Title: Speculum of the Other Place: the Need for a Revolution of Care
Author: Emir Rizzato
Publication Year/Date: May 2024
Document Version: Fine Art Hons dissertation
License: CC-BY-NC-ND
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-ncnd/4.0/
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.20933/100001303
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Abstract
As we face multiple crises, ecological, social, and political to name a few, the question of how we can make a better place for the future generations to live in and start correcting our mistakes arises. This dissertation investigates the relation between women and the environment and finds a hopeful light of change in our collective mindset through a revolution of care. It aims to create a voice of hope for women battling with the struggles of today’s times of crisis. Through the lens of critical analysis, this body of research was undergone through the investigation of works by Luce Irigaray, Donna Haraway, and Elena Pulcini; and artists, initiatives and exhibitions such as Michelangelo Pistoletto, Art 2030 and the Venice Biennale. An objective of this dissertation is, through research into these selected feminist writers and artists, to combine the feminist feelings of Luce Irigaray’s Speculum of the other woman with the ecology through eco feminist theories. The first chapter sets out the groundwork needed to fully understand the topic, defining Irigaray’s theory, setting a background research on ecofeminism through collections of essays on feminist ecology such as Feminist Political Ecology: Global issues and Local experiences and understanding the philosophy of care that Elena Pulcini addresses. The second chapter applies Lucy’s ‘Speculum’ philosophy to space and environment, also bringing a setting to the theory by using Venice as an example. The third chapter explores the impact art can have in promoting social change through organizations such as the Third paradise and Art for Hope. Finally, this dissertation concludes by proposing a catalyst for change in our times and envisioning how we should all work together for a better future, with the hope to move those who took the time to read this with a sentiment of change and care for our shared home.
Acknowledgements
I would like to say my deepest thank you to my parents; words cannot express my gratitude to them for their unconditional support through my studies, helping my academic and artistic journey, and enabling me to follow my dreams.
I am also very thankful to my siblings and friends for their constant encouragement and complicity, in particular my sister, who’s constant help is invaluable.
I would also like to thank my advisor Sandra Plummer for her guidance and mentoring whilst writing this dissertation.
Positionality Statement
The underlying assumption of this work is that we find ourselves immersed in a capitalist, consumerist, materialistic society that inadvertently promotes anthropogenic climate change and environmental challenges. In contemporary Western societies, the pursuit of profit and constant desire for material possessions has driven a culture of excessive consumption and resource exploitation. This relentless quest for growth and unlimited economic expansion prioritizes short-term gains over long-term sustainability, often neglecting the environmental consequences of these choices.
Advertisements bombard us with messages urging us to buy more, fuelling a culture of overconsumption and waste. Disposable products and single-use plastics have become the norm, aggravating pollution and contributing to the mounting global waste crisis. The extraction of natural resources, such as minerals and biofuels for energy production and manufacturing, also increases greenhouse gas emissions and accelerates climate change. Moreover, our unrelenting reliance on fossil fuels for transportation, manufacturing, food production and energy generation perpetuates carbon-intensive practices that intensify the greenhouse gas effect. This profit-driven system prioritizes economic growth and shareholder value, often overshadowing the urgent need for transitioning to sustainable and renewable energy sources.
To combat these challenges, it is crucial to raise awareness, promote sustainable practices, and advocate for systemic change. Shifting towards a more conscious and sustainable economy that values the well-being of both people and the planet is essential. Embracing renewable energy, reducing waste, supporting ethical and environmentally friendly businesses, and fostering a culture of mindful consumption can contribute towards a more sustainable future, one that addresses climate change while still allowing for social and economic wellbeing
Introduction
Why do we constantly find ourselves making choices that involve using single use plastics, the consumption of cheap items that we’ll soon have to replace or the unfettered burning of fossil fuels? Why are we not rattled by guilt seeing places being trashed by tourists or litter that cover the streets of our cities?
These questions involve small gestures, such as choosing the use of a car over a bicycle, a fast fashion piece over long term clothing, yet are followed by great consequences. The extent of these choices which have been accepted and standardised in our contemporary society have led us to anthropogenic climate change and environmental degradation, among many other challenges.
This dissertation seeks to point out how a revolution of care is needed to collectively address the crises that are affecting our world. Herein I firstly review some works which laid down the theoretical frameworks of feminism and ecofeminism, such as Speculum of the Other woman (1974) and Feminist Political Ecology (1998), and I also reflect on Elena Pulcini’s philosophy of care (2013). In the second section I apply the same theories to ecology by drawing on these conscious-raising feminist studies and practices. By using the city of Venice as a venue for the possible enactment of these ideas, this location is employed to give context to the theory and lead this into a concrete setting. In the third and final chapter I give examples of how art can promote change, through organizations such as the Third Paradise, Art 2030, and exhibitions such as the Venice Biennale. Throughout this dissertation, I investigate how care can serve as a sign of our interdependence, restoring positive interactions and serving as a reminder of our connections and identities that have been lost or forgotten. When these relationships, in fact, are articulated, experienced, and changed in empowering emotional configurations, they become a tool of collective action, fostering the essential critical thinking needed to combat against capitalism and the effects of climate change. This is why, as Marti Kheel wrote:
“We must help each other piecing together the fragmented world view that we have inherited But the pieces cannot simply be patched together. What is needed is a reweaving of all the old stories and narratives into a multifaced tapestry” (1993, p.261).
