Cotonificio Windows, Prodenone, Italy
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Cotonificio Windows
Like a moth to a flame, I am drawn to abandoned and ruined buildings. A mixture of nostalgia, curiosity and something that I can’t identify, pushes me past chain link fences, broken glass, and other detritus to see what’s inside. Usually empty, quiet and other than dust motes through shafts of light, still. But something remains, brushing my skin, heightening my senses to…
So it wasn’t surprising, after traveling to visit family in Italy and wanting to mollify the effects of my jet lag, I went for a walk with my nephew and found myself wandering through the abandoned 19th century Cotonificio Veneziana. This cotton mill, in the Borgomeduna section of Pordenone, is one of three that for almost a century employed nearly 12,000 workers, most of them women. They changed the face of the city by transforming its economy, contributing to the political growth of organized labor and affecting the social fabric through the emancipation and empowerment of its female employees.
Abandoned since the early 1980’s, the spirits of those who worked here linger… palpable, making me walk, in my jet lagged state, further into the ruins to find a covered loading dock with its design conscious window and door. With so much “canvas” for graffiti artists, few surfaces remain untouched. The random curation of these works from artists of varying talents and nationalities, make for an interesting gallery experience.
I still scratch my head in wonder of the artist who chose to write in Spanish “el pueblo unido jamas sera vencido” (the people united will never be defeated). Were they making a contemporary or historic comment in these halls of labor? Hmmmm…
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Just finished your workshop at Sebastopol Center for the Arts, for AFS.
Even though I am not an AFS artist, I learned so much.
I am so grateful.
Thank you.
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