Walls

Rome – Un-Guru – 56 Capo le Case St. – From December 6 to 30, 2005

PORTO MARGHERA, AN ENVIRONMENTAL DISASTER by Anna La Stella

“The cocktail of chemical poisons that for 40 years spewed from the industrial hub of Porto Marghera polluted the lagoon, the air, and the soil. It affected the urban centers of Marghera, Mestre, and even Venice. The 157 workers who died and the 103 still suffering from cancer caused by CVM (vinyl chloride monomer, used in PVC processing and plastic production) have no responsible parties. This was the ruling of the Venice court, which, on November 2001, acquitted the defendants of the Marghera Petrochemical Plant, managed by the Montedison and Enichem groups”.
When, that year, 2001, I was reviewing ‘Petrolkiller’ by Gianfranco Bettin and Maurizio Danese – a book in which they tell an history of that trial, uncovering injustices, distortions, and international conspiracies at the expense of people and an entire territory – I decided to visit the sites of the Petrochemical Plant. Convinced I would find writings on the walls, words of outrage, anger, and despair. Instead, I found silence. A vast, desolate lunar landscape inhabited only by factories, railways, warehouses, and rusted chimneys. To quell the sense of desolation and death, that silent anguish, I began to photograph. Dozens and dozens of shots…
Today, for the first time, I present some of the works born from that desolate and desolating survey.