LA NUBE – ELEONORA ROARO

Eleonora Roaro, “LA NUBE” (“THE CLOUD”)
Single-channel video | 27’23’’
3840 × 2160 UHD 16:9
Edition 3 + 2AP | 2025

Composition and audio production: Emiliano Bagnato
Songwriting: Emiliano Bagnato, Sarah Demagistri, Eleonora Roaro
Vocals: Eleonora Roaro
Animations and illustrations: Corinne Ingegnieri
Editing and post-production: Eleonora Roaro
Compositing: Corinne Ingegnieri, Eleonora Roaro
Technical-scientific coordination: Sarah Fontana, Ilaria Tusini
Memories and documents: Archivio Germinal/La Cooperativa Tipolitografica, Franco Bigini, Andrea Botto, Nicola Bruschi, Marco Buratti, Riccardo Canesi, Bruno Dell’Amico, Matteo Marchini, Giulio Milani, Gabriele Nardini, Marcello Palagi, Alessio Profetti, Marco Roaro, Marialuisa Sacchelli, Andrea Tonarelli, Fabio Vené
Acknowledgments: Serena Arrighi, Nadia Bernasconi, Silvio Corsini, Gea Dazzi, Evandro Dell’Amico, Alessandra Evangelisti, Gabriela Galati, Raffaella Nobili, Brando Ratti, Riccardo Ricciardi, Katy Richardson, Barbara Tedeschi, Silvia Vannacci, Alessandro Violante, Guirardo Vitale

The vídeo was produced with the support of mudaC | museo delle arti Carrara and Toscanaincontemporanea2025.

The video and concept album “LA NUBE” (“THE CLOUD”) investigates the environmental consequences of the Zona Industriale Apuana (Apuan Industrial Zone, or Z.I.A.), situated between Massa and Carrara, with particular attention to the explosion of Farmoplant (formerly Montedison-Diag) on 17 July 1988, the last in a series of incidents which led to the dismantling of the chemical complex.
The project, originally conceived as a site-specific audio-video installation for mudaC | museo delle arti Carrara, is divided into 12 parts, corresponding to industrial-inspired tracks composed by the musician Emiliano Bagnato, which combine instrumental parts, synthesizers, field recordings and songs. It retraces the key phases in the history of the Zona Industriale Apuana from the Fascist era until today. The result is a reflection on the environmental and social impact of the economic boom, and on the post-truth narratives constructed by the media and industries for political and economic interests.
The protagonist of the video is the ZIA (in Italian, a pun between ZIA/AUNT and the acronym of Zona Industriale Apuana), a woman from Alteta (a district of Massa situated within the industrial zone), who is a personification of the Zona Industriale Apuana and its contradictions. With a character design based on herself, the artist gives voice to the project, interpreting both documents of the period and original texts. The illustrations and animations created by Corinne Ingegnieri and inspired by D.I.Y. punk graphics function as a frame narrative, marking the passing of time through the changes in the ZIA’s house and the transformations in the landscape seen from her window. They also serve as a connecting thread between heterogeneous archive materials such as Super8 films, VHS-C, newspaper articles, drawings, photographs, flyers and digital videos.
“LA NUBE” reproposes the countercultural protests and political activism, focusing in particular on citizens’ movements such as the Assemblea Permanente dei Cittadini di Massa e Carrara (Permanent Assembly of the Citizens of Massa and Carrara), Medicina Democratica (Democratic Medicine) and the environmentalist associations active between the 1970s and 1990s, denouncing the impact of the Zona Industriale Apuana on the environment, public health and safety at work, and fought against misinformation.