In other words, if we are able to weave together all our stories and learn from each other’s experience, we can begin to imagine and create a world where, in the near future, society and nature live in harmony.
Ecofeminism
Ecofeminism is a multifaced social, political, and ecological movement that embraces multiple approaches, contexts, and collective narratives. Born in the late 1960s from the encounter of women’s liberation movements and ecological movements, ecofeminism aims to shed light on the interconnected that characterises the issues of exploitation and domination of both women and nature, as these are both stemming from patriarchal systems of power (Fabijanska, 2020). This movement rests on the notion that we must work together because we are all bound to the same place (the earth) and we will all soon be affected by climate change in a diverse but indiscriminate way. Ecofeminism therefore helps us imagine a healthier relationship with our environment and works to subvert the logic of dominance, which characterises the current system, while advocating for care as well as judgement, feelings as well as reason.
Care
Care is a complicated and contentious issue. The social ability and practice of caring entails fostering everything necessary for the well-being and flourishing of life on earth This refers not only to our human life, but to all life that is interconnected to ours. According to Virginia Held, care is both a practice and a value. As a practice, “it shows us how to respond to needs and why we should. It builds trust and mutual concern and connectedness between persons”. As a value, on the other hand, care helps “to pick out the appropriate cluster of moral considerations, such as sensitivity, trust, and mutual concern, with which to evaluate such practices” (Held, 2006, p.10).
Hope
The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines hope in this way: “To cherish a desire with anticipation: to want something to happen or be true” (2023). In a world that seems out of our control, we are desperate for hope: if hope dies, we die. “But hope is a powerful currency. To be hopeful is to be human”, in the words of Lokko (2022). It offers us a chance for a better future, through a vision of a future that is better than what we have today. We find this hope through action, fighting alongside each other, and using our voices to advocate for the changes we need. It is my hope that this dissertation will inspire the reader to be part of the change we need.
Feminist Political Ecology
This first chapter aims to explore the key ideas in different works of women who make feminism and ecology their duty, with works that contribute significantly to the fields of feminist philosophy and environmental studies, such as Luce Irigaray, Dianne Rocheleau, Jane Bennett, Donna Haraway and more.
Luce Irigaray, French feminist philosopher and psychoanalyst, analysed the use and misuse of language in relation to women and criticized the lack of place or better the predefined space that women had in various Western philosophical theories That is, the space that men and their way of thinking reserve for them. Arguing that in all Western discourses, the woman has been designed to be as the specular ‘Other’ of the man, she focuses on the most important moments in the history of Western thought: from Plato to Hegel, focusing especially on Freud and Lacan, the latter of which was her tutor. Speculum of the other woman, published in Paris in 1974, is one of the greatest texts about sexual difference, subjectivity, and the female body, now accepted as a fundamental book because of how it expanded the way of thinking of women in our traditional society. From the title itself, she symbolises the need for female selfexamination through a curved mirror: the speculum being a medical tool used for vaginal exams (Donovan, 2023). Through this text she gives voice to a lively time for philosophy, psychoanalysis, and women’s movements. Many see this work as an act of war, a symbolic one, conducted by Irigaray with her masterful use of speech, of theory and of its mechanisms, which consequently led to her expulsion from her teaching jobs at Vincennes University, just after the release of Speculum.
The book can be divided into three parts, the first is dedicated to a critic of Freud, and his lack of thought on femininity, which was rather seen as ‘the dark continent’ (Irigaray, 1974, p.19), that mankind had to colonize and conquer, echoing Western colonial projects through history. The second part is an excursus of the main moments of Western thinking and how femininity had been addressed, from woman, to mother, to matter, to nature. The third section is dedicated to a long analysis of the cave myth, the myth through which Plato in the Republic illustrates the relation between men and conscience. Quoting Irigaray, “every theory of the ‘subject’ is always associated to the ‘male’, this way the woman has not yet taken place” (1974, p. 133). In fact, Plato does not take in consideration the woman’s point of view, which is merely relegated to the jurisdiction of man.
No great philosophers have been able to create a space of thought where the woman is represented as well as the man, not even Freud, the great discoverer of the unconscious. Femininity, instead, is the mirror, hence the title, the ground, the support for the male subject to find himself, to recognize oneself. She argues that the male-dominated language and its associated imagery have suppressed the voice and subjectivity of women, turning them into the ‘Other’. Irigaray’s central concept of sexual difference, which emphasizes the importance of recognizing the unique qualities of the female experience, challenging the binary and androcentric structures that have historically dominated Western thought. Irigaray’s work has been a pivotal text in feminist philosophy, sparking debates about language, identity, and subjectivity. Her critique of the male gaze, objectification, and the symbolic relegation of women to the role of the ‘Other’ has had a profound impact on feminist theory, poststructuralism, and psychoanalysis.
