 Thank you. Good afternoon everybody. Unfortunately I have other engagements later and I can't therefore be here the whole afternoon but I would like to convey my greetings to the mayors present and to the young people who are here and who want to try and understand what can be the future of our city our cities. I have prepared a small script so as to be concise, dear guests, never before as this year Biennale Architatura has entered our cities, our places, our projects, the protagonists of cities. The city is considered in the vastest sense of the word in the combination of its elements, central elements, water and land, centre and periphery, tradition and creativity. Can imagine to design a future based on hope. These years we have invested loads of thoughts, resources and energy in the preservation and conservation of Venice. Now the time has come for us to change our perspectives. Venice is not just an asset to be protected and this is something that should be explained to UNESCO better but it's a city that should live on on which we should take action with caution to give a sense and a meaning to the role of cities today. It's a bet that needs to be played on various tables in terms of its economy, social aspects and other aspects too. So the title for the Italian part of the exhibition and also the title of this conference presupposes that we must develop a civic conscience. We shouldn't just have architecture which is a beautiful spectacular design or just the aesthetic expression of some emotions. We should pay service to the community and pay attention to individuals who live in places. We must pay attention to resources. We must provide concrete responses and concrete answers to the citizens need. We must give a shape to common space as a solution for decay, degradation, marginalization. We need to improve on people's quality of life. So designers and administrators today, prime ministers and planners are requested to reflect on the social aspect of architecture by showing concrete experiences of how architecture can convey such values as culture, participation, health, sociality, integration and last but not least, legality. The challenge we are faced with is the following. We should understand how to shape our society, how to see to it that great urban centers can be redeveloped and requalified by focusing on economic development, by ensuring sustainability, by governing inequalities and other problems. I would like to thank Paolo Baratta and the curator of the 15th architecture exhibition, Alejandro Ravenna, who were able to meet this challenge under the encouragement of the municipal administration to see to it that this exhibition that attracts millions of visitors every year can sort of switch on the spotlights on social problems. Biennale focuses on the themes of reconversion and reuse. We concentrate on peripheries, particularly industrial peripheries that are now semi-abandoned places, semi-deserted places, even though in the past they were at the very center of people's life. Now we've come to the mainland with two projects that focus on our industrial peripheries, the Porto Marguera area, an area of 2,200 hectares that served as the manufacturing center of our territory, whereas now it's just suffering from decay. We have reporting from Marguera, an exhibition that shows how 12 big cities worldwide have tackled the problem of the transformation of industrial areas with projects to reconvert and recover abandoned, deserted areas, and this is organized in Forta Marguera. And up to Marguera on stage, an exhibition with 12 photographers and eight architectural firms on the future of Porto Marguera for the birth of the creation of a new city developed vertically. So these projects encourage reflection. They revive the dialogue between architecture and civil society. They help us grasp and interpret reality by paving the way to experimentation processes with the scanty resources we have to improve on people's quality of life, to make sure that also for future generation there can be growth. I would like to draw my comments to a close with the public response to what was united by UNESCO in Turkey regarding Venice. Apparently UNESCO, United Nations agencies, has decided to include Venice in the list of cities, sites in danger. They said that Venice needs to be saved and that very little has been done recently. We think that all advice can be useful, but I need to really understand the meaning of UNESCO's message. Nothing has been contributed in concrete terms, but this sort of advice. We accept everybody's suggestions, but the time has come, I think, for international decisions to be accepted by pointing out that it's up to the Venetians to think about Venice. They don't want to die. They want to see to it that Venice starts to grow again and we want to do it based on our pride and standing on our legs. Social programs should distribute loads of money and houses, etc. But these resources are no longer available. If this idea of UNESCO will help Europe and the state to refund the special law, which hasn't been refunded yet for 10 years, which hasn't been refunded for 10 years now, then we will welcome that. But I'm the mayor of the Venetians and Venice should be defended by us, first of all, with the help of everybody. But we need concrete help because we are fed up with advice.