Vast ads in Venice, Venice in Peril appeals to the Italian Minister of Culture
We have appealed to
the Italian government to change the legislation that permits huge
advertisements on the scaffolding of public buildings. Only 10 years
ago, Venice was a city without large advertisements. Today, they are
proliferating. They hit you in the eye and ruin your experience of one
of the most beautiful creations of humankind. Their scale dwarfs the
fine detail and proportions of the buildings, and now that they are also
illuminated, you cannot escape them even by night, when they are the
hardest, brightest lights in town by far.
We ask you to imagine the disappointment that the 17.5m visitors to Venice this year will feel. They come to this iconic city with an image of it in their mind's eye and instead they see its famous views grotesquely defaced.
To those who say that the money the advertisements bring is necessary to restore those buildings, we remind you that after the great flood of 1966, when Venice was in a much worse state and Italy a much less rich country, no one contemplated using this method to raise funds.
Other ways of financing restoration must be found, otherwise Venice is doomed to be covered in advertisements for the rest of its life because its buildings will always be undergoing work due to their great age and the environmental fragility of the city.
Finally, we remind you that Venice is a Unesco World Heritage Site and that a preceding government of Italy undertook to protect its essential nature in perpetuity when it accepted this nomination.
Among those who supported the Venice in Peril appeal to Minister Sandro Bondi were: Lord Foster OM; Mark Jones, director, The Victoria and Albert Museum; Glenn Lowry, director, Museum of Modern Art, New York; Neil MacGregor, director, British Museum; Lars Nittve, director, Moderna Museet, Stockholm; Mikhail Piotrovsky, State Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg; Malcolm Rogers, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Martin Roth, Director General, Dresden State Museums.
Please click here to read comments by Venice in Peril supporters.
Progress articles:
Well done, Scavolini kitchens 27.5.2011
Venice, the conflict between publicity and cultural heritage shows signs of attenuation 25.5.2011
Novelist opposes mega-ads in Venice 4.5.2011
English Writers' Diary - a monthly reflection on life in Italy 4.4.2011
Mega-ads must go, says new Minister of Culture 30.3.2011
© Jean Moncrieff 2011
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