Elena Pulcini was another important philosopher who focused on a philosophy of care for our global age, which leaves us with important reflections on the deconstruction of the modern subject, on vulnerability as a foundation for responsibility for others and for the living world, and on climate change (AFSEP, 2021). She thinks a lot about the reformulation of care and justice through which it could be possible to appreciate the complementarity of the ethics and the efficiency of this practice, therefore presenting solutions to all the wars, hungers, and ecological crises. She points out how care has always been neglected by philosophy, and instead was bound to an intimate dimension, identifying it with femininity and womanhood. This long-lasting identification of care with women has an ambivalent effect: on one hand, it recreates the motherly image that has confined women to the private sphere, of carers for others’ needs and expectations; on the other hand, however, it makes us reflect on the fact that because women have so far been subjects of care, they end up being left with a heritage to value
For so long, care has been considered a female quality that, since marginalised to the private and domestic sphere, has been devalued and associated to a women’s destiny. An example is Rousseau, being the philosopher who valued acting with care, but sanctioned the exercise of it in the domestic sphere, thus actually assigning it the reductive function (Rousseau, 2002). This shows us how much having identified women with care and having distinguished the dimensions of private and public actions, has brought our common thought to marginalize the private and instead privilege public themes. There is then a double morality: for men a moral of rights and justice, for women an ethic of cure and responsibility. In fact, instead of calling on abstract ethical imperatives or altruistic sentiments, Pulcini insists on the subjective perspective of each’s vulnerability and on the recognition of our interdependence (2013).
She believes that the future concerns contemporary people because it’s their actions and decisions that determine it. Still, there is a need to investigate what motivations can encourage them to assume responsibility.
Across the world, women, whether in Silesia, Xapuri, West Harlem, or Zambrana-Chaccuely, recognize that these environmental and economical issues are indeed connected to the broader survival, political and philosophical concerns (Rocheleau,1996). They raise questions about the relations of human beings to nature, other species, the land, and place. In other words, “a feminist political ecology recognizes the interconnectedness of all life and the importance of power relations, including gender relations in decision-making about the environment” (Sundberg, 2017, p. 1). It offers a new perspective on social change, benefiting both people and nature. The book Feminist Political Ecology: Global Issues and Local Experiences, published in 1996, takes a distinct approach by merging feminist thought with the field of political ecology. Barbara Thomas-Slayter, Esther Wangari and Dianne Rocheleau combine eleven case studies from around the world and examine the intersections of gender, environment and social justice within various contexts, with a focus on the Global South. This text challenges the traditional environmental paradigm, which often overlooks the experiences of marginalized communities, especially women, in a presumed ‘global’ ecological discourse.
One of the key contributions of this work is the exploration of how women, particularly in developing countries, play crucial roles in resource management and ecological sustainability. Bringing attention to the significance of comprehending indigenous and local knowledge, emphasizing the agency of women in shaping ecological practices and their contributions to addressing environmental challenges. This feminist political ecology also critiques the impacts of global capitalism and neoliberal policies on the environment, particularly as they affect marginalized communities and women. In a similar way Robin Wall Kimmerer, in her book Braiding Sweetgrass (2013), points at the need to drastically reimagine our relationship with the land with the aid of plants and stories. Through a combination of memoir, Indigenous American philosophy, history, and stories, she asks the reader to weave sweetgrass, usually a communal activity, with her. Through science, spirituality and story she weaves with the reader, in hopes of inspiring a different kind of relationship between people and the earth. This is described as ‘restorative reciprocity’ (p. 267), where we appreciate gifts by the earth and the responsibilities that come with them.
The concept of a ‘revolution of care’, which is the focus of most of these works, highlights the need and the notion of a fundamental shift in our societal values
and priorities. It calls for a shift from a patriarchal, exploitative, and profitdriven approach to one that instead emphasizes care for everything that is alive, for nurturing, and for sustainability. Not only caring for other humans and the future of the next generations, but also focusing on recognizing the intrinsic value of nature beyond its utility to humans, as this is composed of living things themselves. This perspective challenges the anthropocentric view and promotes the idea that the environment has a right of its own. “Building a caring world thus returns us to where our manifesto began” say the Care Collective (2017, Chapter 6), “from acting upon the understanding that as living creatures we exist alongside and in connection with all other human and non-human beings, and also remain dependent upon the systems and networks, animate and inanimate, that sustain life across the planet.” The Care Manifesto: the politics of interdependence, by the Care Collective, a London-based collective formed in 2017, highlights the importance of making ‘the caring-with revolution happen’ (2017). It demonstrates how care can and should be at the centre of our society. It’s a call to care at a global level for the human as well as non-human, being part of the same world, and acknowledging the interdependence of everything.
