O Christmas Screen, O Christmas Screen…

Seen from afar, it’s the Little Christmas Tree that Could.  The bright glow in the glum is admittedly rather pleasant.

You might wonder how a Christmas tree could possibly make people mad (though considering the year almost past, you might not).  Whatever your Yuletide habits, a lot of Venetians would have welcomed a honking big Norway spruce to its traditional place in the Piazzetta, some looming aromatic conifer loaded with scintillating lights, sumptuous ribbons, glittering glass baubles, etc.  It would have been greeted with open arms, many smartphones, and shining faces.

But because we haven’t had enough computer screens in our lives this year, now we have the Christmas Screen.

It’s art, naturally, art that, from afar, sort of resembles a tree, though this structure isn’t even alive.  But it does have the consolation of being, as I mentioned, art, groaning beneath loads of symbolism and verbiage.

Installed in the usual position last Thursday, this structure is the creation of artist Fabrizio Plessi, sponsored by the Assicurazioni Generali.  No way of my knowing who had the final, or even the first, word in the discussions that led to this creation.  It can’t be to attract tourists, because at this point in the evolution of the pandemic it would be easier to attract a Great Auk than a tourist.

It’s tree-ness, on closer examination, is looking a bit eccentric. Also, it’s moving.  Literally.

The public has not been amused by a novelty that appears to be more like a refugee from the Biennale than a festive fixture.

The artist explains: “It’s a message of hope.”

The public responds: “A heap of scrap metal.”  “Hanging ingots.”

Anything wrong with this picture? In addition to everything else that’s wrong about this tree, Lino notes that it’s between the two infamous columns of “Marco” and “Todaro,” historically the place for public executions. I realize it’s not precisely between the columns, but to him that’s where it is.  Not good.

“This year we need a message of light,” Sig. Plessi told La Nuova Venezia. “The 80 modules represent the flow of that many different cultures.”  Furthermore, it would seem that the installation symbolically unites earth, water and sky.

“I understand whoever would have preferred a traditional tree,” Plessi continues, “but this is a message of hope.  The use of digital in this context becomes spiritual emotion and expresses itself in the only possible language today, permitting us to reach others even if they are physically distant.”

Not sure about you, but while this is the sort of hot air that keeps the Biennale aloft for months on end, it doesn’t do anything for the spirit of Christmas.  My own view is that the more you explain something, the less that something actually communicates.  If you have to tell people what to think or feel about your creation, you’ve acknowledged that the creation is mute.

If there’s one city that isn’t suffering for lack of works of art, it would be Venice.  But there’s always room for one more.

There is more.  “This tree is well planted in tradition, but it is also a tree that wants to talk to the world,” says Simone Venturini, the city councilor for Tourism.  “Personally I find it marvelous because it shows that Venice knows how to be, together, the city of great history and of the future.  It shows that you can make contemporary art without waiting for the Biennale.”  Of course you can, as long as you have a sponsor.  I don’t want to put a pricetag on Christmas, but this installation, along with 50 kilometers of strings of lights in the Piazza San Marco and on the mainland, not to mention the lights shining on the Rialto bridge, cost a total of some 800,000 euros.  So he could also have said that you don’t need to wait for the Biennale in order to spend money.  I knew that.

Many years ago a homeless man at the entrance to the subway in New York stopped me with this request: “Hey lady, could you spare some change for an old wino?” How could I say no?  His candor was irresistible.

If Mr. Plessi had said, “I like to make art using digital stuff.  I don’t know why, I just like it.  Maybe because it’s shiny.  So here’s sort of a tree made of digital stuff.  Kind of made me think of Christmas.  Hope yours is happy, in spite of everything,” I’d have started a Fabrizio Plessi fan club.

And yet, at some magical moment in the last four days, some indomitable  soul(s) did what they could to put things right.  “Thanks, we brought our own….”
Despite the condensation on the plastic, the cardboard sign is clear.  The “opera d’arte” (work of art), is straight ahead.  Christmas, on the other hand, is down and to the left.
This is what some people (not tourists, I’m thinking) consider Christmas.! I’m just sorry there aren’t any fish to stick in the branches, like the baby owl in New York and the baby koala in Australia..  In any case, Christmas has been saved.  This time.

 

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22 Comments

    1. Well this is an unexpected note! I suppose Plessi wasn’t working with digital media back then, but that seems to be his bent nowadays. But if you’re such a Plessi fan, what part of my comments do you agree with? Just curious.

    1. A question one could pose about a thousand times a day. But even if there were an answer, I don’t think it would be very convincing. At least not to me. So on we go…

  1. “It’s not beautiful but, thank God, it’s rare” is something my late great-aunt Alice used to say and I think it fits the bill perfectly here. What could possibly have gone wrong with a good old Christmas tree?
    I’m not sure that more winos in politics would actually improve anything but the guy in your story at least had the decency to be honest, which is more than could be said about many of our elected politicians.
    I am a traditionalist, covid 19 or no covid 19, so I’m a bit biased but my observation is that in trying times like these more people are turning to tradition rather than arty-farty newfangled stuff, so I think mr. Plessi is, as I seem to remember you venetians saying, missing the chamber-pot? The screens are a tool to maintain contact and traditions, not a new tradition in itself I hope.

    All the best from Solna. Stay safe.
    /Andreas

    1. Close enough; it’s “pissing outside the chamber pot.” Good memory! Of course I agree with you, and yes, it was the wino’s honesty that appealed to me. He’d made his peace with it, so that freed me up to give him a batch of non-judgmental money. Win-win, as they say.

  2. Love the little green tree and the sense of humour. HAPPY CHRISTMAS TO YOU AND LENO AND THE PERSON WHO LEFT THE REAL TREE!

    1. I’ll pass all the greetings along. Maybe I’ll tape a piece of paper to the tree with your good wishes. 🙂

  3. Thanks, Pal. I like this sculpture! Modern and fun. (Any smiles are welcome during this new, more stringent lockdown here in Southern Calif)
    Now if you could just send me some Gelato….🥰🌻

    1. Doing my best, but I hope you check in with some news organizations for real updates, because my posts are pretty random. I’m glad to know you’re out there caring about good old Venice.

  4. Oh Holy Screen… Silent Screen… I’m Dreaming of a White Screen tree…Oh Little Screen of Venezia…
    You have done it again Erla, thank you for this vision of a Christmas moment in our beloved city of Venice.

  5. Perhaps the really high Aqua Alta was Venice’s attempt to short circuit the wretched construct? I’ve taken photos of many Christmas trees in St Mark’s Square over the year, but I’m afraid this one would just get a “walk by… pretend not to notice it”
    Quite horrid, pretentious, ugly and (most probably) very costly. It’s simply swearing at its surroundings, and they’re too well-bred to cuss back!
    Thank you yet again.

    1. Thank you, Freda. But I should say that the tree does verge on the brilliant, if we want to be pedantic about it. You can see it for miles, something that can’t truly be said about me.

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