Luca Ruali's Antagonistic Take on Italy's Abandoned Inner Areas

Architect, designer, and videomaker Luca Ruali positions his research on Italy's abandoned inner areas as antagonistic to the official National Strategy for Inner Areas (SNAI). In an interview with Artribune ahead of the Milan debut of his live set "Una comunicazione magnetica con la natura" (with Nicola Di Croce and Mata Trifilò), Ruali argues that abandonment is not an emergency but a natural condition of places, and that current platforms lack deep listening and a "sentimental register." His project "Il Paese Nero/Black Italy" visualizes the extent of abandonment through a night satellite image of Italy, revealing a "black stain" where half the population lives. Ruali contends that the abandonment of small towns since the 1950s has flattened desires onto urban imaginaries, and that Italy's unique density of ruins—five-sixths of houses in inner areas still standing empty—underpins a distinct emotional complexity. The live set, debuting at Centrale Fies on December 6, 2017, and presented in Milan on March 21, 2018, as part of "Il terzo occhio del pesce" at Agon, uses audio/video sampling, field recordings, and archival materials to explore abandonment as a sonic condition. Ruali hints at a possible presence at the next Venice Architecture Biennale, but in an "antagonistic space."