Ex Sisas
Between the hope of a new life and an ever-widening chasm of an environmental disaster, the ex-chemical factory (SISAS) offers a unique photographic focal point from its desolate and unsettling abandonment.
Inside the abandoned ex Sisas chemical factory in Pioltello-Rodano at the beginning of Spring 2006. It's a rainy day and still chilly with oppressive, grey clouds that only the Milanese seem to understand. Knowing that walking around inside one of the sites, that has been one of Europe's highest contributors to polluting the environment, makes for a strange atmosphere...
In 2006, few people knew the destiny that had been created for the area, the only sure factor being that after two years it relied upon the region of Lombardy to pay enormous European fees equal to the amount of € 22,000 per day for all of the time it would spend clearing the area.
In 2007, an agreement was stipulated between the Region, the state and the council of Pioltello-Rodano with the Zunino group stepping forward to take on the redevelopment of the area (yes, the same group involved in the Santa Giulia Rogoredo-Montecity scandal). In return for the redevelopment of the area, the group obtained the rights to it (for only € 4,000,000) as well as the possibility to build a shopping centre with dimensions of 100,000 square metres and an additonal 140,000 square metres of tertiary. Further to being legally bound to the Santa Giulia project in 2009, the group withdrew from the agreement after only clearing one of the three dumping waste lands. Thanks to a new contract, though, made in 2010, the area was finally cleared at the expense of the state and the region.
It's not easy to convey this harsh story of dirty agreements and paralegal concessions that implicate various leading figures (regional administration for starters) through photographs. With these images you can only build a small box of memories preserving that which has occured and that which will soon no longer exist. The hope that lies in the future of the ex-Sisas factory, unclear as it is, is that it doesn't turn into the umpteenth shopping centre but instead (as hoped by the concerned council administration) a relaunch of a "chemical hub" and new business opportunities under the perspective of scientific excellence that would be compatible with environmental sustainability.
