From The New York Times: “There are fewer than 500 Jews left in Venice, barely a handful compared with the 5,000 who filled the ghetto here at its height in the 17th century.

Drawn by this diminishing population, the Israeli artist Hadassa Goldvicht made repeated visits, along the way discovering Aldo Izzo, a former ship captain who for 35 years has been guardian and keeper of the two historical Jewish cemeteries on the Lido in Venice.

Mr. Izzo, 86, inspired Ms. Goldvicht, 35, to make her next project about him, recording hundreds of hours of footage with Mr. Izzo and Jewish residents around Venice, studying the meticulous illustrations and entries that fill Mr. Izzo’s daily journals. He keeps track of who has died and who remains.

‘I kind of fell in love with him, and I was very occupied with death,’ Ms. Goldvicht said in a recent interview. ‘He is not afraid.’

The result is ‘The House of Life,’ a multiscreen video installation that opened this month at the Palazzo Querini Stampalia Museum in conjunction with the first week of the Venice Biennale…” (For the full story and more photos, click here)

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