Urbanautica

MARCO BONOMO. A CONTROVERSIAL PERSPECTIVE ON ANAGNI

by Cristina Comparato

Most of today's industrial development (or presumed such) appears stagnant and short-sighted and often goes to the detriment of the concept of healthy living for citizens. Unfortunately, the region Lazio is Rome-centric, so everything else is canceled in its visibility. The Valley is always considered a sort of far-west for the most disparate speculative appetites. Consequently, today's dialectics are industry against nature or speculative capital against citizens.

© Marco Bonomo from the series "Prospettiva A-ecco"

If the courses of rivers accompanied the birth of great civilizations in ancient times, offering ways of communication, resources, and mostly a future, today their state refers more to an ancient dying divinity, which in its slow agony drags valleys and people. Since WWII, the enormous industrial exploitation that affected the Sacco Valley has led to the declaration of a state of socio-economic-environmental emergency since 2006. The phenomenon is mainly due to the production of insecticides based on beta-hexachlorocyclohexane. On Wikipedia, we also found information on this topic. With the rainwater that flowed into the land of the open landfills and conveyed into the ditches called Fosso Savo and Fosso Cupo, constant pollution was created in the Sacco river, which, overflowing periodically, in the following decades carried the pollutants on the neighboring lands and caused problems throughout the food chain. The peak was in 2005 when 25 cows were found dead along the river near Anagni poisoned by the arsenic present in the river. The May flooding of the river had polluted the banks and the surrounding lands. A high quantity of toxic substances for humans, banned in Italy since 2001, was found in corn, hay, and cattle milk, forcing the slaughter of livestock, destruction of all agricultural products, and leading to the closure of some companies. Marco Bonomo's work opens on four snakes that crawl parallel: the network of trellis, the road, the railway, and the Sacco River. Vegetation advances in radical autumn, which, rather than the rest that follows the frenzy of summer, seems to respond to the inescapable call of the end. The story continues with the agricultural expropriations, bearing witness to the ancient vocation of those lands, abandoned warehouses, landfills, and people, who, despite everything, look proud in the lens, stubborn in a present that does not want to give up being. I wonder what lead the photographer to start his project?

Marco Bonomo (MB): This work arises from the settling of different conditions. The need to understand the territory and its dynamics represented a cathartic aspect; it was the moment in which I found a punctum of what was an investigation project on industrial archeology that I was already thinking about. When we are talking about 2016, I read Antonio Pennacchi a lot, who made the stories of his proximity the fulcrum of his narration. My growing interest in this local approach, and mourning in the family, led me to tell what before I had the modesty to show, that is the context of the province in which I live, a world that encompasses all good and all evil. , a thousand streams of familiar stories but also a sort of Italian epic. I wanted to deepen these aspects in all their possible nuances. So I started shooting, and in the first months, I created an essential body of work though realizing that I was too much inside the story and couldn't give a logical structure to the project. Steve Bisson suggested that I deepen the story and the reasons while remaining as much as possible in the sense of the territory; hence the turning point: I had finally found the method that would allow me to interface with places and people familiar to me through a proper distance. My background in civic engagement with local associations was also fundamental.

© Marco Bonomo from the series "Prospettiva A-ecco"

Editing is another important aspect of the job. During the master with Massimo Mastrorillo, besides having acquired knowledge and valuable references for this project, I learned the importance of planning. Because if you have a precise and robust idea about the portfolio structure, and you can understand what is lacking, then it's easier to go out and shoot something already considered. That of specificities, as Lina Pallotta recently reminded me about this work, is another of the critical elements of the project. The photos of the documents are the correct expression because they are the best way to contextualize the story. Also, the use of the drone facilitated some photographic expressions that I would not have been able to solve otherwise.

© Marco Bonomo from the series "Prospettiva A-ecco"

The last important note is the choice of photographing in cloudy weather, an option that, in addition to making the shot more technically balanced, allowed me to work on post-production that would give me a result of mood suspension. I granted myself a license and claimed according to the principle that photography is valid when at the service of a goal.

How does being an inhabitant of an area in a state of emergency influence your photographic research?

