We have had more long, hot days at the Palazzo Bembo. We’ve had to buy a pack of towels so that we each have something to mop up the sweat that’s constantly pouring off us. And disease has also taken a further toll, with Simon and then Henry holed up back at the apartment with what we are now calling ‘Lufthansa Fever’.

One cheerful moment was when Arata Isozaki, godfather of Japanese architecture, popped in to take a look. When he heard we were from New Zealand he told a story about a time when he sat on the international jury for the Venice Prize (known now as the Golden Lion) at the 1991 Biennale. He said he found ‘one excellent project’ to award the Prize to – it was an installation by the University of Auckland on which both Simon and I had worked on as students. We even have a tiny model of it in our current installation!

We’ve made good progress on our installation and now almost all of the Familial Cloud  is on the walls. Each of its 550 elements has a plate screwed to the wall, a custom-folded metal arm that clips onto it, a specifically oriented mirror that clips on in turn, and then a drawing, slide or model that completes the assembly. Simon thinks he could patent the system! The technology of the family tree on the plinth is comparatively simple. The models are made from laser-printed drawings cut and folded into shape, and the diagram has been laid out with a few basic drawing tools and a handful of black pens. We have to be extra careful not to smudge the lines into inky pools with stray drops of sweat…

View the timelapse video below: