Liminal Crossings: Venice Between Time and Space

What lies between the city and the city? Between a city’s present and its future? The first is a liminal space, the second is a liminal time. Venice has many simultaneously occurring cities within its urban fabric: economic, social and environmental mega forces. Since the 1960’s Venice has seen an exodus of its residents, taking with them the memory of an obsolete urban identity. As tourists’ flood in by air, train and ship replacing the Venetians equally in numbers: one city is replaced by the other.Inspired by China Miéville’s novel, The City & The City, in which Venice’s space of “Breach” is the third city that is neither local or tourist, neither permanent or temporary. It is a liminality, a stage unbound between the Venice of the past and the future. The cruise ship becomes the site of a liminal Venice, floating between the city’s present and its future.