|
S. A. D. E.
2017-2019 | digital recordings, magnetic tape installation and silver prints | 40'41"
This work comes from a need matured over the years thanks to the stories of my family and my emotional bond with the mountains of northeastern Italy. A need for psychological and physical confrontation with a devastated place, bot morphologically and culturally, by the action of criminal institutions, which acted undisturbed with the alibi of progress. In 1963 the Vajont valley suffered an environmental and human disaster, which occurred in the new artificial hydroelectric basin of the Vajont torrent, due to the fall of a colossal landslide from the slope above Mount Toc in the waters of the basin formed by the construction of a dam; the consequent overflow of the water contained in the deposit, involving first the countries of Erto and Casso, geographically close to the shore of the lake after the construction of the dam, while the wave generated caused the flood and the destruction of the inhabited areas of Longarone, and the death of 1,910 people. The causes of the tragedy were traced to the fault of the designers and managers of the S.A.D.E. (Società Adriatica Di Elettricità), which have been discovered that they had morphological characteristics such as not to make them suitable for being washed by a hydroelectric tank. Over the years, the managing body and their managers, despite being aware of the dangerousness, covered the data to their knowledge, with the approval of various local and national authorities, from the small municipalities concerned to the Ministry of Public Works. The court ruling of 25 March 1971 arrives 14 days before the prescription. Condemns a former employee of S.A.D.E. at five years and an employee of the Ministry of Public Works at three years and eight months, as responsibles for the crime of flooding and homicide. Both will then enjoy a three-year amnesty. The first two tracks contain the sound recording of some crossings on the slopes of Mount Toc and the Vajont stream, while the third track is the result of a sound installation that collects the layering on magnetic tape of some interviews carried out the days following the disaster (Teche RAI archive). |