Bogiaisso — Niccolò Moronato

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Curated commentary of all works of art screened in 2022 | 2023 | 2024

Bogiaisso (2022/ongoing) ("there, where the water bubbles" in Chioggia dialect) is an independent video art festival and social platform in dialogue with the fishing and islander communities of Chioggia, a small island in southern Venice Lagoon with one of Italy's largest fishing fleets. Here, where industrial and residential lives merge in constant proximity, and community flows through informal exchanges, international video art meets the daily experiences of fishers and islanders in an ongoing dialogue about shared presents and futures.

Through carefully mediated presentations that ground compelling short-form video works in local experience and language, Bogiaisso creates space for multiple layers of meaning to emerge. These works often resonate long after viewing - surfacing in a fisher's casual reference during work or as new, shared metaphors woven into daily life.

“What in large art cities is a metaphor —the island, the archipelago, the lagoon-like thinking, the environment — here in Chioggia is a lived reality. Our reflection on its tangible, sensory experience invites both academics and fishermen to enrich their perspective by sharing experiences, sensations, languages, and knowledge.”

— Niccolò Moronato

Operating year-round through informal gatherings and shared routines, Bogiaisso acknowledges and nurtures Chioggia's unique patterns of communal living - where public spaces shift fluidly between private and common use, where solutions emerge through direct relationships, and where multiple rhythms of life overlap in ways more aligned with global majority patterns than conventional European urban norms. Through art, the project reveals sensorially how Chioggia and its community are part of a much wider global archipelago than the one visible on lagoon maps.

Bogiaisso's daily dialogue with the community is nurtured through its location overlooking Chioggia's fishing fleet, where maritime life unfolds beneath its balconies.

Through collaborative projects, the community becomes an active part of the artistic process — from translating international works into local language to participating in live performances to fishers contributing their perspectives on which works should be featured in future editions during winter gatherings at local bars. This approach has led to unique moments like a polyphonic performance in Chioggia's language imagining “How to Become an Octopus”: a homage to Miriam Simun’s Your Urge to Breathe is a Lie screened during 2024’s Bogiaisso opening night.

Bogiaisso thrives through an archipelago of curators, artists, writers, and scientists worldwide, who nurture the festival with suggestions, connections, and perspectives that shape each edition's selection and discourse. The festival is made possible by the collaboration of volunteers and neighbors, the generosity and curiosity of artists who freely share their work with Chioggia's community, and the dedication of a scientific committee that ensures the quality and relevance of the program - among them, Cairo Clarke, Zoë de Luca Legge, Orsola Vannocci Bonsi, Ilaria Conti, Giorgio Andreotta Calò, Samantha Ozer, Cinema Galleggiante Venezia.

As a registered Italian charity (APS), Bogiaisso operates through grassroots community support and small-scale funding. In 2025, the project received the British Council Biennials Connect grant to host artist Abbas Zahedi in residency and present his work at Bogiaisso 2025.

A RADAR microgrant will also support the development of an experimental ritual practice at the Gladiatore — a fishing vessel wrecked in 2007 that stands as a powerful symbol of fishing's unpredictability and the community's resilience. Through intimate sound design mixing boat recordings with anonymous confessions, this project will create a space for processing collective grief and memory.

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