The Venice Lagoon, a legal person, Giovanni Pellegrini (2025) (EMPIRE LINES x Ocean Space, Venice Biennale 2026)

Researcher, artist, and curator Pietro Consolandi traces the ‘wetland turn’ in art, ecology, and environmental justice, via Giovanni Pellegrini’s 2025 documentary film, The Venice Lagoon, a legal person.

Nature Speaks: Listening for Rights of Nature in Venice and Europe is at Ocean Space in Venice until 11 October 2026. The Research Unit, curated by Pietro Consolandi and Amalia Rossi, is co-produced by TBA21–Academy and NICHE Centre for Environmental Humanities, Ca' Foscari University of Venice, in collaboration with IDRA (Initiative for the Rights of Water) and the Confluence of European Water Bodies. You can join the next Citizens' Assembly for the Rights of the Lagoon on 10 October 2026.

The Venice Lagoon, a legal person (2025) is available to watch online.

For more about water bodies in Europe, hear Klima Biennale Wien festival director Sithara Pathirana on climate justice, public space and the rights of the river Danube through Austria, Central, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe, in the episode about Superflux’s sculptural installation, Nobody Told Me Rivers Dream (2025): pod.link/1533637675/episode/ZWQ4Mzg0Y2MtMWFkMy00ZmJkLWIyZjUtNGU3MmJmODM2ODEx

On the flows between Wales and Venice, listen to artist ⁠Taloi Havini⁠, winner of Artes Mundi 10, on their film Habitat (2017) at Mostyn in Llandudno, and work with Ocean Space in Venice: pod.link/1533637675/episode/e30bd079e3b389a1d7e68f5e2937a797

On archaeologist Marija Gimbutas, hear Emilija Škarnulytė on their film installation, Burial (2022), part of Folkestone Triennial 2025: pod.link/1533637675/episode/ZmJmZTIzMGItOTg0OC00YjhhLThkMjMtMWQ3Y2E5ZDU5MDAz

And for more about Southampton’s coastal connections to Europe, hear curators Ros Carter and Sofie Krogh Christensen on Pia Arke’s Camera Obscura (1990) at John Hansard Gallery in Southampton and KW Institute for Contemporary Art in Berlin: pod.link/1533637675/episode/OWVhZjc3YWItNDRiYy00MTYyLTk0ZmItZmE5MmJlZDY1YmI1

PRODUCER: Jelena Sofronijevic.

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EMPIRE LINES is a project within the ecosystem of ⁠Radical Ecology⁠ (2025-2026).