laboratoire écologie et art pour une société en transition
Laggiù, Taranto
Laggiù, Taranto is a research-creation project led by Martin Reinartz, least, and Post Disaster that explores how residents of an area marked by ecological disaster can transmit, reinvent, and repair their ties to the place.
In Taranto, a city in southern Italy that has been permanently affected by industrial pollution from the Ilva steelworks, the signs of the disaster are visible in the air, soil, water, and bodies. But beyond health indicators, it is the sensory and social experience of the disaster—memories, stories, weakened attachments—that remains poorly documented. The project aims to open up spaces where pain, acts of care, and citizen struggles come together to recreate a sense of community.
Through this dialogue between Taranto and French-speaking Switzerland, Laggiù, Taranto becomes a transnational laboratory where new forms of research-creation, solidarity, and transformation are being explored.
What we’ve done
Between 2022 and 2024, Martin Reinartz was artist-in-residence least on the project Vivre le Rhône, getting involved in the life and co-creative practices of the association. Having forged these links, Martin Reinartz expressed a desire to work on the city of Taranto, Italy, and its ecological and social issues. The links between least and Post Disaster, an association based in Taranto, led to exchanges that resulted in the Laggiù, Taranto project. Martin Reinartz has conducted and continues to conduct field research in Puglia.
What we’re doing
The fieldwork initially aims to forge relationships with four residents of Taranto, who are involved as partners. During group walks, they will choose itineraries, share stories, and identify places marked by memory or rupture. In this context, walking is seen as a sensory and relational method, useful for revealing non-linear, fragmented, and sometimes silent narratives.
At this stage, the aim is not to produce a definitive, fixed narrative, but to open up a shared space for attention to the way in which memory traverses bodies, gestures, and spatial practices.
These moments are the premises for the different phases to come.
What’s next
After a residency in Taranto in the fall of 2025, Martin Reinartz will continue his fieldwork in 2026 through new stays and the strengthening of his human and emotional ties with the places he visits.
This research is likely to lead, in the long term, to a material output in a performative form or one yet to be invented.
Transdisciplinary team
Martin Reinartz – artist
Maria Clara Castioni – scenograph
Collectif Post Disaster – architects and activists, Tarente