MB: I have always thought that the historical and geographical context of "Prospettiva A-ecco" is an archetype of Italian history: the dynamics of development, boom, hyperproduction, the transition from rurality to the industry are common to many Italian suburbs. It is no coincidence that the SIN 1 - Sites of National Interests - are numerous and well distributed throughout the peninsula. It is rather evident that being an inhabitant of this land and investigating stories from inside has influenced my research and planning paths precisely.
At the same time, however, it can represent a limit: the emotionality in looking at something too much from the inside and being an activist can be an obstacle and affect pragmatism- So I have often had to carry out the exercise of distancing myself from those types of consciences.

© Marco Bonomo from the series "Prospettiva A-ecco"

For example: in the journalistic chronicle of the Valley, an episode of 2005 was a sort of explosion, creating a before and after in everyone's life. One morning a family of farmers finds all their livestock poisoned on the banks of a tributary of the Sacco, literally a ruin for those who live there. Well, I have a kinship bond with those breeders, my mother's family, and she grew up with them and in that place where the cattle drank and poisoned themselves. A part of my portfolio concerns this family, and I still don't know if I can put it functionally in the narration. And this is to say that it is not easy to filter the empathic aspects from what is truly indispensable to the story.

Anagni represents one of the most important municipalities in the province of Frosinone, from a historical and demographic point of view. Still, it has also become one of the symbols of the territory's toxicity. In your shots, there are no references to the great past of your land. The unhealthy air is revealed, yet, despite this apparent desolation or perhaps thanks to it, your gaze turns to an uncertain future. So this perspective raises questions and invites us to think about what's next. Is something still possible? Tell us about this choice of excluding the historical and cultural heritage from the narrative point of view?

MB: It was a well-considered choice in conceiving this work for several reasons. The Sacco Valley is a territory that extends and touches many municipalities, from Colleferro in the southern province of Rome up to the lower Lazio region in Ceprano and beyond. Each of the municipalities lapped by the Sacco River logically has its millennial history - from the Ernici to the popes in the Middle Ages. The portfolio mentions the city of Anagni and Colleferro Ceccano, Ferentino, Patrica. But the element of historical beauty is not contemplated because it would not work in the story. I preferred to give a more comprehensive view of Valle del Sacco than the municipalities that make it up. Also, from the topographical point of view, if we say Valle del Sacco, we are talking about a portion of land, a mixture of valleys with large patches and industrial settlements, peripheral to the municipalities to which it belongs.

© Marco Bonomo from the series "Prospettiva A-ecco"

As I said before, having to detach myself from a too inner vision was one of the processes I had to implement. I achieved this by analyzing and removing all that would have been excessively rhetorical. It's easy to fall into the trap of "before it was better" or to point out that our cities are full of historical beauties that have not been given the right dignity over the years. But the story stands on another register: how the industrial development of territory has influenced people's lives for better or worse over time? For example, I put a photo of my father's workbook, which is there to document today's pollution of the industry and the cathedrals in the desert and redemption of the new generations from the past agricultural slavery. However, this emancipation was paid bitterly by the environment.

Even if we do not see the large buildings or explicit references to history, in your path there is no lack of memory: it is in the laborer's prayer, in the service record book, it is in that furrow in the tall grass, which seems to recall ancient health of the Sacco River. Do you think memory has to do with the awareness of those who live in places and recognizing their identity and peculiarities? And how much do you think it can affect, then, the possibilities of redemption and the future?

MB: If we understand memory as an experience lived-in place and time, there is undoubtedly a common thread that binds the generations of inhabitants of the Sacco Valley. Suppose I talk to my father about his experiences in these places over the years. In that case, these will certainly have many points in common with those of another person of the same age in another city in the Valley: childhood in the fields, the arrival of industries, the passage of the highway, the land expropriations, the sense of paradise lost in the reviled nature, the economic boom, the well-being, the glories of this or that industry.

© Marco Bonomo from the series "Prospettiva A-ecco"

All these elements constitute an identity today and can be used to defend against new abuses and speculations. Citizens play the part of David by triggering fights against the Goliaths responsible for pollution and speculation. Without memory and identity, there would not have been that redemption that often happened. What you're saying also gives the idea of the peasant religious feeling, such as the laborer's prayer and specificities that give a strictly realistic picture: that card used by my maternal grandfather to collect the parcels of provisions of the Marshall Plan. It's about the experience and objective awareness those generations have lived, representing a solid memory aspect.

