Bogiaisso [bo-jah-EES-so]: in Ciosoto, the dialect of Chioggia, a whirlpool, the spot where the water boils up.

Since 2022, during the fermo pesca, the annual fishing moratorium when the boats stay in port, Bogiaisso has run Al Fresco Art Cinema: a time to look in the mirror and find yourself reflected in sensibilities, lands and waters near and far, through international video works chosen for how deeply they speak to life here.

Bogiaisso is also a year-long journey of collective imagination, where fishers, artists and curators meet in bars and trattorias to question art and use it to reimagine the present with a critical eye.

Since 2023, Bogiaisso has produced performances, sound installations and artworks with fishers, artisans and international artists in residence in Chioggia. We invite people who have never had much use for art to pick up its tools and voice unresolved tensions, hopes and collective desires. In their hands, alternate versions of the present and future take shape and point towards new directions.

Since 2026, Bogiaisso has been running hands-on sessions with Chioggia’s craftspeople, who pass on their skills at a teaching workshop for women and people with disabilities. Only by teaching people who have never had the chance to “think with their hands” can we give new life to the practical wisdom that has sustained Chioggia until now, and that many other communities will need in the years ahead.

None of this would happen without an advisory committee of more than 20 curators and art experts, who strengthen the ties between contemporary art and the lagoon year after year.