Storie di riappropriazione di un campo veneziano. La vicenda de “La Vida” a S. Giacomo dall’Orio

The paper focuses on the analysis of the processes of re-appropriation and grassroots organization that took place in the last year in the area of Campo S. Giacomo dall'Orio in Venice. In the context of a territory hardly marked by overtourism, favored by the absence of regulatory policies and by a continuous dismantling of public property, the area of the campo has been invested by a new process of community activation that led to the occupation, in September 2017, of the Antico Teatro di Anatomia, a building owned by the region known in the city as La Vida. Around this experience, whose final outcomes are still uncertain, a heterogeneous community has started consolidating and bringing back to the public debate themes such as the preservation of public space, the social use of the commons and, more generally, the situation of city that is increasingly suffocated by the tourist monoculture. Despite the eviction of the building in March 2018, the activities of La Vida continued with the in- stallation of a permanent presence in the campo, which is still a social and cultural reference point for the western area of the historic city. Starting from the narration of the various projects implemented by the community of San Giacomo, the purpose of the article will be that of highlighting the connection between its practices of commoning and the collective elaboration of an alter- native perspective for the city as a whole, in opposition to the extension of the ‘theme park’ model which is overtaking the urban environment of Venice.