Conversations
VENICE CHARTER FOR OUR GLOBAL COMMONS
The New European Bauhaus collateral event of the 18th International Architectural Biennale
UNLESS participated to “Radical yet possible future space solutions”, The New European Bauhaus Collateral Event of the 18th International Architecture Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia with a proposal which mobilizes La Serenissima’s mediatic power to establish the city as an embassy of endangered island states and coastal settlements.
Venice has a unique position on the world stage, but despite its perceived exceptionalism it faces the same risks as the Marshall Island, Tuvalu, New York city and other coastal sites that are threatened by rising sea levels induced by anthropogenic climate change. Our Global Commons act upon all coastlines of the planet yet neither are represented at climate summits as the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC) Conference of the Parties (COP), nor have we developed a governance model that facilitates the consolidation, sharing and use of scientific data. Within the context of the NEB Lab, which will be launched on occasion of the Biennale collateral event and culminate with a presentation at the NEB Festival in Bruxelles in April 2024, UNLESS will partner with TBA21–Academy and write – 60 years after the launch of the “Venice Charter”– “The Venice Charter for our Global Commons”.
Article One will explore the possibility of establishing dedicated transnational Data Centres for two of our Commons, namely the Antarctic and the Global Ocean. One of four Global Commons, and our seventh continent, Antarctica accounts for 70% of the freshwater of Planet Earth, 90% of its ice whilst its melting would increase sea levels by 60 meters, launching the largest migration ever witnessed by humanity. Yet Antarctica is not only the largest threat, but it also represents our largest opportunity as it is a planetary laboratory where scientists extract climate data that is essential to inform environmental policies pivotal to subvert the climate crisis.
To date of the 200+ Antarctic infrastructures which were erected on the continent since its discovery 200 years ago only 76 are active scientific stations - embassy-like national infrastructures built in the name of science but mostly governed to reflect national imperatives. At a time when on the ground more than half of the current stations are reaching the end of their life cycle and when unsustainable national embargoes hinder the fair sharing of pivotal scientific data, UNLESS calls upon the European Union to reshape the governance of our Southernmost Global Common so that it prioritises scientific urgencies over geopolitical interests. Specifically, UNLESS turns to the EU and asks that on the one hand it transform the existing, structurally sound stations owned by its members to the Antarctic Treaty into European Antarctic infrastructures. On the other, and building upon the Data Act, UNLESS urges the EU to promote the establishment of an Antarctic Data Space.
Trusting that we can no longer afford to look at Venice with a local perspective but should rethink the Serenissima as an Embassy for all Island States and Coastal Settlements, UNLESS embraces this within the context of the recent pitch by Venice to become the “World Capital of Sustainability”. Venice (historically the “Queen of the seas”) could once again become a world reference – but no longer as a feared republic with aspirations of domination - rather as the “protector” of those same seas (now overheated, acidified, and with threatened biodiversity) and with them, of our Blue Planet.
Photo Credits © New European Bauhaus, UNLESS
Venice has a unique position on the world stage, but despite its perceived exceptionalism it faces the same risks as the Marshall Island, Tuvalu, New York city and other coastal sites that are threatened by rising sea levels induced by anthropogenic climate change. Our Global Commons act upon all coastlines of the planet yet neither are represented at climate summits as the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC) Conference of the Parties (COP), nor have we developed a governance model that facilitates the consolidation, sharing and use of scientific data. Within the context of the NEB Lab, which will be launched on occasion of the Biennale collateral event and culminate with a presentation at the NEB Festival in Bruxelles in April 2024, UNLESS will partner with TBA21–Academy and write – 60 years after the launch of the “Venice Charter”– “The Venice Charter for our Global Commons”.
Article One will explore the possibility of establishing dedicated transnational Data Centres for two of our Commons, namely the Antarctic and the Global Ocean. One of four Global Commons, and our seventh continent, Antarctica accounts for 70% of the freshwater of Planet Earth, 90% of its ice whilst its melting would increase sea levels by 60 meters, launching the largest migration ever witnessed by humanity. Yet Antarctica is not only the largest threat, but it also represents our largest opportunity as it is a planetary laboratory where scientists extract climate data that is essential to inform environmental policies pivotal to subvert the climate crisis.
To date of the 200+ Antarctic infrastructures which were erected on the continent since its discovery 200 years ago only 76 are active scientific stations - embassy-like national infrastructures built in the name of science but mostly governed to reflect national imperatives. At a time when on the ground more than half of the current stations are reaching the end of their life cycle and when unsustainable national embargoes hinder the fair sharing of pivotal scientific data, UNLESS calls upon the European Union to reshape the governance of our Southernmost Global Common so that it prioritises scientific urgencies over geopolitical interests. Specifically, UNLESS turns to the EU and asks that on the one hand it transform the existing, structurally sound stations owned by its members to the Antarctic Treaty into European Antarctic infrastructures. On the other, and building upon the Data Act, UNLESS urges the EU to promote the establishment of an Antarctic Data Space.
Trusting that we can no longer afford to look at Venice with a local perspective but should rethink the Serenissima as an Embassy for all Island States and Coastal Settlements, UNLESS embraces this within the context of the recent pitch by Venice to become the “World Capital of Sustainability”. Venice (historically the “Queen of the seas”) could once again become a world reference – but no longer as a feared republic with aspirations of domination - rather as the “protector” of those same seas (now overheated, acidified, and with threatened biodiversity) and with them, of our Blue Planet.
| Project Title: | Venice Charter for our global Common |
| Location: | Venice |
| Year: | 2023 |
| Status: | Completed |
| Programme: | Conversation |
| Speakers: | Ursula Von der Leyen, Elisa Ferreira, Lesley Lokko, Wael Al Awar, Francesca Bria, John Schellnhuber , José Luis de Vicente, Michael John Gorman, Clara Latini, Markus Reymann, Michela Magas, José Pedro Sousa, Xu Tiantian, Gerfried Stocker, Aric Chen, Sheela Patel, Giulia Foscari W. R., Edgar Pieterse, Benno Albrecht, Carlo Barbante, Pia Maier Schriever |
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