A car showroom for the fish: The visual story of the first-ever artificial reef in Italy and the beginning of contemporary environmental discourse (Varazze, December 1970)

Abstract

In October 1970, the city of Genoa was devastated by a major flood. A few weeks later, hundreds of wrecked cars removed from the city's streets were sunk off the coast of Varazze, in the first-ever Italian project to create an artificial reef. This initiative, which was inspired by similar experiences tried out in the United States and other countries, had been aimed at increasing the fish population and protecting the seabed but was carried out without any thorough preliminary scientific study, and produced other effects not in the initial intentions of the project. Nonetheless, this story should be read as one point in the broadest trajectory in the evolution of environmental discourse. This contribution, based on hitherto unpublished visual documentation, is therefore an investigation into the very specific meaning of the environment in Italy at the beginning of the 70s. The first part of the article provides a reconstruction of the operational details involved in creating the new underwater seascape of Varazze while in the second part, the earlier examples of similar initiatives are described, as well as the reactions of the scientific community. In conclusion, we reflect on the legacy of the initiative, both at the environmental level and as a basic step in the relationship between visual media and contemporary environmental discourse.