Carrara White

Carrara White,  video from 3d animation, 3’09”, 2021

“Carrara White” is a video, made in 3d animation, on the extractivist dynamics that characterize the area of ​​the white marble quarries in Carrara, Italy. Famous worldwide for having supplied marble to Michelangelo and many of his followers, in the Carrara area approximatively 4 millions tons of marble are extracted every year: more than 80% of which is powder, to provide calcium carbonate for many industrial products. An entire ecosystem is in danger. 

The video alternates images of the “pulverization” of the mountains, together with those of the marine organisms that are at the origin of the marble itself, whose shells are subject to dissolve due to the acidification of the oceans created by the large amount of carbon dioxide, poured into the air by the same extractivist economy economy active in the destruction of the mountains in Carrara. In the video we also see Michelangelo’s David returning to the sea, bringing back this symbol of the art of marble, but also of that new man, white and western, ready to conquer (and destroy) the world, where it all began.

This video supports the Athamanta group of environmental activists based in Carrara.