This more than human politics is discussed by Jane Bennett in Vibrant matter (2010), a manifesto showing how ‘vitality’ has been part of European thought for over 2000 years. She argues that politics needs to be more ecological, in a ‘vitalist’ sense, that steers away from the anthropocentric way of thinking, but instead de-privileges human beings. This interpretative spiritual ecologist perspective revisits the concept of ‘affect’ reminding us of animism. This vital materiality gives life to all things, substances, places, and people the same way. This is a crucial point to understand, as the current neo-liberal politicaleconomic systems are making life on earth unhabitable to humans and nonhumans alike.
Donna Haraway in her book Staying with the Trouble- Making Kin in the Chthulucene (2016), suggests the idea of staying beside the matter that involves us, staying within it, because it involves us subjectively as we are habitants of the earth with other species. Staying with the trouble is an invitation to think because, as she stated, what was missing in the XX century was the acknowledgment of what we were living through during the previous great societal changes. We now need to think, not only for ourselves and our greedy needs as humans, but think to create nets with all species, humans, and nonhumans. Staying with the Trouble is a book that opens minds and suggests different ways to inhabit the world, it argues and tries to perform that staying with the trouble is both more serious and more lively. “Staying with the trouble requires making oddkin” (p. 4) and that is why we require each other in unexpected collaborations and combinations. “Alone, in our separate kinds of
expertise and experience’’ she writes, ‘’we know both too much and too little, and so we succumb to despair or to hope, and neither is a sensible attitude” (Haraway, 2016, p. 4).
While all these works approach feminism and the concept of identity from different angles, they share common themes. They challenge dominant paradigms, within the realm of language, psychoanalysis and environmental studies, and highlight the necessity of recognizing the voices and experiences of women who have been marginalized or silenced. Moreover, these texts emphasize the importance of recognizing the diversity of women’s experiences, particularly in different cultural and environmental contexts. In summary, ecofeminism seeks to confront and alter the oppressive systems that promote the exploitation of women as well as the environmental deterioration. The ‘revolution of care’ is a central aspect of this movement, emphasizing the need to shift societal values and priorities towards a more caring and sustainable world that values the interconnectedness of all life. This literature review has established that there is a pressing need for change in the way we have been considering our environment as a vessel for our needs. Ecofeminism can become an important tool to address these challenges.
This second chapter is going to further delve into Luce Irigaray’s theory of the ‘Speculum’, applying it to the complex relationship between humankind and the environment. I will be exploring the relationship between people and places and bringing the previously explored theories into a concrete setting, by using the city of Venice as an example of how positive change may be contextually envisioned in the near future.
Speculum of the other place
Luce Irigaray criticises the lacking equality of man and woman throughout the history of philosophy and psychoanalysis, arguing that Western thought follows what she calls, ‘the logic of the same’ (p. 26). This logic holds that individual entities are assumed to be exchangeable for one another due to their sameness, and emphasises their speculated and mimetic character. The standard is represented by man, the one who self-represents by reflecting himself in the other (the woman), whom instead has the function to mirror (Irigaray, 1974). With Irigaray, feminist philosophy turns its focus more specifically towards the exploration of the sexual difference between women and men, namely something that had been rendered unthinkable in men’s thought. She defines women’s condition as one of alienation, and while she was not primarily interested in an engagement with nature in her earlier works, her theories and writing can be used to develop a different vision of nature.
While primarily applied to the field of gender studies, the idea of the Speculum which Irigaray develops can also be thoughtfully extended to the domains of ecology and place, offering valuable insights into our relationships with the environment and the spaces we inhabit. She links feminine representation to the idea of the specular mirror. The speculum’s curved surface creates a distorted image that flips the reflections of language associated with masculinity. In the words of Irigaray (1974), “the specular surface [will be] found not the void of nothingness but the dazzle of multifaceted speleology. A scintillating and incandescent concavity” (p. 143). This surface symbolises the intrinsic uniqueness of the female form. In order for women to define themselves as social beings capable of forming healthy connections with one another, they must first portray themselves to themselves (Mambrol, 2016) This idea of the ‘Speculum’, delves into the ways in which Western philosophy and culture have historically marginalized and objectified the female body, perpetuating a pattern of objectification that can easily be extended to the natural world. Irigaray argues that these objectifying tendencies are rooted in the male-centric capitalist
perspective that characterises our society, seeking to control and dominate the ‘Other’ (p. 134) whether that ‘Other’ is the female body or the natural world.
