The photographic projects of five authors, in charge of photographing five great infrastructural works all over the world

 

Commissioned by Ghella, company specialized in underground works, the 120 photographs on show have been realized between 2019 and 2020 in five construction sites between Europe, Middle East, and Oceania. In the exhibition’s path, which is introduced by historical images that document the company’s activity from the end of the nineteenth century to the fifties, the views of the cities and construction sites alternate to archeological finds, core drillings and TBM parts, while spectacular explosions dialogue with forests and rock formations: the dimensions, the structure and the physicality of the spaces, machinery and excavation materials restore the complexity of the site’s infrastructure and its nature as a constantly evolving organism.

The work of Fabio Barile on the railway tunnel
that will connect Oslo to Ski, juxtaposes images of intricate natural and artificial systems, coniferous forests, foreshortenings of the construction site and new urbanizations. Andrea Botto’s photographs, realized inside the tunnel that will connect Italy to Austria under the Brenner Pass, document the small fire’s activities which culminate with the spectacular explosion of the excavation front. The images take by Marina Caneve of the metro line which will connect Athens’s International Airport to the Port of Piraeus, question the relationship between city, contemporary design, and historical memory. Alessandro Imbriaco’s photographs that portray details taken inside the mastodonic mechanical moles, used to realize the tunnels that run under Sydney’s harbour, evoke atmospheres traceable to space exploration. Francesco Neri’s sequence of Hanoi’s first underground metro, visually cuts the city, restoring the construction site as an area of conflict and challenge to the chaotic, unforeseen and organic environments of the city.

Ghella | MAXXI