Like all things, this last edition of Venice Architecture Biennale came to an end. But this time, something special happened: we had the privilege of working on an ambitious project for the Italian Pavilion following the theme of “Resilient Communities and Regeneration of Urban Suburbs”.

With few words and a lot of Italy, we  have  chosen  to  tell  the  story  of  our  cities,  provinces,  and  regions  through  sixteen  videos  capable of accompanying the viewer from afar, bringing him slowly closer, showing through the footage  first  the  countryside,  lakes,  and  lakes  hills  surrounding  the  cities, their  suburbs,  to  arrive at the centre of the theme, the projects under construction  or  not  yet  realised.  A  global concept is presenting the whole of Italy as a unifying  element  and  allowing  the  viewer  to move  from  watching  one  video  to  another,  at any  time  and  in  any  order,  but  without  losing the general concept of all the films: resilience.

Therefore,  the  story  of  each  short  film  was thought of as being divided into three sequences:  a  first  part  of  the  introduction,  a  central  expositive  sequence,  and  a  final  sequence  showing  the  project  proposals.  The  first  two,  the  introduction  and  the  exhibition,  were  built from resources filmed on-site, with drones and ground cameras. At the same time, the final sequence was produced based on the project of each municipality through images partly filmed and  partly  computer-generated,  using  3D  animations. All of this was accompanied by timely guide  titles,  with  little  motion  graphics  and  a  few  infographics. And this is where the second part of our production process began, namely the phase of comparison and constant communication with the respective administrations, to draw up together with them and their various professionals, mainly  architects,  a  clear  and  real  concept, with  which  each  of  them  told  us  about  their approach  and  their  current  projects.

Sixteen concepts that we turned into as many storyboards to start drafting the  “script”  of  the  films,  planning  the  areas, the  themes,  the  shootings.  And  here  we  were lucky enough to work on a subject as beautiful, rich and strong as Italy itself, which made the filming a true testament to beauty, history, productivity,  Italian  genius  and  resilience.  Powerful contents, which, thanks also to the passion, vision,  study  and  planning  that  all  the  various  administrations  and  their  collaborators  have  shown us, have enabled us to create a true experience.

The  videos were inserted into a path created by architects  Paolo  Di  Nardo  and  Simone  Chietti,  like a  real  tour  of  Italy,  with  the  screens  arranged according to themes (water, green, earth) side by  side  in  a  unique  and  evocative  atmosphere, moving from one video to another, from one municipality to a province, from one project to the next. An immersive journey, thanks also to interactive projections. A journey into the operational  resilience  that  sixteen  administrations are representing the whole of Italy is pursuing. And seeing those images, the first reaction will be that of the desire to discover, to go to those municipalities, some less known, others better known, and to find oneself immersed in those  splendid realities that surround us, discovering a better future, which is a possible future and indeed already underway. Because resilience is a journey that we have already begun.