Imprisoned waters and fragile mountains
by Fabio D’Arsiè
portfolio special mention call 'URBANAUTICA INSTITUTE AWARDS 2021', 2021
Category: Nature, Environment and Perspectives
The great Vajont, a prodigious system of dams and power plants built in Cadore, guaranteed the electricity necessary for industrial and economic growth, between the end of the fascist twenty years and the post-war period,
This complex engineering work soon found itself dealing with a nature difficult to govern, so in 1959 the first landslide invaded the Pontesei dam in Val Zoldana, and then the tragic epilogue of October 9, 1963 with the gigantic landslide that broke away from Mount Toc that invaded Lake Vajont and caused the destruction of Longarone and other neighboring countries.
Part of this system still exists, the Vajont dam itself has remained intact in perpetual memory of an announced disaster.
Photographing what is still active about this system, I realized how imposing what has been built is and how wild and fragile the territory that hosts it is, immense works that raise the levels of the streams to exploit the strength of the waters, are contrasted by fragile embankments that collapse remembering that no one can govern nature.