We are here Venice

We are here Venice is an NGO that exists to address the fundamental challenge facing Venice: to remain a living city. Our mission is based on an understanding of the city and the lagoon as inseparable elements within a single system, and all of our work highlights the importance

Among the various channels, We are here Venice uses the municipal billboard space for its awareness-raising activities. In particular, since 2017 WahV has begun to regularly disseminate recent and reliable information regarding the impacts of the cruise industry in Venice and in the world.

We are here Venice has run an ongoing bill posting campaign since 2017 to inform residents, visitors, tourists and potential cruise ship passengers, about the environmental, social and architectural damage caused by large ships travelling through Venice.

WahV’s methodology is to use direct and simple language to provide scientific information from a variety of reliable and authoritative sources. Without distracting images, attention is focused on the words. WahV designs the posters and spreads these messages, one at the time, throughout the city via the municipal billposting service. The goal is to raise awareness among visitors and residents of Venice, discouraging potential future tourists from large cruise ships.

During the pandemic, WahV felt the need to involve the inhabitants of Venice and rethink the city together: the association invited people to present somewhere in the city to which they are especially attached, through images, texts, collages, maps, by freely reworking the posters of previous WahV billposting campaigns. This campaign, entitled "Back soon (but better)", has reached its third edition and is intended to continue in the future, to respond to the requests and interest expressed by the residents.

In autumn 2020, WahV also started a new billboard campaign in Venice to sensitize visitors and residents of Venice about the importance of the lagoon ecosystem for the preservation of the city. In particular, WahV presented a selection of five typical plants of the lagoon: Zostera Marina, Salicornie, Spartina, Limonium and Salsola soda, showing their image and highlighting their peculiarities.

With the next campaign We are here Venice wants to highlight the problems regarding housing’s availability in Venice and the need for legislative measures to support those who are looking for a house with the aim of putting a stop to one of the most serious problems of the city: its continuous depopulation. WahV wants to involve the local network for doing research on this issue, as well as work with local producers to print the posters.