In applying Speculum Theory to ecology and place, we can explore how this framework can help us understand and rectify harmful patterns in our interactions with the environment and the places we occupy, represented among other things by extractivist and exploitative practices The field of ecology, as the study of the relationships between living organisms and their environments (Smith, Pimm, 2019), can greatly benefit from this different feminist perspective. As Western perspectives and the Judeo-Christian tradition often objectify nature as a passive and controllable resource, it has always been interpreted as a mirror of the man, as something that is at his disposal (Bourdeau, 2004). This objectification has led to environmental degradation and exploitation throughout history, as nature is viewed as an ‘Other’ to be conquered and tamed. By applying Irigaray’s theory we are prompted to recognize the importance of respecting the environment as a subject, not an object, and to acknowledge the unique characteristics and agency of ecosystems and individual species within it. Furthermore, it makes us realize how the environment is a place of its own, that exists for itself and not for someone else. By recognizing the environment as a subject, interconnected with human society and other species, we are more likely to approach environmental problems as shared issues that require collective solutions. Issues such as climate change and ecological disruption can then been looked at in a different light. This shift in perspective encourages us to consider the ethical implications of our actions and to foster a sense of responsibility towards the environment, respecting its interdependence with other species that inhabit the ecosystem.
As Pulcini said, ‘’it is imagination, in fact, that allows us not only, kantianly, to emancipate ourselves from givenness of the present and to broaden our mentality, but also to give space, through the representation of the possible, to the transformation of the existing” (2020, p. 149). And this is why coming together and imagining better futures and ways to make that happen is the key step needed going forward. The idea of home, of our territory, is as old as human attachments to portions of the earth. These attachments to places may be nothing less than profound, and when these attachments are under danger, we may feel endangered as well. We are as much a part of places as they are of us. In this unsettled age, under the influence of anthropogenic climate change, hazardous temperature shifts and unpredictable weather events are increasing in frequency and severity, with wide-ranging impacts across ecosystems and landscapes. In these fragile times, this is when we most think about what people make of places (Basso, 1996).
Luce Irigaray’s ‘Speculum’ theory, which challenges the objectifying tendencies of Western thought and emphasizes the importance of recognizing the subjectivity of the ‘Other’ in spite of diversity, has the potential to transform our approach to ecology and place. By adopting this perspective, we can better understand the complex, interdependent relationships between living beings and the environment, encouraging a more respectful and harmonious coexistence. Similarly, in the context of place, this perspective fosters a sense of reverence and responsibility, acknowledging the subjectivity of the places we occupy. By looking at ecology and place through different eyes, we can create a more just and sustainable coexistence between humans and the natural world and cultivate a deeper appreciation for the unique qualities of the places we call home.
A crucial point I learned during this research process, is the idea of an ecological interdependence between the land, all living things, people, language, and culture, a notion that rests at the core of many indigenous cultures. This is an ethical, reciprocal, and cultural relationship with place that speaks to a sense of place-based identity and stewardship of the land for future generations, while also recognising the essential role that humans play on the ecology of a place. More so, this is also represented by the idea that ‘people belong to places, rather than places belonging to people’ (McFadyen,2023). Through acts of care and connection we can restore a more caring relationship with place and our environment. This is not about a glorifying and yearning for a romanticised past, rather it’s about searching for methods to fight the forces of global capitalism and seeking new ways of living with the trouble.
We must do this with care.
The case of Venice
This next part looks at the Metropolitan City of Venice, located in the Venice Gulf. Known as a city for its unique environment, history, and societal structures, it offers a captivating backdrop to explore the intricate relationship between humans and the environment. Salvatore Settis says that Venice is a “thinking machine”, a universal toolbox of concepts through which we can “ponder the very idea of the city” (2016). He continues:
“To look at Venice and think only of Venice would be to miss the point entirely: the processes currently underway in that city […] can be found everywhere else on the planet. […] Thus, whatever happens in Venice requires special scrutiny as both an indicator and a laboratory of what fate has in store for the cities of the future” (Settis, 2016, p. 170).
One of the biggest issues that locals are against is the daily entrance of massive cruise ships into the lagoon area, bringing a large influx of tourists that have gradually turned ‘La Serenissima’1 into a sizable theme park and have changed the city’s architectural style and urban landscape (Comitato No grandi navi, 2012). Some other important threats, particularly for dynamic and vulnerable coastal areas including the Venetian lagoon, include storm surges, rising sea levels, and powerful waves which result in land loss, inundation, erosion of the shoreline, and alterations to the biodiversity and ecosystems (Andriani, 2020).
Venice’s geomorphology has had a particular historical relevance, the environment having been transformed by humans and natural elements over thousands of years. The very existence of this city mixes together water and land, fundamentally interwoven with human life, and the same water that defended and created Venice, is now threatening the city. This is a perfect example to explain how our actions are having an evident effect on the land, constantly proven by the extreme weather conditions and floods in this area. Geologically, biologically, and culturally this area has been constantly reshaped since the Middle Ages, by controlling sedimentations, the agricultural uses of water, the heavy boat traffic within the urban aesthetic among other events. Built on petrified wooden pillars, and spread across more than 100 islands, the destiny of this magnificent city has taken a turn in the last 30 years, not because of the water but because of man himself. For instance, some of the phenomena which have radically changed this ecosystem’s functioning include the fact that industries have started to subtract water from the Lagoon, that nitrogen and chlorine waste produced by nearby factories has caused the foundational pillars to corrode, and that the floods caused by incremental climate change have been putting the city’s future at risk (Merchant, 2022).
