vision such as this the Venetians would stay. The historical city would be like fish in an aquarium. ^M00:27:26 [ Laughter ] ^M00:27:28 A [inaudible] of skyscrapers was also in the mind of a former mayor of Rome who in 2010 send me [inaudible] Venice [inaudible] said officially he wanted to make Rome's periphery denser by constructing a column of skyscrapers meant to rise above the dome of St. Peter's which so far is [inaudible] the height limit for business in Rome. It will then, he said, have a Rome of skyscrapers next to the most important city center in the world. That's in the words of a former mayor of Rome. Skyscrapers in Rome, skyscrapers in Venice, skyscrapers really based in Milan, as you see here in the on the screen. The party line goes as follows: In Italy in the last few decades there have been too few high quality architectural projects. Now is therefore the moment to make up for lost time. This fever to update is a provincial obsession that makes the skyscraper the symbol [inaudible] of modernity forgetting that actually skyscrapers were really connection with anything New York or Chicago 100 years ago. Not now. Therefore, even a great architect such as Renzo Piano is now building a skyscraper in Turin which according to the original project should be, as in this picture, taller than the Mole Antonelliana and thereby breaking city regulations. After many protests the height was reduced by one foot. ^M00:29:03 [ Laughter ] ^M00:29:05 A ridiculous difference which is not the sign of respect but instead as near. However with these skyscrapers today in Italy means updating Italian cities to a century ago or better, not imitating New York or Chicago but Chongqing, Singapore, or Dubai. I hope you will forgive me if I continue to prefer to Venice by Odoardo Fialetti, a rather glorious version of the city even without skyscrapers. Now before speaking of more disturbing situations, I would briefly like to mention very briefly the [inaudible] safeguarding that [inaudible] heritage currently in place in Italy. Nuns of all Italian states that existed before the [inaudible] of Italy mid-nineteenth century, nuns of all the Italian states including the Republic of Venice and oldest in the world, and they acquired new strength and impetus from the notion of [foreign language spoken] or cultural heritage created during the French Revolution and imported into Italy. ^M00:30:15 Current laws are restoring to the basis of legislation from the twentieth century. Let me only mention that legislation on landscape, the first law, first Italian law on landscape is dated 1920 and the Minister for Education was the greatest Italian philosopher of that time, Benedetto Croce when a great philosopher like Benedetto Croce could be a minister. A very important turning point was the constitution of the Italian Republic in 1947 where Article 9 reads, "The republic, the Italian Republic, safeguards natural landscape and historical [inaudible] of the nation." For the first time in 1947 the principle of heritage entered into the founding principles of the constitution of the modern state although there are precedents in the constitution, particularly of the Weimar Republic in Germany. Notwithstanding the constitution and the laws, in Venice [inaudible] with the erosion of the very idea of a city takes place also in Italy. Above all and the destruction centuries old armory between city and countryside. What elsewhere is countryside for Venice is the lagoon where the waters of the sea mix with those of the rivers. Lagoon and city beckon together from a complex [inaudible] system through are preserved and implemented in time through mechanisms of surveillance and management over the waters. The [foreign language spoken], created in about 1510 had been unfortunately abolished two years ago by the Italian government. Now today Venice appears to many as a city like any other whose development is only limited by the lagoon. The lagoon is seen as an empty space, as a limit to the city. It has therefore been proposed to save Venice from isolation while the beginning of the twentieth century the futurists sought to fill in and tarmac over the Grand Canal [inaudible] they foresee a Venice [inaudible] underground system in order to create a single mega-city out of the three with underground lines which would run under the lagoon. In shorter distance Venice increasingly looks a dramatically outdated. There are vast territorial restructuring projects whereby the city would change its name in English. Veneto City or Venice Land. Huge built up areas -- I'm just quoting. They're serious about it. I'm joking but they're not. Huge built up areas where one imagines that real life, that of production and consumption of goods, is carried out in areas of new construction while historical Venice could be an exciting sort of periphery on city shore I think back. Such a Venice would be actually a sort of Disneyland, more like the creations of Las Vegas than the city of the Doges Palace and of St. Mark's Basilica. This process of Disney-fication had been announced, pre-announced many years ago and I found an article in 1981 by one of the leading professors of architecture in the Polytechnical di Milano published in 1981 in the journal, "[Foreign Language spoken]," whereby he said that, quote, "The transformation of Venice into a Disneyland could signal the passage to a