Title: If Venice dies /
Authors: Settis, Salvatore,; Naffis-Sahely, André,
Year: 2016
Subjects: Tourism Social aspects Italy Venice.; Venice (Italy) Civilization.; Venice (Italy) History.; Venice (Italy) Social conditions.; Venice (Italy) Threat of destruction.
Abstract: "What is Venice worth? To whom does this urban treasure belong? This eloquent book by the internationally renowned art historian Salvatore Settis urgently poses these questions, igniting a new debate about the Pearl of the Adriatic and cultural patrimony at large. Venetians are increasingly abandoning their hometown - there’s now only one resident for every 140 visitors - and Venice’s fragile fate has become emblematic of the future of historic cities everywhere as it capitulates to tourists and those who profit from them. In If Venice Dies, a fiery blend of history and cultural analysis, Settis argues that 'hit-and-run' visitors are turning landmark urban settings into shopping malls and theme parks. He warns that Western civilization’s prime achievements face impending ruin from mass tourism and global cultural homogenization. This is a passionate plea to secure Venice’s future, written with consummate authority, wide-ranging erudition and élan."--Publisher's description.
Contents: Forgetful Athens -- A Venice without Venetians -- The invisible city -- Toward Chongqing -- The language of skyscrapers -- The Forma Urbis: aesthetic redemption -- How much is Venice worth? -- The paradox of conservation, the poetics of reutilization -- Replicating Venice -- History's supermarket -- The truth of the simulacrum -- Margins -- The right to the city -- "Civic capital" and the right to work -- Spaceships of modernity -- Venice and Manhattan -- The architect's ethics: Hippocrates and Vitruvius -- Venice: a thinking machine.