Bio & CV - Barena Bianca

The Barena Bianca collective was founded in the Summer of 2018 by Fabio Cavallari and Pietro Consolandi as a shirtwearing activist group in the Venetian Lagoon, striving to bring to light many of its ecological and sociological issues, adopting the Barena (typical venetian salt marsh, essential to the survival of the city) as its emblem.
Barena Bianca is characterized by an anti-mimetic poetic approach, a willingly dysfunctional camouflage, refusing to disappear. It seeks to emerge in every situation, to be clearly visible, increasingly impossible to ignore.
Its work mostly happens in public spaces and formalizes in hybrid collaborative actions, installations and happenings communicated mainly through video. Through the years, their projects happened and were featured in different settings around the world, from the most to the least institutional.

Ła baréna ła xé na spesie de ixołéta, o megio na tera, che ła xé saltà fora traverso procesi de sedimentasion, drénto na laguna. Ła ga infati na tera conposta par de più de crea e paltan. Sto tipo de teritorio el xé parécio comun ‘nte ła laguna de Venesia de ca qual el xé el 8%, anca se al prinsipio del XX sècoło el gera almanco del 25%.
(Anonymous Venetian – Wikipedia)

Fabio Cavallari
Founder, Chef, Headmarsh of education and didactics

Pietro Consolandi
Founder, Headmarsh of research

Amina Chouairi
Headmarsh of landscape and ecosystem

Ilaria Genovesio
Headmarsh of coordination and organisation

Donato Spinelli
Headmarsh of digital projects and technology

Exhibitions and Happenings

2024
– Platforms Project – Independent Art Fair, curated by Pasaj, Athens
– Arterija, curated by Sabina Oroshi, Lapidarium Museum, Novigrad
2023
– Avvenimento #1, with Manuela Kokanovic, curated by Edoardo Lazzari, Guggenheim Museum, Venice
– Bassi Fondali, curated by Giovanni Paolin, Panorama, Venice
2022
– Never Let me Gò, Tunaight, with Ilaria Genovesio, curated by Pasaj, Barin Han, Istanbul
– Partecipation in New Echo System, performance by Sc’ööf in Pro Helvetia in Venice
– Make Interspecies Relations, online ecological space curated by Pierce Eldridge, Chiara Famengo and Mattie O’Callaghan
2020
– Torno subito ma meglio, group show curated by We Are Here Venice and Eleonora Sovrani in the streets of Venezia
– Atensión! – The Art and Science of Saving Venice, solo show at the Center for Languages, Culture and Communication, Imperial College London
2019
– Supermercato, curated by Microclima, Serra dei Giardini, Venice
– Atensiòn! shown at Laguna Viva, V-A-C Foundation, Venice
– Participation at Zoographer, part of ‘DK Zattere’, Venezia

Workshops

2025
– “Shifting Landscapes”, Convivial Tables, co-organised with Chiara Famengo and TOCIA!, Ocean Space, Venice
2024
– “Una Dieta di Resistenza”, Convivial Tables, curated by Barbara Nardacchione, Ocean Space, Venice
– Confluence of European Water Bodies, TBA21-Academy’s Ocean Space, Venice
– Oltrehumana, curated by Alice Ongaro Sartori e Matteo Stocco, D.H. Office, Venice
2023
– No City Summer School, curated by Iuav University, Venice
– foodscapes, curated by Spanish Pavillion, Biennale of Venice
– Repeating Eutrophia, curated by Confluenze, Venice
– Semi boombastic, curated by Fulvia Larena / TOCIA!, Sagra di S. Giovanni in Bragora, Venice
– Lagoon walk, curated by European Cultural Academy, Venice
2022
– Forme di vita, A one-week workshop in the Venitian Lagoon. A collaboration between the Royal Academy of Fine Arts Antwerp and Mudam Luxemburg
– Fare acqua, Traffic Festival, San Lorenzo in Campo / Pergola
– Wolking workshop with Columbia University Summer School, Venezia
– Piantagruél II, curated by MetaForte, Cavallino-Treporti, Venezia
– Alla scoperta delle piante della Laguna, Children’s University Venezia, Ca’ Foscari University, Mestre
– How is it there? Here…, workshop curated by ARTPORT_making waves, CNR-ISMAR, Venezia
2021
– Piantagruél I, curated by MetaForte, Cavallino-Treporti, Venice
2019
– Barena Primavera-Estate, children workshop at Certosa island, Venezia
2018
– Muevete Muevete Barena, children workshop at V-A-C Foundation Zattere, Venezia
– Territori Mobili: Imparare dall’acqua,workshop by Elena Mazzi and Paolo Garbolino, IUAV University, Venezia

Talks

2022
– Convivio Acquatico, street food invaders, Cinema Galleggiante, Venezia
– WE ARE OCEAN, global program in Venice, by ARTPORT Making Waves, CNR-ISMAR, Venice
2021
– WE ARE OCEAN Venice – Jakarta – Stockholm The Walk(s), by ARTPORT Making Waves, online
– Participation in Sekolah Urbanis seminar, at Rujak Center for Urban Studies, curated by Tita Salina and Irwan Ahmett, Jakarta
2019
– The Current II, Summer School by Ocean Space, Venezia
– Life of Water, talk curated by Touchstones, part of the group show Alive in the Universe, Palazzo Pesaro Papafava, Venezia
2018
– Cultural Connectors Forum, screening at The Happenstance, Scotland Pavilion at 16th Architecture Biennale, Palazzo Zenobio, Venezia

Publications

2025
– Interview with Mette Juhl Jessen in Landskab Danish Journal of Landscape Architecture
2024
– How Do Venetian Artists Contend with Mass-Tourism?, by Francesca Tarocco for Frieze
2023
– An Archipelago of Ecological Care, Cristina Baldacci in lagoonscapes
2022
– Insubordinart – March issue: The Barena Bianca collective, interview for Moka Culture, online
2021
– Re-sourcing the strands of life: biocentric politics in the primordial broth, Fiona Middleton and Pietro Consolandi, Strelka Mag, online
2020
– Survival Tactics in a Precarious Ecosystem, interview with Benedetta d’Ettorre, Made in Mind Magazine, online
– Insight: ‘Atensión!’ by Barena Bianca, a look into Venice lagoon’s delicate ecosystem, Benedetta d’Ettorre, CLOT Magazine, online
– Five Questions – Barena Bianca, interview with Benedetta d’Ettorre, Formeuniche, online
2019
– Come resistere a Venezia, a brief interview with Matteo Binci, Exibart, online
– Uno, Dieci, Cento, Mille Carretti!, Matteo Binci on Atensión!, Segno Online, online
– Evie Redwood on Barena Primavera-Estate, British Council at La Biennale di Venezia, online