Archiving Football Memories – A journey into the Venezia FC archive

In a deeply stratified community, as polarized as it is united, such as Venice, what acts as a bond between generations and their identities? Football, and the memories attached to it, perhaps more than any other thing.

Carlotta Beltrami, a fashion communication and new media student at the local university Iuav, has come to understand this, spending the past year archiving the memories (and memorabilia) of the Venetian supporters, from their origins to the present day.

Her thesis project led the 2002-born Mestre girl to immerse herself in the archives of Venezia FC, a vast collection of shirts, photographs, match tickets, posters, newspapers, and a myriad of other objects – from scarves to dolls – that had never before been thoroughly documented.

We met with Carlotta to discuss her mapping of this iconographic heritage, which brings together generations.

Venice by Venezia: Carlotta, you were effectively the first person to delve into the Venezia FC archive, an unexplored territory until now. How did you approach your research?

Carlotta Beltrami: With my hands in the dust, I started pulling out the material to understand its volume, taking it piece by piece, and cataloguing it into a list of over 1800 entries – 1875 to be precise. Some of the photographs were deteriorated, as they hadn’t been stored properly over the years, and it was often a challenge to trace their dates and origins. In doing so, I consulted mainly with two collectors, Mario Santini and Marco Bevilacqua, who had donated their collections to Venezia FC over the years.

VBV: What was the most surprising or fascinating aspect of the research?

CB: What excited me most was the fact that I was looking at two elements simultaneously: the rigorous archival side and the ‘pop’ – in the sense of popular – side of football. This duality characterized the entire research. On one hand, there was the archival theme, which is currently very much in vogue, and the idea of the commercial potential of the materials; on the other hand, the human side, which meant talking with people who had respectively dedicated 45 and 25 years of their lives to collecting these ephemera.

VBV: Among the catalogued material, there are shirts, photographs, tickets, posters, and also a lot of memorabilia, what we would call merchandise today. In which historical period did you notice the most prolificacy and creativity?

CB: Considering the limited resources available, the 1980s were one of the most prolific periods. At the same time, if we didn’t have these financial difficulties we wouldn’t have had

the merging, the unione, in 1987. The period before the union, from the mid-60s to the 70s, was also fascinating because I got the sense that there was a great degree of attention to the image and the materials of the shirts. Undoubtedly, they had evolved since the early 1900s, but the football spirit of togetherness hadn't yet been lost. I think of the fan club coordination center, which organized the printing of posters with the chants of the day to distribute to the supporters, or the chalkboards with player illustrations put up outside the bacari (local bars) for people to write their predictions.

VBV: And regarding the period of the Unione, what about that?

CB: I was especially struck by the shirts, for the incredible gap in aesthetic complexity compared to the neroverde (green-and-black) period. I think of the one worn by Recoba during the 1998/1999 season, especially because of the legend surrounding the player. The 1990s were a golden era for the Unione, a time when there was a desire to create an identity, but also a moment full of creativity in fashion.

VBV: In fact, your background is in fashion communication. How did you harmonize this discipline with football – two industries that seem far apart but are increasingly in dialogue?

CB: I never imagined I’d end up doing research in the football world. What struck me about football, which I initially thought was driven by values far removed from mine, is how the sport is lived as a means of bringing people together and sharing spaces. There’s a common element between fashion and the social commitment of both fields. I think of all the collaborations by Martin Rose, for instance: fashion is bringing fresh air to a football world that is changing a lot, and which is at risk of becoming purely business. All the initiatives related to the human side of sport are important.

VBV: How does this approach relate to the Venetian territory?

CB: Since I was a child, I’ve been taught to see Venice as an open hub, full of cross-pollinations, with a constant flow of creativity. I think that for Venezia FC it would be interesting to work in contact with other disciplines, just as the city it represents does. Fashion can be just one of many channels through which football can engage with society.

VBV: The archive also tells the story of how supporting the team has evolved in Venice (and beyond). What has changed over time?

CB: I think of an anecdote that Mario Santini told me about the 1960s, when the Fan Club Coordination Centre would organize buses for away games and the players would help the fans bring aboard large pots of pasta for their lunch. As for the paper memorabilia, it was definitely a much less ephemeral way of experiencing the match. The ephemera today are represented by the avalanche of posts [on social media] with which we’re inundated. A day or two after the match, there’s nothing left, unless you were at the ground. It’s all so fast, but there’s little left speaking of tangibility.

VBV: Which type of supporter culture did you engage with while delving into the archive: the ultras or the less ‘organized’ fanbase?

CB: The latter, in the form of material from the fan clubs or official merchandise. Although I was particularly struck by the appropriation of symbols carried out by the Unione VeneziaMestre ultras, I didn’t want to intrude nor appropriate their aesthetic, which is a thing of its own, external to the club. However, I hope my work touches the hearts of everyone, whether they are young fans – who, perhaps, may engage with the club through fashion – or older ones, who remember the green-and-black days of Venezia.

VBV: What is the current connection between fans and these relics?

CB: These relics are not easily accessible or available today. During the research, there was quite a lot of surprise from the presidents of fan clubs, especially the older ones, who were curious to revisit the memorabilia they grew up with. I think that for younger fans, it could also be quite interesting because football allegiance is like a heritage. Memory is a crucial ground for reflecting on a team’s identity; it binds generations together and helps us understand the history and evolution of Venezia FC.

VBV: What does the future hold for the archive?

CB: This research also allowed me to understand the state of the art around me: to my surprise, I discovered that there are few international institutions dedicated to the digitisation of football archives. In addition to the creation of a printed publication, the research was designed to become a digital collection, accessible and searchable. The archive would be a way to give something back to those who’ve preserved it for years and to the entire community, to tell a side of Venezia FC that many people may not know. The archive has great human value.