La Città Vuota (The Empty City)

La Città Vuota (‘The Empty City’) is a gallery installation of drawings held at OPEN CO WORKSPACE at 163 Bree Street, Cape Town. OPEN CO WORKSPACE is a space designed and curated by Open City Architecture Urban Design Research. It pays homage to those who lost their lives in Italy during the COVID-19 pandemic. At the outset of the pandemic, Italy was particularly harshly affected. At this time, a concert was held where the Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli sang in the Duomo di Milano, in commemoration of the tragic loss the Italian people had suffered. In an iconic urban moment, Bocelli stood at the entrance to the duomo, facing the empty piazza. The title of the gallery installation relates to the emptiness of the streets of Italian cities as a result of the lockdown restrictions. As Bocelli sang, images of the empty streets of Milan were broadcast on television in accompaniment to his powerful voice.

One of the drawings in the exhibition, La Chiesa Di Santa Maria Della Salute, shows a church which was built in honour of the Venetians that lost their lives during the Plague of 1631. One third of the population of the city passed away. The inclusion of this artwork acknowledges that time, and the recent events of the pandemic in Italy.

The gallery installation also acknowledges the entrance space to the building in which it is held. The frontage of the building looks onto the historic Bree street. The gallery installation is an urban gesture, as was Bocelli’s concert, celebrating the building and its relationship to the street. Pointing toward notions of urbanity, the hope is that the exhibition brings awareness to the fact that the CBD of Cape Town is presently undergoing significant change. The office buildings are less populated due to the conditions of the pandemic. The exhibition communicates a wish that the inner city will thrive once more, as people return to it for work and recreation.