day 70
In the morning completed the presentation for this afternoon based on the presentation I had made for Nova Gorica two weeks ago. Around 11:30 we walk together to the bus that will take us via Mestre over the long dam to Venice Island. From there we will take the water bus to the Arsenal, the public transport via the Grand Canal to the Biennale. Along the way, we take a good look at what would be the most beautiful image to film on a boat tomorrow with the tree bike. We arrive nicely on time at the “speakers corner” that is located at the end of the beautiful and impressive Biennale exhibition site. We get the technology in order and there is Christopher already, the moderator for this afternoon. Christopher Hawthorne is an architectural journalist and critic living and working out of Los Angeles and Yale University. The presentation will also be recorded for the Biennale’s website. But during the presentation, the technology for playing the videos falters a bit. And I must honestly say that I have given better presentations. However, I was pleased with Christopher’s enthusiasm about our project. In particular, the simplicity of the concept really appealed to him. And the questions he asked were interesting for our story, such as: How did the circular movement make you experience the landscape? What do the boundaries do to you? And what is the relationship between nature and cultural landscape? I told him that for me the biggest question right now is the tension between what I see and what I know. I see a beautiful landscape with lots of nature and I know that biodiversity and climate are going badly. How do we bring this together? Not easy. Christopher suggests Los Angeles to tell Bosk’s story, they have the Olympics there in 2028 and it would be nice if the ambition there is jacked up a bit. After the presentation, we say goodbye and agree to stay in touch. With our team we have a cup of coffee and walk through the beautiful and layered exhibition for another good hour. We take the boat back to the station and get off somewhere halfway and walk in twenty minutes. Well, and then if you haven’t had lunch, it’s around five o’clock and you walk past all these nice restaurants the temptation is very strong to at least look at the menus. It turns out to be the right choice because it is still more than an hour and a half to get home to Mestre. On the way on the boat I call Sjoerd Bootsma of Arcadia who arrived in Venice this afternoon with his wife. We will see each other tomorrow. Very nice that he has come. After dinner we walk along the beautiful canals and small streets to take the bus to Mestre at the bus station. We walk the last twenty minutes and around ten o’clock we are back at our base. What a beautiful day in Venice.
Mon July 14 - day 71
Mestre - Venice - 30 km
The morning flies by with arrangements and answering emails. Even though we are beside our bed at seven, before you know it, it is one o’clock. After lunch, the four of us get on our bikes for the first time to cycle to the boat that will take the Boat Bike through Venice. With the help of Marco from Nova Gorica, who has contacts here in Venice, we found Scalo Fluviale willing to do it, and for a decent price too. The fifteen-kilometer bike ride to the boat has some tough bumps. We pass a low traffic sign above the bike path, for which there is no alternative, by tilting the tree bike and at the same time lifting the front fork of the bike so far that the tree is almost horizontal. And so the four of us manage to slowly slide the tree under the board. The second challenge is the wooden platform at the end of the long dam that hangs next to the road as a bicycle bridge and rattles and creaks considerably when I ride over it with the tree bike. I ride as fast as I can so the planks don’t have a chance to break, but it doesn’t feel good and I’m glad when I’m over. At the boat, Sjoerd and Nine are already waiting. How wonderful to see them here in Venice, and nice that they are joining us on our rather unique boat tour of Venice. After some searching for the best way to lift the tree, the tree bike is lifted onto the boat with a crane, which is a new experience for the tree bike and for us. We have two hours of sailing time and with skipper Simone we agree to sail under the island to enter the Grand Canal from St. Mark’s Square. What great action this is. We cruise the tree bike in Venice. In advance we have thought carefully about what images we would like to have but in the frenzy of sailing it is quite difficult to stick precisely to them. Again, we have to move along and seize the opportunities that arise. And fortunately, the skippers are super interested and helpful. Richard and Sanne fly from the front to the back of the deck to find the best perspectives so that our tree comes into focus as much as possible against the backdrop of historic Venice. The light is