Clinic Acqua
GO TO THE FULL FILM (SOUND ON)
Merve Sahin’s research during her residency at the Digital Centre, Archive of Fondazione Giorgio Cini explores the past, present, and possible future relationships between architecture and nature on San Giorgio Maggiore Island in Venice.
Venice offers a unique setting where architecture, water, stone, and vegetation are deeply interconnected. The boundaries between natural and constructed environments are constantly shifting through ecological processes in this dynamic wetland.
Sahin’s short animated digital film, Clinic Acqua, develops these ideas through archival research and digital visualisation. During her residency, she explored digital scans and point clouds of the Vatican Chapels, alongside historical photographs of San Giorgio Maggiore. While the scans document architectural forms, they also preserve traces of time, material weathering, vegetation, and light. These details reveal how architecture is shaped by its surroundings, offering a different way of understanding the built environment.
The selected historical photographs document the island’s restoration in the 1950s, capturing the labour, maritime activities, care, and material processes involved in shaping an island that sustains a rich cultural life. Together, these archival materials allow us to better understand the fluid boundary between nature and the man-made. It is a constant process of care, maintenance and negotiation. Furthermore, they open up a discussion about how architectural objects on the island are part of a wider ecological system in the lagoon.
In an increasingly digital world, where discussions focus on digital transformation, artificial intelligence, data servers and the climate crisis, this short digital film imagines future institutions where these themes are more consciously integrated. Using archival material, AI-assisted animation, and speculative design, Sahin imagines Clinic Acquaas a future institution where architecture, nature, and digital archives coexist. Inspired by her observations of Venice’s ecological conditions during the residency, the film speculates on how knowledge institutions might evolve. Moving between archival fragments and imagined spaces, it envisions a world where the borders between the constructed and the natural become increasingly blurred. Sound recordings from the island form the film’s soundscape.
Developed during the D.A.I.R. – Digital Artist in Residence programme at the Digital Centre – ARCHiVe, Fondazione Giorgio Cini.
This work was produced with the financial assistance of the European Union. The views expressed herein can in no way be taken to reflect the official opinion of the European Union.