More specifically, in recent years, the effects of climate change have become evident in a variety of ways, including hydrogeological threats, the warming of urban areas, problems of coastal and lagoon defence, and the deterioration of historical buildings (Menga, 2023). Various anthropic attempts have been made to preserve the historic centre and maintain the lagoon’s ecotone in a stable balance countering its natural evolution. The most common symptom of the Lagoon ecosystem’s fragility are the periodic events of ‘acqua alta’ (high water) that damage the city due to its geographical position and its physical characteristics. Despite the recent droughts over the last few summers in neighbouring areas, including the river Po, Venice and many coastal areas and islands around the world are expected to return underwater in the space of a few decades. As a solution to these floodings, the search for devices and protective measures to mitigate the most negative effects becomes more urgent.
The MOSE(Modulo Sperimentale Elettromeccanico – Experimental Electromechanical Module) project was selected after a long decision-making process, with the objective of providing a complete defence of the land from these floods, but without intruding with the landscape (Corila, 2021). It consists of 78 mobile gates that form 4 barriers that can temporarily separate the lagoon from the sea to protect Venice from the high tides. This however does have its limits, some of which are unknown for now and will be tested as more extreme conditions arise. The interventions to safeguard the Venetian Lagoon are based on scientific knowledge, where decisions were made without taking into consideration the knowledge or opinion of the locals and inhabitants of this area (MOSE, 2015). This is what is happening everywhere (Rocheleau, 2013), following the belief that humanity’s intelligence and power, based on scientific and engineering knowledge named “technocratic geoengineering” by Donna Haraway (2015), can solve any problems of future crisis. But local knowledge and the specificities of native fauna and flora from the Venetian ecosystem, as many others around the world, are absent from these decisions and have not been considered. The MOSE project, in fact, “was constructed on a perception of nature as recalcitrant and in need of control.” (p. 114). Local knowledge was neglected, and the environmental impact has been overlooked, as “fishers have begun to describe the Lagoon as a ‘sick’ and rapidly changing organism”, while many others “[…] blame the MOSE, a man-made product, as the main culprit in the progressive death of the Lagoon” (Vianello,2021, p.1, p. 114). The bright yellow mobile gates of the MOSE now sit in the lagoon as a reminder of mankind’s continuous disruption to the environment.
What would a future where nature and locals are put at the centre of decisionmaking look like? Starting from a restoration and preservation of the ecosystem of this Lagoon, this could become possible through the flourishing of fauna and flora fostered by natural filtration systems provided from vegetation and floating gardens. Eco-friendly alternatives to motorized boats, such as electric and solar-powered boats, could silently glide through the canals, allowing for current transportation needs while releasing zero emissions. The cruise industry and unsustainable tourism could be solved through subsidies to visit one’s own local environment, while creating a culture of localisation and appreciation of environmental limits (Local Futures, 2023). In terms of the local economy, fishermen practice could develop more sustainable fishing methods, while providing a native seafood supply for the local population. The buildings could undergo important transformations, incorporating sustainable design principles and a green architecture philosophy, while the city employs renewable energy from the sea or sunlight to power itself. It is all very accessible and possible to the imagination, and some of these solutions have been experimented in various places, yet this still has to become reality in the Venetian Lagoon.
Chapter 3
The ‘Other’ future
In our ever-changing world, numerous organizations, artists, and collectives have emerged with a collective purpose of creating a better future for humanity. Through their artistic pursuits and committed efforts, these individuals and groups strive to tackle pressing global issues, promote social justice, and bring positive change to our society. This chapter focuses on three remarkable examples, rooted in the cultural soil of Venice: namely, the artist Michelangelo Pistoletto, the Venice Biennale annual exhibition, and the Art 2030 initiative. These extraordinary organizations highlight the power of art, collaboration, and innovation in shaping a brighter and more inclusive world.
Throughout this dissertation I have tried to trace a concept which we have lost touch with throughout the last decades: that of a revolutionary sentiment of care that ties people together and sees them work in unison for change. Through all the women whose works I have explored in the last two chapters, the need for change and revolution is visible and contagious, as they all wanted to live a politically useful life, a life that would make a difference for the future of other people. The need to rebel and resist against capitalist exploitation, question existing rules and social norms is still of the most importance today. To see change and be more consciously aware we need to start thinking more collectively, “we need a notion of leadership that is collective, a structure which challenges the conventional masculinist, individualistic, charismatic notion of leadership that we’ve known this far”, as Angela Davis said in one of her speeches (2017). We need to start thinking about the greater good of people as humankind, not as single individuals (Rizzato, 2023). Art has the power to inspire change and stir thought: it changes people, and people change the world. Everything we do makes a difference, and through collective action this is a time of promise. Art can be a catalyst for change. We need to return to the more fundamental role of art, where both science and art can serve as tools for understanding the world and proposing solutions.
