A Sculptor’s Tribute to Venice, Its People, and Its Future
Dalya Luttwak fell in love with Venice and its people on her first visit to the city in the 1980s. Yet like many Venetians, she has watched with dismay as frequent acqua alta (periodic flooding) episodes and rising seas inundate the city and threaten its future.
Dalya Luttwak, Global Warning: First Tropical Mangrove in Venice (2018). Painted aluminum. Dimensions: 3 m x 2 m. ©2018, Dalya Luttwak. Courtesy of the artist.
When she was invited to create a sculpture for the Venice Biennale, she asked, “How can I honor Venice?” Global Warning: First Tropical Mangrove in Venice is her profound, inspiring sculptural answer.
Mangroves do not grow in Venice, but they are potent symbols for their role in protecting coasts in warmer climes. Hardy and ingenious, mangroves thrive where salt, temperature, and water levels vary with the tide. Their roots, like stilts, prop their breathing pores above muddy water. The roots work in concert, forming massive structures that disperse waves and trap sediment, protecting coastlines from hurricanes, tsunamis, and erosion. And they host a wide diversity of marine organisms – oysters, shrimp, and crabs – that support the coastal food chain.
“Mangroves are resilient because they adapt to highly challenging environments,” observes Fran Dubrowski, Director of Honoring the Future. Global Warning: First Tropical Mangrove in Venice is a metaphor for the challenge facing Venetians and their 500,000+ Biennale visitors. “Can we, like the mangroves, meet the test of our time – climate change – and respond as creatively and cooperatively? Dalya Luttwak’s fire-engine red sculpture sounds a warning, but its soaring 10-foot height, set against Venice’s landmarks, expresses optimism that we are up to the task,” Dubrowski adds.
