Today we are going to introduce you to Michela Bortolozzi, an exceptional designer that combines artisanal love with supporting her beloved city: Venice.
An “awareness artist”, Michela uses her art to raise awareness on social or environmental issues. Relight Venice is a project she started during lockdown, when she would look out of her window and see very few lights on, due to all the places bought just for rental purposes that were left completely empty all throughout the pandemic. An extremely lonely experience, especially for someone like Michela, who had to move back to Venice from Morocco because of Covid, where she was working on some truly inspiring projects that linked art with supporting local communities. Seeing her town so deserted and empty, destroyed by tourism but at the same time completely reliant on it, made her think and pushed her to act. Eat and Run is the name of her laboratory in Cannareggio, as a reminder of how mass tourism is destroying Venice. Venice used to be filled with artisans, small local businesses and a fervent community of over 150.000 inhabitants. Now there are only 50,000 residents who are struggling to survive due to high costs of living, poor infrastructure and more and more local businesses sold to the best buyer, that sell cheap merchandise for mass tourism.
Where has the real soul of Venice gone? Is it too late to give back some of the lost light of Venice?
Not for Michela, who has put her incredible talent at work in sculpting candles that resemble the iconic Venetian architecture. She also makes architectural lollipops. When you consume them, all that remains is the stick, a reference to over-consumption and over-tourism. Michela is determined to help transforming Venice from a city that people just want to visit to a place where people want to live.
The idea is to collaborate with other artisans, from gondola craftsmen, glass blowers and mask makers, and create top quality artisanal objects made by Venetians, that can be bought by tourists not just because they are unique and beautiful, but also as a sign of care and support for the city. A conscious choice to give back to Venice through the way we treat it, how we experience it and what we buy. Since by buying a €1 imported gadget of Rialto bridge you are not contributing to the local community, you are destroying it.
Collaboration with Venice’s Female Prison
The project has had an enormous success and the request for her candles has risen so much that she can’t handle it by herself any longer. And in true Michela’s style she doesn’t go for the expected route but she chooses to contact the women’s prison in Giudecca and collaborate with them to help her make more candles. She is now training inmates, helping them to develop new skills and feel part of a project that is good for Venice, its people and the environment.
Unexpected Italy is here to help and support Michela to raise awareness and bring solutions, as only together we can not only relight Venice, but unite the many Italian artisans that will craft the future of the made in Italy!
If you are in Venice, go and meet Michela at her laboratory in Cannareggio at Campo dei Mori, a lovely square off the beaten path, where she will welcome you as a guest and will make you feel like a local. You can also check out her website here.
