During the last five years photographer Luca Quagliato has been travelling along the A4 highway from Turin to Venice, passing by Milan, to carry on an important and very complex work. How to show what is not visible? This is the question most of his photographs try to give an answer to, an answer that’s aesthetic only in so far as it is also confronted with an ethic task. What you don’t see is in fact present in all his images, even though in many cases it’s hidden beneath the surface: it becomes the subject of each photo just by not displaying itself. And this is because La Terra di Sotto (Underland) — the series evocative title — is the area in the hardworking North that Italy hides to its own eyes, the part of Padana Plain contaminated by the waste of a century long industrial production. Armed with a full frame camera and a tilt–shift lens, but above all with the doubting and the guts that makes every photographer a potential detective, Quagliato has went through an apparently still and silent but actually adverse and riotus landscape, focusing on historical cases as well as highly relevant news: from the asbestos mines near Turin to the petrochemical complexes in the Venice lagoon, from the chemical legacy of Caffaro in Brescia to the complex balance of the neighboroods built over illegal dumps such as Santa Giulia in Milan. Quagliato’s photographs, solid structured and high–impact vedutas, move between the sheer force of showing and the never excessive need of proving: the strongest and most shoking ones are those where evidence exceeds imagination, while the ones that share the aeshetic of the american New Topographics—a Robert Adams in color comes to mind—turn out to be the most intriguing and unexpected. In 2020 La Terra di Sotto will be a book, now in pre–sale, published by Penisola Edizioni with the collaboration of Urbanautica Institute. To contribute to its outcome is the participation of investigative journalist Luca Rinaldi, a member of IRPI (Investigative Reporting Project Italy) who has been dealing for some times with environmental crimes, the infographics of cartographer Massimo Cingotti and landscape architecture researcher Matteo Aimini, and the layout curated by Roberta Donatini. Looking at these photographs won’t be easy, but it is important to understand that the Waste Century, as Rinaldi calls it, is simply not over: its effects are still here, just beneath our feet.
The environmental crimes of Northern Italy told through photography
Photographer Luca Quagliato’s new book sheds light on the environmental crimes of Northern Italy during a century long industrial production.
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- Raffaele Vertaldi
- 22 November 2019
Brescia - An abandoned building south of the Caffaro headquarters. Several episodes of water and soil pollution originate from the Caffaro headquarters, the most serious case is the pollution from PCB (Policorobiphenyl), a chemical compound patented by Monsanto and diffused in the environment through the aquifer system. SIN Brescia-Caffaro represents one of the most serious cases of PCB pollution in the world.
Mira (Venice) - Under the foundations of this house in 1999, 7,000 barrels of toxic waste were found. Since it is impossible to remove them without spilling the pollutants into the aquifer, safety measures were taken by injecting high pressure liquid cement to isolate pollutants from the environment.
Lonigo (Vicenza) - The irrigation system of a private house where PFAS-contaminated water is used. PFAS (Perfluoroalkyl Acids) are odorless, colorless and tasteless chemical compounds. For years, from the tanning district of the province of Vicenza, compounds have been spilled into the aquifer and assimilated by the population through the aqueduct and private wells. Tens of thousands of citizens are exposed to one of the worst cases of water pollution in Europe.
Carpiano (Milan) - A view of the cultivated fields south of the city of Milan. In this area the environmental authorities confirm the pollution of some land with the presence of heavy metals that "lead us to hypothesize one pirate shedding".
Pandino (Crema) - The junction on the SP415 "Paullese". According to the parliamentary commission of inquiry into the waste cycle at the construction site for doubling and expanding the infrastructure worked the company Perego Strade, involved in a criminal trial that led to the conviction of the holder for illegal waste disposal. The company, active in the earthworks sector, was infiltrated by members of organized crime and won numerous contracts for construction sites in northern Italy.
Brescia - The Vallosa landfill of Passirano in Franciacorta. Surrounded In this site, surrounded by crops, the bins containing PCB (Polychlorobiphenyl) coming from Caffaro were buried. The landfill, almost invisible due to the spontaneous vegetation, is inserted in the SIN Brescia Caffaro but has not yet been affected by remediation or safety measures.
Cavaglià (Biella) - One of the quarries in the strip of land called "Valledora" straddling the province of Santhià, Biella, Vercelli. The area, a vast morainic belt, has been exploited since the 1980s for the extraction of construction gravel. The exhausted quarries have often been converted for landfill use. In the photo, the "Alice Ambiente" landfill site, which presents structural criticalities and leaks that can cause groundwater pollution.
Desio (Milan) - Illegal landfill of Molinara Street - Remains of buried waste emerge from spontaneous vegetation. In 2008, during the operation called "Star Wars" the Police discovered an illegal traffic of waste managed by affiliates of the 'Ndrangheta. Currently there has been no characterization, and a dense spontaneous vegetation covers tons of unidentified waste.
Rosà (Treviso) - The Rostoncelli canal is a source of water for crop irrigation. The canal route is adjacent to the castellan landfill. Following some observations by the inhabitants' committees who took some sediment samples, the canal was contaminated with C12 hydrocarbons and other pollutants.
Milan - Built on the rubble of the ex-Montedison factory, the Santa Giulia district is one of the most important residential projects in the city. In 2010, when the first residential lot had already been built, the public areas of the neighborhood were seized for an investigation that revealed the alleged discrepancy in land decontamination operations. Since then a large area of the complex is still awaiting decontamination and new building projects
Novate Mezzola (Sondrio) - The lake of Novate Mezzola, naturalistic area at the entrance of Valchiavenna. A few dozen meters from the lake, the former Falck steelworks, covered by a concrete sarcophagus, releases pollutants into the groundwater and into the lake. The presence of Hexavalent Chromium worries the inhabitants, who are united in a very active committee on the territory.