With the installation Untitled, the artist uniquely creates a mapping of one of the areas of the Mediterranean Sea, where ships laden with toxic and radioactive waste are believed to lie hidden in its depths. The backdrop is the 1990 beaching of the Jolly Rosso ship in Amantea, and the discovery, inside it, of a nautical chart detailing the sinkings of ships carrying poisonous cargo. The only certainty is the documented sinkings, which, beyond being registered internationally, have been investigated through a series of inquiries launched in the 1990s by Lloyd’s of London, or have been photographed, as in the more recent cases of cargo releases off the Ligurian and Tuscan coasts. The criminal plan is not easily provable, mainly because bottom sonar scanning is an expensive operation. However, the assumption that nuclear waste will continue to produce its deadly charge for the next 20,000 years around Italy (the time it takes for plutonium to halve its radioactive charge) is more than plausible. Additionally, investigations have often stalled when they came close to uncovering business groups and untouchable power structures. The issue may involve trafficking with Lebanon and the sinkings off the coast of Somalia, the land from which Ilaria Alpi never returned alive. The depths become an unexplorable abyss of history; with the clarity of someone recounting a news event, the artist manages to shed light on these depths. Through denunciation, the narrative transcends, becoming a work of art—a unique document capable of confronting history and its ambiguities. Untitled is presented as a unique work, an environment. At first glance, or upon a cursory viewing, the piece blends into the space. Then, slowly, the space begins to reveal the work, and the contrast of colors forms the shape. Those hoping to find a map marking the "alleged" sinkings will be disappointed. The meticulous precision and the credibility of the artifact are the tools with which the artist denounces the crime. In his hands, the work becomes a document capable of confronting history—both present and future. The denunciation lies entirely in the meticulous precision and the plausibility of the artifact, which renders it a credible document, worthy of engaging with history, both present and future.

An additional tool for analyzing the issue is provided by the collage Protocol 05, created through successive layers of a text from the London Convention (which prohibits the dumping of waste into the sea), with technical drawings of ship floating devices, images of the ships themselves, and their respective identifying numbers (IMO).

Project exhibited in:

Immersioni, Davide Gallo Gallery, Milan, 2015
G.80, curated by Federica Barletta, Corsetteria, Turin, 2017
Quaestio de aqua et terra (another) question of the water and of the land, curated by Andrea Viliani, Rocca Borromeo, Angera, 2019