Michelangelo Pistoletto is a widely recognised Italian contemporary artists and a leading proponent of the Arte Povera movement2. His work developed throughout the years, from figurative painting and self-portraits to a more sculptural body of work which included mirrors, discarded materials, and performance. Since the 1960s, he created conceptual sculptural installations, one of the most known being the series of Mirror Paintings, which consisted
2 The Arte Povera movement was a radical Italian artistic movement emerged from the 1960s to the 1970s with strong conceptual and philosophical foundation that took its name from the use of humble, everyday materials to create the artworks.
of polished stainless-steel surfaces that featured more figurative, graphic, and sculptural images. These collections of work combined Pistoletto’s dual interest in figurative and conceptualist depiction, and include the viewers and the surroundings. The use of mirrors for Pistoletto represent an unblemished view of the world by reflecting people, society, and the artist’s search for his own identity. Developing from these Mirror Paintings in 2008 at the Yokohama Triennale and in 2009 at the Venice Biennale he inaugurated a new series of work based on the breaking of the mirror. Respectively, Seventeen Less One (2008) and Twenty-two less two (2009) were performances, where Pistoletto broke the large mirrors placed along the walls of the gallery room with a large hammer. Shattering the mirrors is symbolic of breaking the universe’s image into numerous pieces, each of which can symbolise a unique person and, when put back together, reconstitute society. He sees the breaking of the mirror as a metaphor for the interconnectedness of the world (Jones, 2014). This could be related back to how Irigaray shatters the idea of women being the mirror of men through her ‘Speculum’ theory, by simply curving the reflective surface.
Alongside his practice, in 1998 Pistoletto founded Cittadellarte, an interdisciplinary laboratory with the aim of using art to foster social change in Biella, his native town. This is a real place that gives a concrete setting to the artist’s ideas, his visions and that creates a community, a ‘house of art’ which can become a meeting point for artists, activists, scientists to come together and create a form of art that will serve as a transformational social tool. “It’s a factory of culture as a social fabric” (Cittadellarte, 2007), that can create that multifaced tapestry Kheel wrote about (1993). It’s an actual school/laboratory space dedicated solely to the study, experimentation and development of practices that translate into reality the symbol of the Third Paradise. Conceived in 2003 by Pistoletto, the Third Paradise is the vision of a future world in which society will coexist in harmony with nature. Drawing inspiration from his artwork, the symbol of this concept is a reconfiguration of the mathematical infinity sign, composed from three circles in a row, representing the coexistence of individual beliefs and communal wellbeing (Terzo Paradiso, 2007). Pistoletto’s vision strives to break free from the limitations of individualistic thinking and instead urges unity and collaboration, therefore reproposing the aspirations of ecofeminist thought. This movement also aims to engage people from all walks of life, encouraging them to embrace collective responsibility for the preservation of our planet and the development of sustainable societies.
One cannot overlook the role played by organizations such as the Venice Biennale in shaping a better world through art. Known as the most prestigious international cultural art exhibition, it alternates each year, since 1985, between
architecture and contemporary visual art. It brings together a diverse range of artists, curators, scientists, and thinkers to collaborate on projects that address critical contemporary issues around a specific theme. By utilizing art as a medium for dialogue and change, the exhibition fosters interdisciplinary collaboration and encourages artists to use their creativity to propose bold solutions to global challenges. One notable exhibition was the 18th International Architecture exhibition The Laboratory of the Future (2023) curated by Lesley Lokko, Ghanaian- Scottish architect, who sought to address issues of climate change and the environment as an experimental workshop. Through a combination of interactive installations, thought-provoking artworks, and engaging workshops, the theme aimed to raise awareness and inspire action. By utilizing art as a medium for communication, the laboratory enabled artists and visitors alike to confront the urgency of global crises, such as decolonization, social effects of climate change and using creativity to imagine a better future. Its centre focused on the question: “What does it mean to be an agent of change?”, encouraging artists and visitors to take responsibility in shaping a sustainable future (Biennale Architettura, 2023).
Out of nine collateral events organised alongside 89 participants and 63 national pavilions, one that struck me especially was the Scotland+ Venice partnership and their project, A fragile Correspondence (2023). This project focused on the relationship between people, language, landscapes, and it explores alternative solutions to the climate emergency. Curated by the Architecture Fringe, -ism magazine, and /other, the exhibition takes the visitor on a journey across Scottish landscapes, from the Highlands, Lowlands to the Islands, understanding the environment surrounding us and exploring ways of working in correspondence with the land (Scotland + Venice, 2023). This exhibition is innovative because it recognises the important role that architects have when it comes to reimagining places. For example, if we were to reimagine Venice in a possible future where humans and nature live in harmony, one of the key changes that could be envisioned would be the transformation of buildings by incorporating green architecture and sustainable design principles. Solar panels and wind turbines could be integrated into the city’s infrastructure, providing renewable energy to power homes and businesses, as has occurred in communities across the world (Henley, 2022). Communities across Europe have been creating new economies, utilising local energy, and focusing on circular lifestyles.3 Sustainability has become a high priority in many architectural projects as this exhibition shows us, promoting community, innovative solutions, and conscious choices. However, to reach this imagined better future, the consultation process cannot simply stay in exhibitions, architecture
3 The Bera Bera neighbourhood of San Sebastìan in Spain, The Steven Volkers of Grunneger Power in Groningen, Netherlands and the green energy community project (GECO) in Bologna, Italy are just a few examples of local energy communities (see Henley, 2022).
conventions, philosophy or politics: it must be transferred and practiced in our relation to others (Wheeler, 2005). Through dialogue with people in our day to day life, we start realising how even small changes do matter.
