Urbanautica

BENEATH THE GROUND

by Steve Bisson

«The industrial landscape of Po Valley is known for many cases of soil and water pollution, not to mention the quality of the air. To stop this process, we need to promote awareness of the magnitude and gravity of this phenomenon. Disseminating news, data, maps, images; sharing existing sources and regional statistics, everything serves the purpose of stimulating an awakening of the affected communities».

'La Terra di Sotto' (literally 'Beneath the Ground') is a publication by Penisola Edizioni in collaboration with Urbanautica Institute. An investigation was conducted for a few years along the A4 highway, between illegal waste trafficking and pollution. The virtuous and productive northern Italy seriously begins to deal with the environmental and health impact resulting from decades of industrial development. The tangible consequences of illegal landfills and abandoned industrial sites. Warehouses are on fire, barbarously closing the waste cycle that too often holds on criminal activity. Thanks to the disciplines of photography, cartography, urban planning, and investigative journalism, the "Terra di Sotto" aims to tell, document, collect stories and interpret data regarding the multiple environmental criticalities that impact the local system and the daily life of millions of people.

Video produced for the crowdfunding campaign.

The industrial landscape of Po Valley is known for many soil and water pollution cases, not to mention the quality of the air. To stop this process, the authors Luca Quagliato and Luca Rinaldi choose to raise awareness of the magnitude and gravity of this phenomenon. Disseminating news, data, maps, images, sharing existing sources and regional statistics; everything serves to stimulate an awakening of the affected communities. They have embraced activism in requesting due attention and studying alternative solutions to issues forgotten by the political agenda.

© Luca Quagliato from the series 'La Terra di Sotto'

© Luca Quagliato from the series 'La Terra di Sotto'

The book is intended as a guide to uncover a geological layer unjustly left as a polluted legacy to future generations. Under the ground and their feet, a deliver soil impregnated with metals, poisons, toxic and harmful substances. Plants and fruits that will feed animals and humans will grow on this soil. This photographic and territorial investigation manifests a method of working and disseminating knowledge, a good practice, a benchmark for those who wish to apply the expressive potential of the image in safeguarding the common good, the earth, and life.

The project started in 2014 when the photographer Luca Quagliato began a documentation campaign of some polluted areas in the south of Milan. The use of open data and field research through information from committees or individual citizens pushed him to extend the research to include 70 serious cases of environmental pollution in the regions of Piedmont, Lombardy, and Veneto.

© Luca Quagliato from the series 'La Terra di Sotto'

Subsequently, journalist Luca Rinaldi, a member of IRPI Media (Investigative Reporting Project Italy), the cartographer Massimo Cingotti and Matteo Aimini, a researcher in landscape architecture, decided to join the team. Over the years the project won the Wind Transparency Award 2016, and has been hosted in public talks by several agencies and institutes such as Libera, Legambiente, Greenpeace among many others. The team was also involved in lectures at the Catholic University and of the IULM of Milan. The photographs of the project have been published in national media such as FQ Millenium, the Corriere della Sera, La Nuova Ecologia. The project will be exhibited for the first time at PhotoFestival Milano.

LINKS
La Terra di Sotto (website)

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