Selam, Ivano and the treehouse
This is a house in the countryside of Quinto, a small village near Venice, Italy. It’s light brown with a big window on one side and a small porthole on the opposite side. There is also a trapdoor on the floor and a ladder that goes from the trapdoor to the ground below, which is very important since, as one can see from the photo, this house lies on a tree, a pear to be precise. Without a ladder it would be almost impossible to reach the entrance. Inside this house lives a girl called Selam, who has frizzy hair, who was born in Ethiopia and goes to primary school. She moved in during spring. They made sure that the ladder would hold her weight, then told her to get in. She did and felt immediately at ease within those four wooden walls. Since that day, she goes there almost every day, on her own or with her friends. According to Selam, a good thing about this house is that you can get in only if you are very agile, which is not the case for most of the adults. For example, the first time her mom and dad tried to get in they struggled so much that once inside they fell asleep straight away. “Between the birds singing, the trees rustling, and the smell of fresh wood – Selam says – it’s the perfect spot to take a nap.” This house was built by a guy called Ivano. He is 68 and has worked as a carpenter his entire life. From his eyes there is youthfulness. It speaks of an old man who in no way will renounce to the enchantment of life. To be completely honest, he built it with three lads – Marco, Alessandro and Andrea – but in a carpenter’s workshop the master builder is still the one who signs the projects. Helpers can only learn, shut up and be grateful. One day their turn will come, if they’re lucky. This is particularly true if the master builder is your dad and you’ve spent twenty years of your life staring at him working in his workshop. With each of his drill holes you see the gap of wisdom that divides you growing deeper and deeper. And one day you understand with startling clarity that, no matter how skilful you might become, he will always be the one dictating measures and materials, until the day you build his coffin. Apart from the people who either built it or live in it, this house is a terrestrial outpost in the no man’s land that is the sky. Anchored to the ground by the tree roots and stretching out towards the universe at the same time, it’s a wooden symbol of the eternal conflict between what we are – and give us security – and what we would like to be – and give us no peace. Perhaps due to this precarious condition, or to the nature that cradles and protects it, this house has a phenomenal effect on the people who get in it. Up here the perception of the world changes: thoughts sharpen, feelings purify, dreams become more vivid. If you have never entered a treehouse, then you should try. It feels good.
This treehouse is a project by Venice based graphic studio Tankboys, aka Lorenzo Mason and Marco Campardo, implemented by Ivano Campardo, Marco’s dad. The article was written by Cosimo Bizzarri, photo by Tankboys.