Queer Sea Marriage 2024-... — Benedetta Panisson

Queering Sea Marriage: Towards a Collective Performance

Queering Sea Marriage examines the traditional Venetian ritual, celebrated since the year 1000, from the perspectives of gender, queer, and visual studies: the ritual involves the Doge, the highest authority in Venice, marrying the sea: he throws a gold ring into the waves, pours holy water into the water, and makes the sea a femile-bride, to dominate her and ensure commerce and prosperity. Still performed today by the mayor and representatives of the Church, the ceremony diplays a male-human figure dominating the bluescape and its waves through a patriarchal, heteronormative marriage — a hierarchical display of grandeur and exploitation. When the academic research component of Queering Sea Marriage was presented at the conference Materiality at the Intersections of Ecologies and Religious Studies (Fondazione Giorgio Cini, Venice, May 2024), several critical points were analyzed. The presentation explored possibilities for alternatives through contemporary feminist, gender, and queer studies, as well as performing arts. Key themes included reimagining the sea from a feminized, dominated entity to a fluid, non-binary waterscape; shifting from exploitation of the sea to an ecological performance of love between humans and the sea; and replacing hierarchical, male-human-over-female-nature structures with horizontal, queer inclusivity. At Transeuropa Festival (November 2024), the project took its first step toward participatory engagement with associations, university representatives, and citizens. This gathering generated warmth, support, and energy for the next phases. The project centers on the value and beauty of the sea in an era of ecological crisis and rising sea levels, intersecting water-based artivism with academic research to develop a collective performance of union with the sea. This performance, to be co-created with the Venetian community, aims to connect with the cultures and performative practices of other island communities. This alternative performance does not seek to overwrite the traditional Sposalizio del Mare (Marriage to the Sea), which is recognized for its historical significance. Instead, it creates a parallel space for performative action that is deeply inclusive, collective, and joyous.

Technical details
Academic Panel, workshop, ongoing live perfomance.

Exhibitions | Workshops | Talks
2024, Transeuropa Festival, curated by European Alternatives, various location, Venice. Workshop curated by Rete Arcipelago, Marianna Biadene, Associazione Gamaka, Alessandra Marzini.
2024, Queering the Marriage of the Sea, at Materiality at the Intersection of Ecologies and Religious Studies, organized by Giorgio Cini Foundation, Harvard University (Harvard Divinity School), NICHE, Ca' Foscari University of Venice, University College Dublin, Venice.

Honored to present my "Queering the Marriage of the Sea" at the conference “Materiality at the Intersection of Ecology and Religious Studies”, organized by Fondazione Giorgio Cini (the Centre for Comparative Studies of Civilisations and Spiritualities), Harvard Divinity School (Center for the Study of World Religions), @harvarddivinity, Ca’ Foscari University of Venice (THE NEW INSTITUTE Centre for Environmental Humanities – NICHE, the Center for the Study of Lived Religion, and the Department of Asian and North African Studies), University College Dublin (Irish Research Council Government of Ireland) @universitycollegedublin
**Abstract**
In 1000 the doge of Venice, Pietro II Orseolo, married the sea. The union took place at the port mouth of of S. Nicolò. He was clad in ermine and with a horn on his head; he slowly paraded aboard the Bucintoro, to such an extent barded with gold statues that it became an object unfit for navigation. Blessed water was poured into the water, a ring was thrown into the waves. Desposamus te, mare. In signum veri perpetuique dominii, the formula says. The ceremony was made sacred by Pope Alexander III in 1173 with the words, Doge of Venice, this is the wedding ring of your marriage to the sea. From now on, we want you and your successors to marry her every year. The doge is a male, therefore, the sea a female. The ceremony, for centuries, represented a spiritual gesture of mutual protection: the male doge by taming her, the female sea by promising not to provoke unfavorable storms. The political and economic value of dominance over the seas, which the Serenissima particularly cared about, was also stated. Three inversions are proposed: from assigning a gender identity to the sea and enacting patriarchal-marital domination, to embracing a fluid relationship with it; from exploiting maritime resources to protecting the sea ecologically; and from a hierarchical structure with a powerful man (formerly the Doge, today the mayor and a Church member) to an horizontal inclusivity. Furthermore, in the context of global interdependence between island cultures - relevant today with the common issue of the rising sea levels - it is crucial to connect this ritual between humans and the sea with other island cultures and their sea-related rituals. This project focuses on the value of the sea and intertwines it with issues of gender and queer-feminist ecology concerning aquatic spaces.
As in the case of other projects by Benedetta Panisson, also Queer Sea Marriage has a double outcome: an academic research about the relation between humans and waterscapes under a queer and gender studies’ lens, and a work in progress of a collective and participated art performance. The project opens a dialogue both with local community and with previous artistic projects, such as the one by Anne Sprinkle and Elisabeth Stephens, *Wedding the Sea*, in the nexus between eco-queer feminism, waterscapes, and performing arts.
**May 21-23, Venice**
https://www.cini.it/eventi/convegno-materiality-at-the-intersection-of-ecology-and-religious-studies

Intervista con Relazioni, gruppo Editoriale Luca Sossella | 2024. Full article here

"Queering the Marriage of the Sea" at the conference “Materiality at the Intersection of Ecology and Religious Studies”, organized by Fondazione Giorgio Cini (the Centre for Comparative Studies of Civilisations and Spiritualities), Harvard Divinity School (Center for the Study of World Religions), Ca’ Foscari University of Venice (THE NEW INSTITUTE Centre for Environmental Humanities – NICHE, the Center for the Study of Lived Religion, and the Department of Asian and North African Studies), University College Dublin (Irish Research Council Government of Ireland)

*Queer Sea Marriage* is part of Transeuropa Festival, 6-10 Nov. 2024, Venice. https://transeuropafestival.eu/

https://transeuropafestival.eu/ | workshop curate by Associazione Arcipelago, Marianna Biadene and Alessandra Marzini, https://associazionegamaka.blogspot.com/ | video credit: Patrick Tombola

Queer Sea Marriage at Transueropa Festival | Nov 2024 | Venice, curated by Transeuropa Festival, Rete Arcipelago, Marianna Biadene, Alessandra Marzini. The project was presented at a workshop as an open process to analyze and deconstruct the traditional Marriage to the Sea, focusing on patriarchy, domination, feminization of the sea, trying to convert this dynamic in a performance proposal above all these hiearchy and heternormative powers. To the participants and the Venetian community an alternative collective perfomance has been proposed, with the sea, and its community, at the centre, focusing on the love for the sea, inclusivity, and an horizontal process. Giving up the gold ring, the opulence, the patriarchal wedding, and the distance between the powerful male figure and the aquatic element, in favor of a collective act of immersion in the sea—one that is inclusive, minimal, quiet, respectful, and above all, grounded in a dynamic of pleasure. The project is going to follow in the next few months and all participants, associations, and interested people will be updated. Extra materials will be soon available. Photo Credits: Transeuropa Festival, Claudia Correnti, Anita.