more creative, more cheerful, and more festive way of living." Actually nothing in the world goes against the model of urban development based on urban densification and architecture verticalization. Protected by the lagoon [inaudible] symbiotic relationship this city appears a happy island in a world afflicted by uncontrollable metamorphosis. According to architectural historian, Manfredo Tafuri, quote, "Venice is an unbearable challenge to the world of modernity that elicits assaults by developers, ambitions by architects, and massive invasions of tourists." And then, "All you need is to stop for a few hours in Venice to be threatened, gun to your head, by the gusts of a modernity that takes the form of mega-ships almost the familiar skyscrapers within the city itself. [Inaudible] of consumer reminder I will show a few slides taken from real life in Venice. A status of consumerism, the cruise ships which invade the city, destroying its skyline better resemble a huge Las Vegas hotels than ships. Like in Las Vegas, ships with thousands of beds, 4,000 beds for instance, pass themselves off as exclusive luxury but are holiday machines that sell illusions passing the most [inaudible] of its highly personalized ships that are [inaudible] and try their best to look like a convention city. The big moment of glory for these monster ships is when they can show off their [inaudible] arrogance of being an artificial city forcing their way into the docks of San Marco challenging the [Foreign Language spoken] with their garish bulk. The mega-ships penetrate the heart of Venice to see its beauty but they overshadow and damage the city, changing its perception. To mention but one, the ship called Divina [assumed spelling] is 220 feet high, twice as tall as the Doge's Palace, and 1,094 feet wide, twice the breadth of Piazza San Marco. At times up to a dozen liners have entered the lagoon in a single day. Mega-ships are only -- so you can be in Venice and see things like this. Mega-ships are only the most visible sign [inaudible] that devastates Venice social and [inaudible] family. Eight million tourists pour into Venice's streets and canals each year to the point that tourists out number Venetians 140 to 1. Such a disproportion has impacted the [inaudible] and is [inaudible] altering the population and the economy. [Inaudible] from the island city and thus will remain a shuttered to serving of [inaudible], restaurants, and shop selling glass souvenirs and carnival masks. Alarm at this state of affairs led to recent UNESCO decision to place Venice on its World Heritage In Danger List unless substantial progress to [inaudible] city is made by February 2017. In Italy these ships had the terrible habit of passing dangerously close to the coast. After the ship wreck of the Costa Concordia in January 2012 that left 32 people dead off the coast of Tuscany, the Italian government ruled that major ships must stay at least two miles away from shore to prevent similar occurrences in the future. And this has been enforced with one exception, Venice where there is no limit. I think that this is very telling, this inability to deal with the problems of Venice. Besides the horrible [inaudible] the mega-ships, one can also add the significant decrease of water quality. A high risk of pollution and the subsequent spilling of hydrocarbons in the heart of the city. It is that the increases with number of cruise liners that are allowed. Authorities try to deny the fact of this pressure and there is no clear data, no official data on pollution dust particles. Apparently 500 tons of dust particles dumped by ships in Venice in every single year. Or on the very [inaudible] data on the presence of benzopyrene, highly toxic chemical being [inaudible] in the lagoon. The [inaudible] contradicts the model of modernity with the [inaudible] skyscraper of this symbol. On the other hand though a very concrete project for the skyscraper in Venice and particularly in Marghera has been seriously launched by Pierre Cardin, a French fashion designer who is actually Pietro Cardin, born in Treviso. His Palais Lumiere would cost one and a half billion Euros, licensed 820 feet high and covering an area of 43 acres in Marghera's dilapidated industrial zone. Three interlacing towers, 60 habitable floors in western fashion and the offices, shops, [inaudible], conference places, [inaudible], major stores and sports grounds, a vertical city presented as a unique occasion to reclaim an industrial area in decline but also a dramatic transformation brings the skyline high, more than twice the Campanile de San Marco, that would be built in defiance of all the urban [inaudible]. ^M00:40:01 Impossible not to see it from the Piazza San Marco especially by night because if it is to be a Palais Lumiere is has to be very visible by night. Not only this, it would also cut across flight paths violating the height restriction imposed by the National Civil Aviation Board by three, by [inaudible], by 360 feet. So if this is ever built, please don't fly to Venice. But fortunately the project had been abandoned recently. And even the very negative public opinion in Italy and elsewhere. But Pierre Cardin came so far as to advertise apartments in his Palais Luminere in shop windows in France. And the dark stain you see here, you see, what is this? This is Venice, same profile. Venice as a