The home – be it skin, a carpet, a shadow, a hut, a shelter or a fortress – is the place where the idea of the world manifests itself: the idea of belonging to the world or claiming possession of a part of it. Homes, like islands or lifeboats in a seething sea, form the archipelago of the city and of society. In 1948, in the magazine “Volontà”, Giancarlo De Carlo addressed the issue of the home: ‘In the home, people are reduced to the level of beasts. They live without light, without air, without sun, without greenery. They lose touch with nature and with their fellow human beings; they forget the value of their inclination towards association and symbiotic living; they are transformed into passive instruments ready for discipline, obedience and war’. Again in 1948, Egle Renata Trincanato published her book Venezia minore, in which she finally overturned the image of the lagoon city by speaking of its humble dwellings which, together with the noble palaces and monumental landmarks, define its very fabric. The home is the place where the interplay of roles has been and continues to be played out, it is the place where gender roles and the form of the community are defined; and indeed, more precisely, it is often the kitchen – through its absence or expansion – that determines the unfolding of life’s theatre. Perhaps the home consists of the objects that accumulate and are taken on journeys – some more permanent than others –, or perhaps it is a sublime empty space; certainly, it is an island (real, destroyed, virtual or even merely imagined) from which we seek to grasp the relative and absolute coordinates of a sea that is often stormy.
Timeline
Sections: Project, Essay, Journey, Archive, Ring, Tutorial, Translation, Fundamentals
Abstracts must be submitted by September 5, 2026
Abstracts acceptance notification by September 15, 2026
Papers submission by November 10, 2026
Section: Tale
Papers submission by September 5, 2026
Papers acceptance notification by September 15, 2026
Publication of “Vesper” No. 16, May 2027
More information can be found in the full call for papers here.