Another remarkable initiative committed to using the power of art to create positive change on a global scale is Art 2030. Founded by Danish artist and philanthropist, Louise Fitzhugh, Art 2030 aims to unite the world’s leading contemporary artists, influential organizations, advocacy groups and all levels of society to promote the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals. Through various collaborations, exhibitions, and events, Art 2030 harnesses the unique ability of art to deeply engage individuals and ignite meaningful conversations centred around global challenges such as poverty, inequality, climate change, and gender equality. Art 2030 demonstrates the potential of collective action by engaging both artists and the wider public, aiming to foster a sense of shared responsibility and inspire concrete actions towards achieving the UN goals by the year 2030. Through partnerships with organizations, governments, and local communities, Art 2030 has successfully transformed art into a powerful tool for social mobilization and advocacy, creating lasting impact both locally and globally. The Hope Forum, launched at the 59th Venice Biennale by Art 2030, explores how a brighter future is possible through behavioural change inspired by art. By inviting museums and organizations all over the world to share statements of hope for the future and express the urgency for action on digital platforms, in our modern world where capitalized society are all connected through social media, this is able to reach a lot of people (Art2030, 2023).
Ultimately, organizations, artists, and collectives play a vital role in shaping the world and inspiring change by utilizing their creativity, collaboration, and influence to address pressing global issues. The Third Paradise movement spearheaded by Michelangelo Pistoletto, the Laboratory of the future Venice Biennale, and the Art 2030 initiative exemplify the transformative power of art in shaping a brighter and more sustainable future aligned with the principles of ecofeminism. Through their concerted efforts, they inspire individuals and communities to take responsibility and actively participate in creating a world that is inclusive, just, and environmentally sustainable. The power of care, art and collaboration reveals itself as a driving force in the quest for a better world.
Conclusion
I now would like to pose the question I asked at the start: Why do we not make more sensible choices and have our environment in mind when we go about our day to day life? Simple behavioural changes can start a chain reaction and lead our hopeful, imagined future to become reality. By creating economies founded more on non-competitive values, community organisation, regenerative ecological processes, active creativity, solidarity, and social cooperation, we can have a bright future. The issues our world faces today, first and foremost climate change, environmental degradation, and social inequality, necessitate a revolution of care and collective action. It is imperative that we recognize the profound impact of our everyday choices and behaviours on the future of our planet.
The feminist and ecofeminist works reviewed in this dissertation provide valuable insight into the interconnectedness of gender, care, and the environment. By understanding the origin of these problems, rooted in patriarchal and capitalist societies, we can recognise what needs to change. By approaching these issues from a feminist political ecology perspective, which challenges patriarchal systems of power, advocates for a more inclusive and ethical approach to environmental issues and emphasize the need for collective responsibility, we can constrain the capitalist consumerist mindset and transform it into a more caring one. Applying Luce Irigaray’s concept of the ‘Speculum’ to our relationships with the environment and places, we can cultivate a deeper appreciation for the subjectivity of nature and spaces. This perspective encourages us to move away from objectification and domination of nature and our environment, fostering a more respectful and sustainable coexistence with the natural world. In the context of place, it invites us to connect with and listen to the stories and experiences of the places we inhabit, promoting a sense of reverence and responsibility. Connecting to a more indigenous mindset, listening to others and taking into consideration local knowledge in decision making can be ways to achieve this goal.
The case of Venice serves as a poignant example of the environmental challenges faced by coastal cities and the impacts of climate change, serving as a visual example of what’s going to happen if we don’t start caring about the climate crisis. The city’s vulnerabilities, such as frequent flooding and the intrusion of massive cruise ships, highlight the urgent need for sustainable solutions and collective action. This is why initiatives like Michelangelo Pistoletto’s Third Paradise movement, the Venice Biennale, and Art 2030 demonstrate the power of art in inspiring change, fostering dialogue, and mobilizing individuals and communities towards a more sustainable future. Through art, community, dialogue we can start building a more caring world.
Ultimately, this dissertation calls for a reconsideration of our values and priorities, urging us to prioritize care, interdependence, and collective action. Hope, as an essential element in our ability to imagine and work towards a better future, should be nurtured through tangible actions and advocacy. By weaving together our stories, experiences, and knowledge, we have the power to create a world where society and nature can flourish in harmony. It is my hope that this dissertation inspires readers to be part of this transformative journey and actively contribute to the revolution of care that our world urgently needs. Together, we can build a brighter future for all.
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