Die Gittermasten haben ein so leichtes Gefüge. Sie verschwinden völlig im Gelände.

Leporello with 14 photographs, map and text, 45 x 267 cm

Die Gittermasten haben ein so leichtes Gefüge. Sie verschwinden völlig im Gelände.
(The Pylons Are So Delicate. They Disappear Completely into the Terrain.)

South Tyrol became part of Italy after the First World War, and Mussolini encouraged plans to attract Italian Tourists. Alpine tourism was incorporated into the fascist ideology. On the one hand, it was to serve as an economic resource, and on the other, as a tool to “Italianise” South Tyrol.
Forward-looking projects should give the new part of Italy a progressive character under the sign of fascism. The Italian architect Gio Ponti (1891–1979) developed a visionary cable car project in the Dolomites. This project, developed between 1941 and 1942, was to connect the Dolomites region with 160 kilometers of cable cars from Bolzano via Ortisei to Cortina. However, the plan was never realized.
I followed in the footsteps of Gio Ponti and visited individual locations of the map he created. Ponti added a text to his map: “The network will be supplemented by mountain huts, slopes, hotels, restaurants, services, etc., so that it will not only be the world’s largest cable car system, but also a grandiose and perfect tourism enterprise.” I discovered that in most places on Gio Ponti’s map there are cable cars today and his vision resonates in the modern tourism infrastructure.