backdrop. [Inaudible] to increase the price of the different apartments especially on the highest floors. So now the question is why, what to the Palais Lumiere and the cruise lines down the Grand Canal have in common? They are, some say, good opportunities for Venice but I ask why, if we want to take tourists to Venice by sea, it is done with high polluting cruise liners? Why over the enormous area he would have at his disposal does Cardin, or Cardin, not construct two, or three, or five smaller towers with the same purpose of this area? Because he wants it to be visible from afar. There's only one possible answer. In all these cases violating Venice is not [inaudible] of consequence. It is rather the heart of the project. It is as some have said essential to [inaudible] this larger city which irritates the priests of modernity, that's Tafuri general commenting on the process. A larger city which irritates the priests of modernity much as an unwilling virgin might irritate a womanizer who thinks himself irresistible like Don Giovanni who thinks himself irresistible. The desecration rather the [inaudible] of the desecration versus strong symbolic meaning. This is statement of hyper modernity. Now my little book that has been recently published and also in English thanks to Michael Wise, is centered in Venice as its title implies, nevertheless my intention strives for a wider scope namely the destiny of historic sites, of historic cities as contrasted with a few dominant behavioral and architectural models such as the skyscraper or the megalopolis. I'm obviously aware that Venice is subject perhaps more than any other city to the potentially dramatic consequences of climate change and rising sea level. This point is relatively marginal in my book and in this lecture. It is definitely not because I think it is not important, but because it belongs to a global [inaudible] or scenario whereby Venice's destiny is similar to that of other cities worldwide including New York City. You know, listen to this point that is obviously critically important. I'm proposing Venice is a privileged vantage point that might inspire thoughts or considerations on an equally important issue, namely the evolution, shape, and destiny of the urban form. Ideas and social culture practices about the city of the future seem to be determined today by three interrelated factors. [Inaudible] mentioned the unstoppable growth major cities first and the verticalization factor to the rhetoric of skyscrapers second. Both exemplified in this slide. Let me add lastly the dissipation boundaries affecting city and countryside. You see here in the wonderful fresco in Sienna you all are familiar with this boundary very clearly defined. So let me go back between the city and the countryside, that they're complimentary to one another. We may say on the contrary that what's going on is that the wild boundaries of the city separating from a countryside intimately connected with the city itself like in Sienna are destroyed. And a new type of boundary [inaudible] increasingly arise in the boundaries within the city as in this example from Brazil in which the boundary is between a gated community with tennis courts and little pools on balconies and they [inaudible] here. The boundaries within the cities between gentrified and boundary in neighborhoods and gated communities further [inaudible]. While the suburbs are teaming with all the new poor as seen in this impressive example. What is, or rather, was the countryside in Sienna, Florence, or the [foreign language spoken] in Rome is still very much reasonable in Venice as the lagoon more than in any other place. This is one of the many reasons why what happens in Venice does not only concern Venice but us all. Venice indeed, because it is precious, it is unique, it is improbable. It is the most improbable city in the world still. It is still there. And its very singular connection with the waters and the mainland is going against the blade because it is naturally for this generation and without cars and is a dominant symbol and a [inaudible] of the human nature of historic city. Now the question is should we preserve this [inaudible] of space or dilute it? Assuming that a new model, that a mega-cities, skyscrapers, boundaries within the city, social economic boundaries within the city, will it be the only possible form for the city of the future? Or do we have space for the diversity in the shape of cities? Let's say Venice is a potential level to the litmus test where from to look at the global decline of historical centers often not generalized and thought of as being left over in relation to the real place where new buildings, possibly vertical are being built. [Inaudible] shape, having a knowledge of that obvious goal to erase diversity, to homogenize cities, to substitute civil conversation among citizens for created spaces for citizen's machines for production and consumption of goods. So let us pause for a moment to think inspired by I hope by this thoughtful Athena. As a better icon of the storied city, Venice is precisely for this reason the most important target for whoever [inaudible] denying the very raison d'etre of urban diversity. As most convenient scenario were to experiment [inaudible] of social and cultural life. But if we want to save Venice from the offenses which can bring it to death, it is not enough to be