Baci

Description

In Baci, a map of Venice is mounted on a large board. The 'major' disciplines of architecture or urban planning might use such a map to 'make sense' of the city - it represents all the things that they collect in their information systems. While everyone is aware of the importance of the relationships between people in their everyday lives, whether they share or express intimacy for example, there is usually no place on such a map to record this. Maybe it is not deemed important enough as a way of making sense of the place we live in?

Visitors were invited to mark wherever they had kissed using pink chalk tied to string, hanging from the board. With such a clumsy device it's impossible to make a mark with any accuracy. This confounds the idea that where we are is of primary importance. The meaning of kissing someone cannot itself be precisely defined - maybe you've kissed someone as a formality - as a simple greeting; maybe the kiss meant more to you than that. With enough kisses, the planners' map will be completely obscured.

Details

Materials

City map
57 x photocopied sections (mounted onto backboard)

Large stick of pink chalk
String (attached to backboard)

Wooden panels on free-standing, wooden frame
Handwritten instructions in English and local language

Dimensions

Each map section: 25cm x 25cm approx

6m x 2m

Images

Click the thumbnail images below to see larger images.

	Installation view of Baci: map on free-standing board.		Close-up view of chalk 'X's on Baci map.
	Written instructions for Baci, in English and informal Italian.		Baci formally areferences the large boards that are used to display information in Venetian Campi during election campaigns.
	Section of the map of Venice, showing chalk 'X's, used in Baci.		Section of Baci map, with chalk-on-string and written instructions.
	Installation view of Baci map on free-standing board, (with Lovers' Chairs).		Chalk-on-string, used to mark 'X's onto Baci map.