During the Salone Del Mobile 2024, Trent Jansen exhibited his Magistrato Al Sal Nero Cabinet at Galleria Rossana Orlandi in Milan, Italy. First exhibited at the Venice Design Biennial in 2023, this work was designed as part of the Venice Design Biennial Residency, 2022 and produced by Venitian artisans at Vetralia Collectable.
Thanks to the wonderful people at Venice Design Biennial, during his residency Trent met with lagoon scientist Giovanni Cecconi, one of the designers of the controversial MOSE flood barrier that helps with tidal regulation in the Venetian lagoon. Giovanni introduced Trent to the history and science of the lagoon and instigated a research project focused on the impact of rising sea level in the lagoon and the role of salt in Venice’s prosperous history and threatened future.
Historically, Venice is known for its role as a trading port, connecting the centers of Northern Europe, including France and England with Eastern markets in Byzantium and Persia, but one of the earliest commodities to be farmed and traded in the Venetian Lagoon was salt.
Salt works were operating in the Lagoon as early as the first half of the 6th Century, consisting of rudimentary dams constructed from logs and branches, and large evaporation pools where the water would crystallise to form sodium chloride. Salt was used as a sort of currency in these early years of life on the Lagoon (Preziuso et al).
The preindustrial importance of salt cannot be overstated. Salt was the easiest and most reliable way to preserve food, and those who possessed salt were far less impacted by the earth’s natural cycles dictating food procurement. A large catch, for example, could be preserved and used to nourish a community for many months, instead of spoiling within days. Salt was essential to survival (G. Cecconi, personal communication, December 2, 2022).
The Venetians understood this and were known to use military force to maintain their advantage, in 932 and 1578 they destroyed rival salt producing communities Camacchio and Trieste to further their control (Warren, 2015). From the 12th Century Venice actively set about creating a monopoly of this crucial commodity. They began to import salt from the Adriatic and Mediterranean in 1240. In 1281 all Venetian merchants were ordered by the ‘ordo salis’ (the salt rule) to bring home a load of salt when returning to Venice. An administrative body known as the ‘Magistrate Al Sal’ (Magistrate of Salt) was established to manage this monopolisation and soon the Venetians had gained control over so much salt that they were supplying the entire Po Valley, Tuscany, the Puglia coast, Sicily, Sardinia, Crete and Cyprus (Preziuso et al.) – salt became ‘il vero fondamento del nostro stato’ (the true foundation of our state) (Beinart, 2011).
In the 1400s the Venetians built monumental ‘Magazzini del Sale’ (salt warehouses) called ‘Saloni’, with structures strong enough to hold 4500 tons of salt at any one time. They hoarded salt in their vast stores to create shortages and then increased the price to feed demand and maximise profits. By 1590 they were making an 81% mark-up on salt sold inland. Some of these profits were used by the state to build sculpture and architecture, attracting many Renaissance artists to profit from this booming commodity (Warren, 2015). Venice is often introduced as one of the birthplaces of capitalism. The history of salt in this region is a clear demonstration of early capitalist values in action.
Today in Venice, salt plays a very different role. Due to the rising sea-level, the ocean regularly reaches above the limestone foundations used to insulate the city’s brick walls from the sea. These bricks are porous and when they come into contact with the canals, capillary action draws the sea water upward as high as 8 meters inside the bricks and mortar (G. Cecconi, personal communication, December 2, 2022). When the tide drops again and the walls dry out the water evaporates, but it leaves the salt behind, captured within the walls of the city. Within a cubic meter of wall in Venice there is likely to be 70-80kg of salt (Piana, 2021).
When the salt dries it crystallises and expands, resulting in countless tiny explosions inside the ancient bricks and mortar and causing these walls to disintegrate from the inside (G. Cecconi, personal communication, December 2, 2022). Evidence of this can be seen throughout the city, from salt secretions leaking out through the brickwork to crumbling facades disintegrating into the canals and alleyways.
In an ultimate piece of dark irony, it is the uncontrollable acceleration of capitalist practices, beginning in part with salt in Venice, that have contributed substantially to the burning of fossil fuels, to produce and transport energy and products that might satisfy our insatiable taste for consumption. Emissions from these fossil fuels have warmed the globe, begun to melt our ice sheets and glaciers, and caused the water in our oceans to expand. These rising oceans and seas are now flowing into the Venetian lagoon, impregnating the walls of the city with salt – the substance at the foundation of Venetian prosperity now works to undermine the literal foundations of this ancient city, threatening to return it to the salty Lagoon that it rose from centuries ago.
The Magistrato Al Sal Nero Cabinet embodies the historical and contemporary significance of salt on the fate of Venetian civilisations. The cabinet is built on a column-shaped base which seems to be constructed from black salt. Paying homage to the important role of glass production in the Venetian Lagoon, the base is actually constructed from thousands of small glass granules, each one the same size and profile as a grain of salt. These glass granules are black, signifying the corrupt nature of salt monopolisation by consecutive Doges from the 10th – 16th Centuries. The base of the cabinet also appears to be crumbling where it rests on the ground, causing the entire piece to teeter as its foundations appear to falter. This is of course a clear reference to the contemporary affect of salt on Venetian architecture, rupturing the brickwork and undermining the foundations of these ancient buildings.
The top section of the cabinet is constructed from ebonised timber tiles, referencing the archetypal terracotta roof tiles used throughout Venice. These tiles take on a randomised construction and appear to break apart and tumble as the salt column below seems to falter and sway. There are two doors in this top section, hidden by the complexity of the tile composition. When opened, these doors reveal a further ebonised interior, with the column-shaped, salt base rising up inside its walls, like the sea water that soaks upward into the walls of buildings throughout the Venetian Lagoon.
This collectable design work is painstakingly hand-crafted by the talented artisans at Vetralia Collectible, combining the ancient art of hand-wood-carving with an innovative use of granulated glass, to create a contemporary, experimental design work that embodies a story of great significance to the evolution of Venice.
Where
Galleria Rossana Orlandi,
Via Matteo Bandello 14,
Milan, Italy.
Exhibition dates
16 – 21 April 2024
Supporters
Galleria Rossana Orlandi
Vetralia Collectible
Venice Design Biennial
UNSW Art & Design
McArthurGlen Noventa di Piave Designer Outlet
Image Credit – Vetralia Collectible.
