The installation

The Light of Rising Tides is an immersive passage that places visitors, for a moment, in the sensation of being underwater. Created by Mast, the work is presented for the first time in a symbolic location, Riva Ca’ Di Dio, for the Venice Design Week 2025. Venice has been living with the movements of the sea for centuries. Since medieval times, the city has managed tidal movements and flooding through ingenious systems of architecture, engineering, and an adapted lifestyle. But today, the situation is becoming more urgent and far less predictable.

Through light and fabrics, this public art opens a space for reflection in a place where History and culture are deeply concerned. Its design mimics the hypnotic flow of waves, translating them into a fluid tapestry of light. Visitors walk through an underwater-like corridor where motion sensors trigger a second layer of luminous waves, flowing over the monotonic rhythm of the sea. This undulating light invites you to follow its movements, a movement that you inevitably disturb and reshape simply by being there. Surrounding the installation, curved seating offers a place to pause, sit, or lie back, a place for reflection before confronting the reality it represents: the rising waters threatening our cities.

A dual issue 

Venice is a noticeable example, but it is not an isolated case. In fact, the situation is common to many places in the world. Over the next 50 to 100 years, depending on climate scenarios, many coastal areas could be submerged. Amsterdam for instance, faces similar threats. Already below sea level, much of the city is built around waterways with constant flood potential. This reality makes the installation a way to transform a shared concern into something meaningful and emotional. 

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The consequences

These threats stem from natural processes, but their intensity is becoming uncontrollable, accelerated by human activity. Global warming and environmental changes, will not only affect natural landscapes; if we are not attentive, our homes could also vanish, too quickly for us to design and build the solutions we need. The phenomenon may feel invisible today, but soon oceans will reshape the planet.

Keep thinking

In this installation, you are invited to let your mind travel through time and imagine the future of our cities and coastlines in the years to come, and reflect on it. Will we fight to keep our heads above water?

Or will we accept change and, as we have in the past, discover new ways to adapt? Heritage may not disappear; it may simply evolve, as Venice itself has done, making space for the generations that follow to build a new story.