Portfolio > Sculptures

Vele di Scampia
Vele di Scampia
mixed media sculpture with video
88 x 240 x 85 cm
2024

In 2022, Tracey Snelling visited Scampia, a district on the
outskirts of Naples, Italy. The area, originally designed by
Franz Di Salvo and completed in 1975, once consisted of
seven buildings intended as utopian social housing.
However, the planned infrastructure was never fully realized,
leading to rising poverty, which allowed the mafia and drug
activity to take hold. Today, only three buildings remain. On
July 22, 2024, a passageway in one of the remaining
buildings collapsed, killing three people and displacing 800
others. Promised replacement housing, scheduled for years
ago, remains delayed.

photo by Peter Rosemann