A project for the historical building of Procuratie Vecchie, in Piazza San Marco, sponsored by insurer Generali, will give back to the city a space that is essential to its history as well as a social function that is just as essential. The third floor at the Procuratie will be the new home of The Human Safety Net, a 3,000-square metre space dedicated to research.
an idea and project incubator open to everyone, a space to share connections, exchange, discussion, projects, and attention on the issues of social inclusion and sustainability as the cornerstone of human resilience and well-being. Their vision is global, though a sizeable contribution will be offered to social and cultural perspectives on Venice. This will allow Venice to be nominated as world capital of sustainability.
By activating a global network of people who will help each other, The Human Safety Net’s goal is to free the potential of those who live in vulnerable contexts, so that they may be able to change the lives of their families and communities for the better. To enact these processes, two global programmes are already active: one is a fund for families with children aged under six, the other has been set up for refugees to sponsor their integration and entrepreneurship in their destination countries.
Raising awareness on these themes is one of the essential goals at The Human Safety Net, and it is carried out with the development of exhibition projects, like the one currently housed at the Procuratie: A World of Potential. The exhibition has been curated by Orna Cohen, the founder of Dialogue Social Enterprise (DSE), a social enterprise based in Hamburg, Germany, that has been working since 1998 to promote the integration of vulnerable persons all around the globe.
The project puts all of us at the centre of the action – we are called to explore our character to understand the qualities that reside within each individual by means of an immersive, interactive experience.
The project is based on a positive psychology method called VIA (Values in Action), developed by American psychologists Martin Seligman and Christopher Peterson. It is based on the notion that each of us has strong points that will consolidate over time. It applies to every person in the world. Experts from the Mayerson Academy, a Cincinnati, Ohio, non-profit, picked the values that visitors will confront themselves with (creativity, kindness, perseverance, gratefulness, curiosity, hope, social intelligence, teamwork) using 16 machines-à-montrer. The exhibition, a concept by Migliore+Servetto, uses analogue and digital machines to generate an experience midway between a science museum and an anthropological experience. It will be a journey within ourselves that acts on the senses, memory, and feelings. It will progressively get more real by raising self-awareness and the understanding of reality. the whole experience ends with creating a human connection: from me to us. Visitors will develop an interest in the work carried out by one member of The Human Safety Net, the one they feel closer to, and will be encouraged to participate in the betterment of the condition of vulnerable people.
Within the exhibition area is also the Art Studio, a space for modern art that currently hosts CHUTZPAH, a site-specific piece by Atelier dell’Errore, curated by Gabi Scardi. Bravery and impudence pair with virtuosity to the point of obsession in a reflection of the Yiddish term chutzpah, the audacity or arrogance of those who have an inflated sense of self-importance. The word entered the English language to denote that attitude of thinking outside the box and do whatever it takes to achieve your goals.
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