Location: ITALIA

Nerosogno is a visual research that explores the dark legacy of petrochemical industrialization in southeastern Sicily (Italy). Starting from the second half of the twentieth century, the territories have been completely transformed by extractivist development model accompanied by the myth of progress; giant productive poles grow and become the most important in Europe in terms of extension and production. This has left a very high price to pay: ecological disaster, cancer, neonatal diseases, and high rates of mortality. Today, most of the industrial plants have been abandoned and these areas are now classified as ‘Sites of national interest’ (SIN), due to the high levels of water, air and soil contamination, mainly caused by the release of chemical pollutants and toxic waste from the oil refining process. In these poisoned scenarios, characterised by risk and a general condition of existential uncertainty, different forms of life (plants, animals and human beings) are residual presences in an altered environment, where the ruins of classical antiquity coexist with the waste of the recent past, the extractive areas overlap agricultural land and pastures, personal interests and environmental protection attempts. Visible and invisible, manifest and occult, past and present are confused to the point of giving us the impression of not understanding exactly what we are seeing, or what kind of space we are crossing, forcing us to think about what can be directly photographed and what can only be evoked: a dream black as petroleum.

LIBRERIA PANGEA

Via San Martino e Solferino 106