indignant and to protest. The decisive move is to elaborate the project for the future of this city which preserves its uniqueness based on what I would call a two-phase far sightedness. I mean the ability of, to look simultaneously backwards at historical legacy and forwards, the future of Venice not as a museum, not as a theme park, not as a place for tourists. But as a city for human beings, for its own citizens primarily. Then the tourist can come of course but for citizens primarily. We cannot reduce Venice to a place of tourists who all the citizens must be servants to tourism and not cultivate any other productive or creative human activity. Our generation, not just in Venice, but everywhere, has been tasked with a great responsibility to show that diversity and beauty are not weighted legacies from the past but an extraordinary gift to live with in the present. An extraordinary endowment to build upon for guaranteeing the future. In the world in which we live we should show that there is space for diversity for urban mothers, for diversity of cultures, of lifestyles, that the urban space as developed in Venice as well as in other historic city does have a right of citizenship in the world of today and of tomorrow because if Venice dies, that's reason for the title of my book, it will not only be Venice that falls. The very idea of the city will die. The form of the city as an open [inaudible] space social life as the very foundation of civilization. And let me say, also, of democracy. Thank you very much indeed. ^M00:49:28 [ Applause ] ^M00:49:43 >> Grant Harris: Okay. So I see the time is 3:55 so we did start late by about 10 minutes so let's keep rolling a little further. We don't have a lot of time for questions but let's try maybe three. All right. Are there questions? ^M00:50:00 ^M00:50:04 >> Salvatore Settis: There's a question over there. >> Grant Harris: Speak loudly. >> Yes. I was just simply going to ask what you would suggest those of us who don't have the knowledge of Venice that you do but love the city can do to help save it? >> Salvatore Settis: Well, I think that awareness by public opinion in important countries, particularly here in this country, particularly in this city, awareness of what's going on is extremely important and that influence the government bodies that have to take decisions about it. And decisions are sometimes not that difficult. For instance, if we think about problems of second homes in Venice, they've been calculated that on average people who possess a second home in Venice, often very wealthy people who buy a palazzo on the Grand Canal, but they stay in Venice on average two and a half days a year. Now they are not citizens. They cannot participate in life of the city. Now it is possible to reduce the number of second homes in Venice. Is it possible? Yes. It is. Because in Switzerland they passed the law two or three years ago by which in each city of the Switzerland even in smallest villages you can't have more than 20% of second homes. This is Switzerland. This is not a Communist country. So if this is possible in Switzerland, why not in Italy? Why nobody thinks about doing it? Why nobody even proposes to do it? So I think awareness, public opinion, and pressure from public opinion all over the world and particularly in this country would be extremely important. Would be extremely important to put pressure on the governmental boards who are very keen to hear the business of developers, or tourist organization, or [inaudible] organization in less inclined to understand what the big problems are. ^M00:52:30 ^M00:52:36 >> Grant Harris: I think there's some questions that came through [inaudible] in the back who had -- . >> It seems obvious that the cruise ships need to be stopped but obviously there must be some desire to have the tourist come and spend the money. So who could stop the cruise ships? >> Salvatore Settis: Well, first of all, apparently only ten percent of the people who come to Venice on those cruise ships finds the time of going into Venice and spend something. So for most of them looking at Venice from the highest balcony of the ship is more than enough, looking down at Doge's Palace in bathrobe, that must be a very interesting experience which -- . But I actually never did that so I can't tell but for some reason it is considered. And there are several projects on [inaudible]. One possibility is to bring people in the neighboring place like [inaudible] which is a lake port with which is in [inaudible] and then with the smaller or to have them arrive somewhere, there are several problems but the first thing to do is to make clear that cruise ships cannot enter the docks of San Marco. But you know the San Marco cannot be entered by those gigantic cruise ships. This should be absolutely necessary. Now the [inaudible] it is called in Venice. They have another problem. They want to excavate a canal within the lagoon for the cruise ships bringing them somewhere else. But the excavating a similar canal was the cause of the big flood that happened in the same year of the flood in Florence, the, just in '66 I think. So now do we want something like this to happen? So there is a great reactions against this and I hope that eventually they will decide to do it differently but. ^M00:54:53 ^M00:54:57 >> You choose. >> Salvatore Settis: Yeah. Okay. I think this [inaudible]. >> Do