Seveso Oak Forest, Italy, 2015. Diptychs
On July 10 1976, a toxic cloud escaped from the Swiss owned ICMESA chemical factory, causing dioxin contamination in the territory surrounding Seveso in northern Italy, creating a health and environmental disaster.
After the accident two basins were built to contain contaminated material, surface soil, demolished buildings, homes and personal belongings, and the bodies of over 80,000 slaughtered animals. Public protest transformed this site into a 43 hectare urban forest, and by 1988 over 45,000 trees and bushes had been planted.
On 25 September 2015, I went for a walk in Bosco delle Querce of Seveso and Meda, Seveso Oak Forest, Italy, and remembered the earth, animals, people and plants who were harmed as a result of the Seveso Disaster, and the people who protested to transform this space into an urban forest.
I was born 1969 in Naples Italy. I have also made photographic work in the residential suburb of Paritutu, New Plymouth, New Zealand where Agrichemical company Ivon Watkins Dow made the herbicides 245T and 24D until 1987.
On July 10 1976, a toxic cloud escaped from the Swiss owned ICMESA chemical factory, causing dioxin contamination in the territory surrounding Seveso in northern Italy, creating a health and environmental disaster.
After the accident two basins were built to contain contaminated material, surface soil, demolished buildings, homes and personal belongings, and the bodies of over 80,000 slaughtered animals. Public protest transformed this site into a 43 hectare urban forest, and by 1988 over 45,000 trees and bushes had been planted.
On 25 September 2015, I went for a walk in Bosco delle Querce of Seveso and Meda, Seveso Oak Forest, Italy, and remembered the earth, animals, people and plants who were harmed as a result of the Seveso Disaster, and the people who protested to transform this space into an urban forest.
I was born 1969 in Naples Italy. I have also made photographic work in the residential suburb of Paritutu, New Plymouth, New Zealand where Agrichemical company Ivon Watkins Dow made the herbicides 245T and 24D until 1987.