Le montagne hanno gli occhi

The history of the NO TAV movement is the story of a community in conflict with a distant and powerful state.

"Le montagne hanno gli occhi" focuses on the struggles of the NO TAV movement, born in the Susa Valley in northwestern Italy over 30 years ago. The movement emerged in opposition to the construction of a new high-speed railway system that would cut directly through the valley—a project that residents and activists perceived as costly, environmentally damaging, and lacking any clear public benefit.

The history of the NO TAV movement is the story of a community in conflict with a powerful and distant state. Over the last three decades, trials, repression, police violence, and the militarization of an entire valley have fueled a deep fracture between state institutions and citizens. Within this shift, the implicit social contract—by which citizens grant the state the monopoly on legitimate force in exchange for protection—is beginning to crack.

The militarized construction sites, judicial indictments, and the constant presence of law enforcement all convey the image of a vertical and distant institutional power. In stark contrast, the community's public assemblies, technical committees, and counter-information networks have built a widespread form of grassroots power, rooted in the territory and founded on direct participation.

Following the complex relationship between inhabitants and their land, this project examines how local communities create and wield these alternative forms of power to resist state-mandated coercion and top-down impositions. It engages directly with the underlying questions: What drives everyday people to clash with a distant and powerful state? What brings them to grasp at metal gates in front of armed military personnel?

To explore this, my research pairs my own photography with archival material to demonstrate how imagery and narratives are weaponized—and reclaimed—in political struggles. By examining both mainstream newspapers and activist archives, the project highlights a sharp contrast. On one side, national news broadcasts imposed a narrative depicting the railway as essential while framing protesters as violent criminals 'stopping an entire country.' On the other side, grassroots journalism and image-making served as vital counter-narratives and acts of resistance against police brutality and state repression.

Ultimately, the story of the NO TAV movement is the mirror of a people who feel deprived of legitimacy. It is the story of a community that, perceiving its right to self-determination stripped away, generates autonomous forms of organization and decision-making to choose its own future.