435 Ponti e qualche scorciatoia
Curated by Silvia Guerra
Venice, Italy
7 May – 25 November 2019

During the 58th Venice Biennale, David Horvitz presents the site specific piece 435 Ponti e qualche scorciatoia, curated by Silvia Guerra throughout the city. 435 Ponti e qualche scorciatoia is the second piece from the series 3 Easy Pieces, an art project in public spaces produced by Lab’Bel for Venice. The first one was Concertino Unisono by Michael Staab which took place in Saint Mark’s Square in 2015. 

Venice has 435 bridges. These bridges unite the micro-islands, making the city walkable. It is the proximity of the Venetians to each other within their daily lives that transforms the city into one big home where we can still go out and buy bread in our friulane.

Venetians struggle to maintain their unique way of life due to the singularity of their city, many of the local trades disappearing under the shock wave of globalization. But there are determined Venetians who persist in exercising their trade to the rhythm of the city – boat builders, ice cream makers, pastry chefs, gardeners, priests, organists. 

For this project, David Horvitz has collected stories of people who have lived in Venice, connected the places they frequented and the impressions they kept from them, and given all of this voice and circulation, transmitting them in his own way.

More than a calendar of events and performances, this project is presented in the form of a city map that indicates where projects can appear and disappear. 435 Ponti e qualche scorciatoia is taking hold of Venice through an internal itinerary, a walking map drawn by David Horvitz linking all of the bridges of the city by foot. And as you stroll the streets beneath the open windows, you’ll be able to hear children play partitions of Stravinsky’s Walzer, March, or Polka – the three movements that give the Three Easy Pieces their tempo and colour.