you have any thoughts on what industries might supplement tourism in Venice? Obviously some industries [inaudible]. >> Salvatore Settis: The, in the area of [inaudible] there was a big chemical industry that contributed significantly polluting the lagoon and creating other, but to create jobs in Venice and to create jobs that would contrast to the increasing unemployment of young people which in Italy, as you probably know, is 38% by contrast with 22% on average in the states of European Union. So this is a big problem that goes much beyond that. But in Venice it is possible to imagine different activities and particularly creative activities, something that works very well in Venice is the [Foreign Language spoken]. Something that works very well are the universities in Venice but many, many young people who would like to live in Venice while going to the university, they are unable to do so because it's too expensive. So it's not very easy to have [inaudible] in general plan about Venice. But it is very easy to say that if there are no attempts at such a plan, the city is condemned forever which is something I'd not like to happen. >> Grant Harris: We'll take two more questions. >> Salvatore Settis: One is there. >> There's one that you're aware of the irony is I know you say you don't like cruise ships. But obviously one of the major industries there in Marghera is the construction of cruise ships. [Inaudible]. It's one of the main industries there. >> Salvatore Settis: Oh, well, but I think, I think that those cruise ships are not built there. I think that the presence of cruise ships must be judged and decided upon based on whether they pollute the lagoon, whether they make the life of citizens worse, whether they make the protection of cultural heritage more difficult and this is something that is already very clear. So I understand that problems cannot be solved from today in one night but I think that starting doing something in that direction would be very good. What happens instead that whenever one of the many problems of Venice is addressed such as by the so-called [inaudible] the sort of barrier to be created against the high water, aqua alta. You may know, it's a very long story in the last 30 years or so with a story of corruption, a terrible amount of money that has been lost and thrown away. They've been calculated by a book by a very good economist who [inaudible] who is Italian [Foreign Language spoken]. At least two billion Euros were spent in corruption. So if we spend in corruption two billion Euros, why don't we, why we shouldn't try to spend something in helping people living in Venice rather than moving away. So that's the complexity of the problem which I have tried more in the book than the lecture of course to give an idea of. It's something to think about. One more question? >> Thank you. Just a quick question. What's amazing about Venice is that it's actually still standing. So I think my question is what is the city doing or the government of Italy doing to preserve the foundation of Venice? >> Salvatore Settis: Very little. At this moment very, very little and unfortunately what is the fact that little is doing for preservation of the lagoon in time will endanger the entire city. So I think we are still in time. ^M00:59:58 It's, in making save public opinion left and this expect to be very, very important so I hope that you all in this room will be among those who are aware of the problems of Venice and contribute to making this awareness wider and more and deeper. >> Grant Harris: You can take just one really last question [inaudible]. >> I have a question about new technologies. Since you put an image of [inaudible]. I think it needs to be a big part of problem because a high concentration of cruises in very, three or four places and everyone goes to the same place, take a picture, and goes. [Inaudible]. And so my question is about new technologies and now that there's the possibility to sort of reconstruct a lot of these places and I think there's a company called [inaudible]. >> Salvatore Settis: Yes. I know them. I visited them in Madrid several times. >> So my question is what do you think of that as a solution to solve the problem of tourism. Is it [inaudible] or is it? >> Salvatore Settis: Well, I think that building a new Venice and convincing people to go to the fake Venice instead of the real one, I think this is something that goes beyond my imagination. I like people from [inaudible] and I visited their laboratory and I also made the official speech when the big [Foreign Language spoken] painting which was originally was in the Louvre was [inaudible] which is a wonderful copy but it is very clear a copy. So and the copy in that particular case is very important because you have the [Foreign Language spoken] is at the Louvre and will never come back to Italy. But seeing the [Foreign Language spoken] painting in a very well done copy in the space by [Foreign Language spoken] made for that particular painting, this changes totally the perception of, in this case it is very good. But the idea of going the very same thing somewhere in, you can do it in Arizona if you wish but this would not be Venice. >> Grant Harris: We'll have to stop there. Thank you so much. ^M01:02:41 [ Applause ] ^M01:02:43 >> This has been a presentation of the Library of Congress. Visit us at loc.gov.