The mudaC | Carrara Museum of Arts presents LA NUBE, a solo exhibition by Eleonora Roaro, promoted by the Municipality of Carrara and curated by Cinzia Compalati and Vanina Saracino, which opens on Saturday, October 11, 2025, at 6 p.m. and remains open to the public until January 25, 2026.
The artistic and curatorial project addresses one of the most dramatic chapters in the industrial history of the Apuan territory: the Farmoplant (formerly Montedison-Diag) explosion that occurred in 1988 in the Apuan Industrial Zone (Z.I.A.) between Massa and Carrara, the last episode in a series of accidents that led to the definitive dismantling of the chemical hub. Specifically, in the 1970s and 1980s, Farmoplant produced the pesticide “Rogor,” already considered obsolete at the time and sold mainly in the global south. The explosion of one of its processing plants exacerbated the environmental damage already existing in an area that has still not been fully remediated.
Through a site-specific audio-video installation, Eleonora Roaro retraces some key elements in the history of the Z.I.A. from the Fascist era to the present day, using archive images and original animations (created by Corinne Ingegnieri and inspired by DIY punk graphics) to stimulate critical reflection on the environmental and social impact of the economic boom and on the post-truth narratives constructed by the media and industry for political and economic interests. The work, conceived as a 27-minute concept album with industrial influences created in collaboration with musician Emiliano Bagnato, accompanies the audience through the museum’s exhibition space via a cable radio system, while the video is projected onto a marble slab.
The audio dimension of the installation combines electronic sounds from the 1980s and 1990s with interviews, environmental recordings, and original instrumental compositions, some of which are specifically related to chemistry and industry, evoking the atmosphere of the era.
At the center of the visual narrative is the figure of ZIA, the personification of the Apuan Industrial Zone (of which the acronym), and its presence in the hamlet of Alteta, incorporated into the industrial area. It was the local women who first noticed the environmental damage, observing the death of vegetable gardens and domestic animals. ZIA’s house thus becomes a narrative device to recount the passage of time and the transformations of the territory from fascism to the present day.
In addition, for the exhibition project, the artist has selected a wide range of material on the Farmoplant affair, such as posters on the 1987 consultative referendum in which the population was asked to close the factory (71.69% voted in favor), documents on environmental movements, and protest petitions from local movements, such as the Permanent Assembly of Citizens of Massa and Carrara and Medicina Democratica, active between the 1970s and 1990s in denouncing the impact of the Z.I.A. on the environment, public health, and workplace safety.
Among the images are those of the punk band I Figli della Farmoplant, which denounced environmental pollution through music, evoking a return to the earth. Roaro also involved local professionals who, over the last thirty years, had already developed projects on the theme, including photographic series, documentaries, and archival materials in the exhibition. These materials, chosen by the artist, open up different points of view on the story, constructing a choral narrative that enriches the exhibition with the voices of artists, activists, and scholars linked to the recent history of the area.
“When artist Eleonora Roaro proposed this exhibition and its theme to us,” explains Gea Dazzi, Councilor for Culture of the Municipality of Carrara, “we immediately felt it was important to welcome it into the temporary exhibition space of our mudaC, because through her artistic narrative it would be possible to draw attention back to a complex story of our territory and our people.” –, we immediately felt it was important to welcome her to the temporary exhibition space of our mudaC, because through her artistic narrative it would be possible to draw attention to a complex story of our territory and our history, such as the Farmoplant case, which even the youngest members of our community and students in our schools should know about. Every event, even those we would gladly have done without, such as this one, was contemporary and retains its value in the contemporary world, from which useful reflections for the present and the future can arise.“
”Through a rigorous and intense working method,“ says Cinzia Compalati, curator of the exhibition, ”Eleonora Roaro has been able to investigate one of the most controversial episodes in recent Apuan history. The result is a reinterpretation halfway between artistic practice, curatorial work, and historical-archival research, unique in its kind, narrated through the personification of the ZIA (Apuan Industrial Zone), alias the artist herself.”
The exhibition is accompanied by a program of talks and workshops that explore the themes addressed in the project from an environmental, historical, and political perspective, offering the public further insights into the complex dynamics between industrial development, environmental impact, and popular resistance.
As Vanina Saracino, co-curator of the project, points out: “With LA NUBE, Eleonora Roaro reactivates the memory of the Apuan industrial catastrophe to reflect on its resonance in the present. Conceived as a visual and political concept album, the work transforms the history of the Z.I.A. into a lens through which to read the continuities between the past and the current ecological, economic, and social crisis,
intertwining myth, archive, and collective resistance in a single metabolic narrative of the territory and the planet.”
The project was selected and awarded by the Toscanaincontemporanea 2025 call for proposals by the Tuscany Region, which provides financial support for activities that promote the production, knowledge, and dissemination of contemporary creativity in the field of contemporary visual arts.
The exhibition is accompanied by a program of talks and workshops that explore the themes addressed in the project from an environmental, historical, and political perspective, offering the public further insights into the complex dynamics between industrial development, environmental impact, and popular resistance.
Biography Eleonora Roaro
Eleonora Roaro (Varese, 1989) is a visual artist and researcher based in Milan. She studied Photography (BA – IED, Milan), Visual Arts and Curatorial Studies (MA – NABA, Milan) and Contemporary Art Practice (MA – Plymouth University, Plymouth). She teaches at NABA and IED (Milan). Since 2025, she has been pursuing a PhD at the University of Plymouth with the Transtechnology Research group. Since 2011, her work has been exhibited in numerous museums and galleries, including La Triennale (Milan), Fabbrica del Vapore (Milan), Casa degli Artisti (Milan), Museo Diffuso (Turin), CAMERA (Turin), MACRO (Rome), CAMeC (La Spezia), Casa Cavazzini (Udine), E-Werk (Freiburg), Maison de la Culture (Clermont-Ferrand), La Friche (Marseille), and the Italian Cultural Institute (Madrid and Prague). In 2019, as a research fellow at the University of Udine, he worked on the project “VR and AR in the enhancement of cultural and artistic heritage.” From 2020 to 2022, he was part of the project “Sensing Dolce Vita: An Experiment in VR Storytelling,” winner of the MISTI Global Seed Fund (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA; SISSA, Trieste, Friuli-Venezia Giulia).
