Postnatural Remains Product, Research2025
Postnatural Remains is a multimedia installation exploring the ecological impact of illegal waste disposal in Puglia, southern Italy, where environmental crimes, including waste trafficking and dumping, continue to devastate rural ecosystems. Discarded objects, often burned or buried, have contributed to the loss of 30% of local biodiversity. The installation brings together video, sculptural elements, and an image archive to reveal how waste impacts pollinators, plants and habitat dynamics. Five looping video works and an archive table with magnifiers invite close observation of contamination and adaptation. Drawing on fieldwork, the project visualises a fragile coexistence between human-made debris and non-human life. A series of new re-designed archaeological objects propose a shift in design thinking, more-than-human, becoming tools of ecological support. Rather than framing waste solely as a pollutant, the project asks: can discarded objects be reimagined as materials for nourishment and shelter? Could a non-toxic, mutual coexistence between waste and local species become possible, supporting new forms of biodiversity in damaged environments?

Gigi TotaroEmail: gigi.totaro5@gmail.com