In Rome there are about 120.000 pines and their millenarian relation with the city seems to have been recently compromised: falls are more and more frequent and unpredictable.
During the transplanting the main root of these trees - the so called fittone which reaches down into the ground - have been cut as well as the horizontal roots the tree develops to get anchored on the ground, so the risk of fall increases enormously. Being already weakened at the base, these trees suffer because of the poor care of branches and crown.
In the last 20 years politics drastically cut investment for public green spaces, neglecting the bond between the city and nature.
Extreme and violent weather events make the situation even worse. The evergreens cannot deal with more and more frequent water bombs falling down on Rome and their routes cannot resist anymore.
In October 2018 for the first time schools were shut down due to wind: risk of trees falling was too high.
This project has been realized as a warning call, bringing the viewer in front of the accomplished fact: the iconic trees vanished from the landscape of the Eternal City.
Images of the trees have been physically removed from the prints, revealing the paper as a reminder of the tree death. In a linear progress it can be read in both ways: from the centrality of the trees to their disappearing or from the prevalence of the image to its fading out.
This work metaphorically marks the passage of time.
The mutation of the urban fabric has been made evident and visible to urge a reflection on two dramatic absences: the projectuality about the mankind/nature relation and the idea of the city we want to leave to the future generations.
2019-2020. 7 hand-scraped b/w photographic prints.