The Swimming Cities of Serenissima is a fleet of three intricately hand crafted vessels that will navigate the Adriatic Sea from the Karst region of Slovenia to Venice, Italy in May of 2009. Designed by the visual artist SWOON, the floating sculptures are descendants of the Swimming Cities of Switchback Sea (Hudson River, 2008) and the Miss Rockaway Armada (Mississippi River, 2006 and 2007).
SWOON's boats are inspired by dense urban cityscapes and thickly intertwined mangrove swamps from her Florida youth. The Swimming Cities of Serenissima are built from salvaged materials, including modified Mercedes car motors with long-tail propellers. The boats' crew is made up of 30 collaborating artists from the United States.
In order to provide continued funding for this incredible project, a benefit exhibition hosted by Glowlab will take place in New York City during Armory Show week, March 5 – 8, 2009. Participating artists include Swoon, Maya Hayuk, The London Police, Martha Cooper, Monica Canilao, Dennis McNett, Imminent Disaster, Eric White, Tod Seelie, Molly Crabapple, C. Damage, Elbow Toe and many more.
This is an event anyone even close to the East Coast should try to swim out for, as The Swimming Cities will be sailing away soon after.
If you can’t make it out, Todd Chandler shot a film called FLOOD aboard the vessels of the Swimming Cities of Switchback Sea, which is currently in post-production. Peep a teaser clip from the film below and then snag more info on the project at swimmingcities.org

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