VENICE OR EXPO IT IS UP TO YOU Jean Cyrile Godefroy VENICE OR EXPO IT IS UP TO YOU l Jean Cyrile Godefroy editor Rossella Brook Browne LIST OF THE INSTITUTIONS PROMOTING THIS PUBLICATION: International Voluntary Committees and other Associations for the Safeguarding of Venice America - Italy Society of Philadelphia Arbeitskreis Venedig der Deutschen Unesco-Kommission The Australian Committee for Venice Comite Franc;ais pour la Sauvegarde de Venise Comitato Italiano per Venezia Comitato Internazionale per la Conservazione e la Tutela dell'Antico Arsenale Council of Europe. European Foundation "Pro Venetia Viva" Comitato per il Centro Ebraico di Venezia Societa Dante Alighieri - Venezia Deutsches Studienzentrum in Venedig Fondation "Pro Venezia" Suisse Fondazione "Venezia Nostra" Friends of Venice - Dallas, Texas Pro Venezia Sweden Rallye San Marco, France Stichting N ederlands Venetie Comite S ave Venice Inc. - New York The Venice in Peril Fund - London World Monuments Fund - New York Italian and International Associations and Institutions Architectural History Foundation, New York Centro Studi Andrea Palladio, Vicenza F ondazione Gramsci, Venezia Fondazione Cattaneo, Venezia Fondo Ambiente Italiano (F AI) Amici dei Musei e dei Monumenti di Venezia Amici dei Monumenti, dei Musei e del Paesaggio di Vicenza. World Wildlife Fund (WWF) Istituto Nazionale di Urbanistica (INU) !talia Nostra Lega Ambiente Superintendency of Monuments, Venice. University Institute of Architecture, VeniCe. Verband Deutcher Kunsthistoriker, West Germany. h Foreword by the Mayor of Venice, Antonio Casellati Doubtless in a few weeks ' time Venice will be either saved or lost. Whether she is to live may depend on you. In June the B.I.E. (Bureau International des Expositions) will decide whether the Universal Exhibition of the year 2000 is to be held in Venice. The representatives of your country will be voting. Could you dissuade them from signing the city's sentence of death. We believe you could. Who are we? All those who appear in these pages. All those who refuse to be bound by a project that has been imposed without a vote of Parliament, against the opinion of the Municipal Council, against the conviction of certain ministers, against Venice itself. An undefined project whose authors themselves admit that they do not know what will be the outcome. A hazy and changeable project, legally doubtful, out of keeping with the nature of the city, economically and socially. A project which could ruin the efforts already begun to halt its decline and which could cause a retrograde step. A project which aggravates the exodus of Venetians. A project which claims to be very up-to-date but which is based on the old idea of a purely quantitative economic expansion. An out-of-date project. Also an impos­ sible project because, to take only one example, the city, which already at certain periods is unable to cope with the touristic influx, is physically and structurally incapable of receiving the immense crowds with which it is threatened by the most "optimistic" scientific forecasts, in the case that Expo should come to the Veneto. A project which is upheld only by those who think they have an economic or political interest in it. A project which condemns those personalities of unquestionable scientific and cultural experience who here analyse its unfor­ tunate consequences. A project which has aroused in Italy and abroad an exceptional wave of protest. For seldom has one seen such unanimity. The pages which follow bear it but pale witness. Architects, writers, intellectuals from every country. The private committees for the preserva­ tion of Venice and the Committee for World Heritage of Unesco. The International press. But the Venetians too: the Municipal Council, innumerable associations and groups of all kinds and of every outlook, school children and grown men. In fact the people of Venice. All of us refuse to accept that Venice is to become an empty stage awaiting its final performance. Will you be with us with Venice? 1 • We believe so. We ask you to read these pages, to take note of the facts and to form your judgement. We ask you to help us, to arouse the opinion of the authorities of your country, to urge the representatives on the B.I.E; that they should not allow themselves to become accomplices. Or to be able to say that they did not know. You can do this. Will you do it so that Venice can live? ~ it :,'! ~: ... ? 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