Sofia Gastaldo
1 → Véd
This long-term project examines the Veneto region through the lens of risk society (Beck, 1986), with a particular focus on Mestre-Marghera—a region shaped by successive waves of urban development. The concept of risk society refers to the idea that, in contemporary times, risks are no longer confined to physical or localized threats but have become global, abstract, and unpredictable. These risks manifest in various ways: socially, as communities grapple with economic instability and displacement; environmentally, through challenges like pollution, and resource depletion; and politically, through the erosion of democratic processes and the weakening of social solidarity.
From the early 20th-century garden city model to the workers' housing in Ca' Emiliani, to the commercial expansion of the late 20th century, the Mestre- Marghera area reflects shifting economic and social priorities. The original vision of a harmonious industrial space gradually gave way to economic structures prioritizing growth over environmental sustainability, leading to long-term consequences for residents and the region's landscape. Neoliberal urban policies attempt to counteract decline by reshaping the built environment and its narratives.
The concept of the risk society opens up individual and political opportunities. In contrast to postmodern despair, it emerges as an understanding of the internal and external dynamics of change. To approach the risk society, we must think of a new way, in relation to the world we live in, to find a new language that describes what is happening to us: we must be aware of what it means to live in a risk society.
Giddens states that the risk society exists "after nature and after tradition" (1999): through the exploration of lived imagination, the project aims to investigate how these dynamics influence personal and collective perceptions of the territory. This means that a project is a space to recognize an issue, distinguish its characteristics (even if, typically, the empirical results and instances are already formulated and recognizable), and identify the process leading to the "point of no return" for the community. It’s a mapping that can be historical on a small and medium scale (individual experience) and must be co-designed not only as an observation and documentation of a landscape but as a pervasive and invisible structure that can be translated, serve as a premise, and be shared.
Since May 2024, the project has been in a research phase, including fieldwork, interviews, and a photographic exploration of the Mestre-Marghera urban fabric. The visual production is in progress, focusing on portraits and landscape documentation. I’ve had access to materials derived from the interviews or provided by shipyards specifically. Over the next few months, I want to engage more with scientific committees: my work so far has been limited to individuals, associations, and forms of citizen participation.
The final outcome aims to be featuring materials produced by me (mainly portraits and explorations of the landscape and the area of interest), a series of interviews accompanied by visualizations through drawings made during the interviews, and the use of participatory photography if needed. I am also open to working with sound and video. So far, the project has been distributed on a limited scale and will be published in the monthly magazine Millennium, with a special focus on Fincantieri’s contract system. While the geographical and territorial dimensions have been an important framing, I want to ensure the project doesn’t become dependent on them. I aim to deliver a project with the potential to engage with the editorial dimension and interact with the space where it was conceived through solutions (generic). I would like it to become the foundation for the solidity of a territorial practice and a conceptual reflection. I would like this approach to have replicability for other places (since the risk society is becoming a global phenomenon) and to support what comes most naturally to me.
Interviewer: Listen, you specifically chose this spot within the Rivolta space. What was your reasoning behind that? What kind of personal connection do you have to that place?
J: Let’s say there are several factors. On one hand, it kind of happened naturally. I've been close to the music world since I was a kid — it's part of my life, almost a necessity. But I don't want to focus on the personal aspect, because I'm part of a collective and I don’t want to center everything around myself. I chose that space because it's one of the paths I can dedicate the most attention to at the moment. But I'd rather not make this conversation about me.
Interviewer: That’s a perfectly valid answer. It's not necessary to speak only about one's individuality...
J: Exactly. I think saying “Oh, I do it” isn’t the point. Maybe I handle the relational side of things, but without the community, I couldn't do what I do — and vice versa. So I don't want everything to be pinned on one person. We're against that mentality. Of course, there are people who take on different responsibilities, but we're a community. Then, there’s also a personal side. That space is now a recording studio, but until a few years ago it was an office. I remember, as a student, it was one of the places I’d go to take a nap before catching the bus home. So there’s an emotional connection and also a political one: creating a safe, open space where anyone can make music. Our informal motto is “Here, we make music — not mainstream bullshit,” because we want music to be a way of coming together, of being with one another. It comes from tribes, from gathering around one thing — the notes, the music. I think it’s important not to forget that, especially in today’s music scene, where people tend to only look after their own garden instead of collaborating with others.
Bibliographic References (selected):
Beck, Ulrich. Risk Society: Towards a New Modernity. SAGE Publications, 1992.
Giddens, Anthony. The Consequences of Modernity. Stanford University Press, 1990.
Castells, Manuel. The Rise of the Network Society. Blackwell Publishers, 1996.
Latour, Bruno. We Have Never Been Modern. Harvard University Press, 1993.
Vallerani, Francesco. Paesaggi dell’inganno: Percezioni ambientali e retoriche territoriali nel Nordest italiano. Unicopli, 2013.
Sassen, Saskia. Globalization and Its Discontents: Essays on the New Mobility of People and Money. New Press, 1998.
Harvey, David. A Brief History of Neoliberalism. Oxford University Press, 2005.
Beck, Ulrich. World at Risk. Polity Press, 2009.