Polesine Fantasma
Urbex project
2022
Polesine, a fascinating and controversial land
“Polésine Fantasma” is an “urbex” (acronym for "urban exploration") photography project launched in 2022 to draw attention to disused and/or disappeared buildings and public spaces throughout Polesine, the place where I come from.
It is not intended to be the usual page that collects photos of abandoned buildings, creating a jumble of 1,000 things without any criteria, but rather a more limited “collection” focused on the Polesine area, which geographically encompasses the strip of land between the Adige and Po rivers, i.e. the entire province of Rovigo and a small part of the province of Venice.
Between urban exploration, industrial archaeology and local culture
“Polesine Fantasma” is a digital (for now) and collective project to which anyone can contribute with reports, testimonials or personal photos.
It is a photographic archive and census, constantly evolving and updated, concerning structures that are partially or totally abandoned or even already demolished or disappeared, which have “made history” in these places (or at least are a source of memories and collective recollections) thanks to their architecture or the activities that took place within them.
These may be areas with public use (schools, stations, warehouses, hospitals, retirement homes, post offices, town halls, barracks, etc.), complexes business and industrial, trading and/or craft activities, or facilities for accommodation, sports or recreation (hotel, residence, pool, gym…).
We therefore deliberately avoid private homes, which would make the whole task even more vast and impossible to manage, and we never enter buildings without specific permission and consent.
A vision for the future: possible redevelopment projects
A secondary aim of the project is certainly to turn the spotlight back on all those spaces that could still be recovered and redeveloped. A striking example from past decades is the Cen.Ser. in Rovigo, a former sugar factory in the capital of the Polesine province, currently used as an exhibition centre, university and multidisciplinary centre.
The result of this work is therefore certainly very varied and variable over time: some of the urbex locations we photographed are often already up for sale, others have a project underway by municipal authorities for this purpose; Others, fortunately, have already undergone renovation (but we still wanted to capture them before this happened, in their “original state”). In these cases, we indicate this explicitly, trying to document ourselves as much as possible; otherwise, we still hope for a possible rebirth.
Would you like to contribute? Write to us!
If you would like to contribute with reports, testimonials, photos, or if you would like to actively participate in our project, please send us an email! We would be delighted to have you as a collaborator!