Venice: Tales of a Sinking City
Channel: British Library
Date: 2021-12-10

Broadcast Mon 8 Nov 2021, 19:30

Venice, a timeless destination for tourists the world over, is also where current global crises –  environmental, cultural, social, and technological – come together. How can one city tell the story of the emergencies we face? And how can literature and technologies uncover these stories? Join the architect duo Beka & Lemoine, Sophia Psarra and Giorgia Tolfo as they discuss how video art, spatial analysis and audio documentary illuminate the paradigmatic role that Venice plays in our times.

The event was supported by the Festival of Italian Literature in London (FILL) and the Italian Cultural Institute in London.

Beka & Lemoine – Ila Bêka and Louise Lemoine are two of the foremost architectural artists working today. Focusing on how the built environment shapes and influences our daily life, they have developed a unique and personal approach which can be defined, in reference to writer Georges Perec, as an ‘anthropology of the ordinary’. Their films have been presented at biennales around the world.

Sophia Psarra is Professor of Architecture and Spatial Design at the Bartlett School of Architecture (UCL). Her research addresses spatial, social, and organisational dimensions in cities and architecture. As a practising architect, Psarra has been part of prize-winning teams in international architectural competitions. She published Architecture and Narrative (Routledge 2009) and The Venice Variations (UCL Press, 2018).

Giorgia Tolfo has a PhD in Comparative and Postcolonial Literature and works for the Living with Machines project at the British Library/Alan Turing Institute. She is the co-founder of FILL, the Festival of Italian Literature in London, and of FILL Productions, an offspring of FILL dedicated to cultural productions for which she has co-written and co-produced the podcast The Fifth Siren.