beautifully warm this late afternoon and the skipper deftly maneuvers between the water buses. At the bridges, Sanne and Richard get out to film from the shore and the bridge. We even manage to pass straight under the famous Rialto Bridge, which, of course, makes for beautiful images. And so we sailed down the entire Grand Canal. Just before the end there is another low bridge allowing us to redo our simple but super functional new trick of lifting the front fork. We are satisfied and hope the footage shot will be nice to use for the Circle4Change film. The tree bike is hoisted off the boat again and together with the skippers we raise a glass to the happy ending very happily. Both skippers walk home happy with a birthday tree in their hands. We say goodbye to Sjoerd and Nine, whom we will see again tomorrow afternoon at Palazzo Michiel, and we grab the bikes to go back across the long dam to our accommodation in Mestre with nightfall. This is another beautiful experience. Fortunately, despite the creaking, the bike raft proves strong enough and in the middle of the bridge we stop for a moment to realize how special it is what we did this afternoon and how well we worked together to get this done. Totally awesome. It is not in our nature but we should be a little proud, and we are. The route to Mestre is faster than the way out, there is less traffic and we know the road. It is around ten o’clock when we pass a Chinese restaurant that is still open. Good idea. We look at some first pictures before the food is served and are quite satisfied. Whether the tree bike liked it today we will never know… but at least we do!
di July 15 - day 72
The focus for today is selecting the images from our boat ride yesterday and the public presentation this afternoon at Palazzo Michiel of the European Cultural Center in Venice. The beautiful images of the tree bike on the boat we made yesterday are already posted by Sanne on Polarsteps and Instagram, and Richard forwards a first selection to Floris. Preparing the lecture properly requires attention every time. What do I want to convey, what is a priority, what should I not forget? Daan is occupied for much of the morning with getting the tree moisture sensor to function properly. Via a video call, step by step all the settings are checked and reset. Three hours later it (finally) seems to be working properly, great! We have lunch together with GianLuca, our landlord who is celebrating his birthday today and is coming with his daughter this afternoon after our presentation. After lunch we head towards Palazzo Michiel. A beautiful old building in the heart of Venice. We meet Suzanne, my contact at ECC, at the entrance. The presentation goes well, it is a beautiful big screen and the technology is fine. We show the Bosk documentary before the Circle4Change story, which is always a nice introduction. The number of visitors is a bit disappointing despite the PR from ECC, but I am very happy that Sjoerd Bootsma from Arcadia in Leeuwarden and Sasa Dobricic from Nova Gorica are there. Sjoerd tells after the Bosk film that Bosk has meant a lot to Leeuwarden and that it has given a huge boost to the greening of the city, and Sasa explains what the Uniscape organization, of which she is the director, aims to do with the Landscape Festival to which Circle4Change also contributed with a presentation and workshops, three weeks ago in Nova Gorica. They are two great additions to my presentation. In closing, I give GianLuca, the birthday boy in our midst, a birthday tree. We chat some more with, among others, the organization of historic gardens in Venice and with a cycling organization Pavé that promotes cycling through cycling events. Then we walk into Venice together led by Sasa for a drink, she knows Venice well because she lived here for twenty years. Among other things, we talk about the possible opportunities for a future collaboration between Uniscape, Arcadia and Circle4Change, as it is clear that there are nice areas of overlap. Over dinner on a beautifully situated terrace on the Grand Canal, it turns out that the waiter saw our tree on the boat yesterday. Great right? With Sjoerd we talk some more about the collaboration between Arcadia and Circle4Change, and we go over some scenarios in outline. The determining factor is what my role will be. I am good at putting down the “impossible imagination,” like Bosk and also this Tour with the tree bike, and not at setting up and running an organization. But it is an important question which organizational form is most appropriate for the follow-up phase and how do we get the funding done? We have no answers but it is very good to exchange thoughts on this, to zoom out. On a crowded and hot bus boat we sail like sardines in a can to Piazza Roma where we take the streetcar to Mestre. We wave goodbye to Venice, it has been three beautiful days, tomorrow cycling on toward Mantua.