Marine Topographies – Notes for a Film

Abstract

“TERRÆ AQUÆ. Italy and the Intelligence of the Sea” is the theme of the Italian Pavilion at the 19th International Architecture Exhibition of the Venice Biennale, curated by architect Guendalina Salimei. The pavilion is dedicated to a Mediterranean expanded to include the neighboring oceans. The centrality of the structural relationship between water and land, between natural and artificial, between infrastructure and landscape, and between city and coast impacts the country's identity and the delicate balance among environment, humanity, culture, and economy. These elements must be both safeguarded in their integrity and re-designed for the essential adaptation to a future permeated by new, pressing needs. Looking at Italy from the sea implies a change in perspective, necessitating a rethinking of the design of the boundary between land and water as an integrated system of architecture, infrastructure, and landscape. As part of the exhibition project, the curator launched an open call to gather design, theoretical, and multimedia contributions on rethinking the relationship between land and sea in coastal and port areas.

“Marine Topographies – Notes for a Film” (2025) by Nicoletta Grillo unfolds as a topographical fabulation that explores, between extractivism and remnants, the territories of Tyrrhenian Calabria and Sicily through a series of photographic diptychs. Shown as a projection, the images portray a fragile landscape historically marked by the mobility of and across waters. The photographs focus on places that have been characterized by a movement of matter between land and sea, which become strategic points for reinterpreting the territory based on three environmental topographic typologies: excavated topographies, emergent topographies, and the flat coastline.