The Happenstance: the story of an airborne gondola

The Happenstance was Scotland’s critically acclaimed contribution to the ‘free space’ theme at the International Architecture Exhibition in 2018, delivered through Scotland + Venice. It took place in Venice’s garden of Palazzo Zenobio and curated by Glasgow-based artist studio WAVEparticle.

One evening Roland Wacogne and his wife Caroline came across The Happenstance. They asked if they could show their film Handiciel. “Yes, of course” was the reply. It was shown during one of the many days of film screenings at The Happenstance.

The film shows crowds of people in a field in St Hilaire du Touvet, in the French Alps, cheer and applaud as Roland and Bruno Joannes, who is hemiplegic and aphasic, ascend in a paraglider. Roland has made the perfect link: the base on the paraglider is shaped like a gondola, a plywood structure built around a wheelchair. It is his gift to Venice.

This resource is Roland’s account of The Happenstance and his film screening.