Urbanautica

VAJONT - 10.39PM - 46,267223 12,328889

ANDREA ALESSIO
Artist page on Urbanautica

© Andrea Alessio from the series 'Vajont - 10.39PM - 46,267223 12,328889'

«The Vajont disaster happened on October 9, 1963, at 10.39 pm, in the Vajont artificial hydroelectric basin.
An enormous land mass detached from the Monte Toc crashing into the lake and creating a gigantic wave bursting its banks over the dam, by provoking a flooding in the valley below, the destruction of Longarone and the instantaneous 1.917 deaths.

My research photographs the places of the disaster after 50 years within the sphere of the CALAMITA/À project.

At the exact time of the disaster, with the humid air, I moved through the silence of these spaces.
The rock walls give still evidence of collapses and useless attempts of the man to tie and to stop the mountain movements.
The gullies and the slopes have Dante reminiscences, the signs of the cement on the dam are open wounds that will never heal.
Solitary lights supervise, uselessly now, the enormous wall … the wave has already passed and it has left its indelible trace.
In the course of time, trees and shrubs have regained their spaces that water had torn away.» [ Andrea Alessio ]

© Andrea Alessio from the series 'Vajont - 10.39PM - 46,267223 12,328889'