Some elements present, such as the expropriation card, immediately make you think of the great works that continue to devastate, especially those considered minor. Somehow, it seems that you wanted to leave a warning for other inhabitants, to invite them not to give in to the flattery of false progress that leaves behind destruction instead of bringing prosperity. Photography represents possible ways to start talking about these territories again, those already attacked and those under threat, and to give space to alternative narratives. Critical research can enhance a debate over the future without falling into the usual clichés that represent just another way to exploit already fragile areas. Your path seems to be firmly focused on those who live it, forming it and forming themselves with it. What do you think?

MB: The expropriation map touches precisely the point you raised. In the 60s and 70s, many industrial expropriations paid fair compensations to citizens in the faith of the future development and benefit of better conditions. The specific story is of a portion of land expropriated to build a pharmaceutical industry that is still one of the few active and able to find a balance with sustainability, albeit "guilty" of a past negative environmental impact. We need to contextualize these events to understand better and maybe tolerate this type of action. Instead, most of today's industrial development (or presumed such) appears stagnant and short-sighted and often goes to the detriment of the concept of healthy living for citizens. Unfortunately, the region Lazio is Rome-centric, so everything else is canceled in its visibility. The Valley is always considered a sort of far-west for the most disparate speculative appetites. Consequently, today's dialectics are industry against nature or speculative capital against citizens.

© Marco Bonomo from the series "Prospettiva A-ecco"

In this regard, the title "Prospettiva A-ecco" plays with the word "aecco" which in dialect means "here"; it contains the adverb "ecco" which indicates the approach of an event or someone, and a present that feeds on a possible future in those dialectics that I have mentioned. That's how I see it.

What does photographic action represent for you, and how would you like your work to develop, not just this one in particular, but your research in general?

MB: This project is still ongoing. A few pieces are missing. For example, I have to deepen some context even with portraits; I have archives to finish consulting, and the situation of the industries is evolving in other ways.
Being identified as a territory full of speculative possibilities brings with it a reverse side of the coin. I have taken on the responsibility of telling this reverse in my way, not because it is against industrial development, let alone the past one. I want to mention that stories and details of the years to date reflect how old visions should be abolished for sustainable modernity. As if a curtain had fallen, revealing many stories and events with an epic flavor and anthropological characteristics that deserve to be brought to light somehow.

My last work finished almost a year ago, describes parallels between the lockdown and my partner's pregnancy. In terms of visual narration has profound differences compared to "Perspective A-ecco", but the path had the same matrix precisely because I had to tune in with that "cosmic" dimension. For me, the image passes from listening to events, places, subjects. I take my time - sometimes too much! And it's slow work because of the way I am. It's my way of understanding photographic research, whether it is in personal works or commissioned works.

You said that the project is not finished, and you also mentioned new struggles. How do you think it will evolve, and what are the current issues to face?

MB: In addition to having some missing pieces, as I mentioned earlier, there is an evolution of the situation that deserves further understanding. The Valle del Sacco is undergoing attacks by speculators in the field of waste management and logistics. Leaving aside the former, already very much considered in my work, the latter introduces a functional question to the project's structure: land consumption. Logistics giants and multinationals are invading more and more spaces, legitimized by a context that does not ponder the reuse of abandoned or vacant warehouses but finds it more profitable to give land to these realities. You understand that this impacts a lot against the concept of environmental and housing sustainability. I'm thinking about how I can translate it into pictures.

What are your future projects, what do you think your next themes will be?

MB: For a couple of years, I have been trying to carry out a project concerning the Gustav Line and the Marocchinate (the phenomenon of rape and raids perpetrated by the allies during WWII). I still have little material and need to put together documentation and contacts. Then I want to carry on my report on the transgender community in Italy. Having the opportunity to deal with the world of journalism also leads me to have a wealth of ideas that translate into potential projects. However, I do not exclude that in the meantime, I can grant me some more personal and conceptual work, as happened, for example, with the one mentioned above where I analyzed the "journey" of my partner's pregnancy during the first lockdown.

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1 SIN represents very large contaminated areas classified as dangerous by the Italian State and requires soil, subsoil, and/or surface and underground water remediation interventions to avoid environmental and health damage.

LINK

Marco Bonomo (website)

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