‘Ammiraggio’ by Chiara Gambirasio: Anti-War Land Art Emphasizing the Environmental Impact of War

Ammiraggio (Admiralty) is a 2024 land art piece by Italian artist Chiara Gambirasio that reflects the environmental toll of war. Just like other works of land art, the piece is an intervention done directly onto a natural landscape. Ammiraggio, in particular, repurposed a plot of land on Monte Stivo where a World War II missile exploded and created a concave hole. Made during the winter of January 2024, Gambirasio used biodegradable pigments to create a shooting target-like image inside the snowed-in hole. This intervention will eventually disappear on its own as the snow melts. 2024 also happened to be the year with the hottest recorded winter in Italy, making the artwork a short-lived one. 

The title of the piece and its shooting-target-like appearance both create allusions to militarism and guns, respectively, bringing the notion of war to the viewer's mind. As war wages on in multiple regions of the world in 2024, the inherent environmental messages behind land art mean that Ammiraggio is Gambirasio’s way of reminding her audiences of the environmental toll of war. This is why Ammiraggio by Chiara Gambirasio is aligned with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals of Climate Action and Peace, Justice, and Strong Institutions.

Pressures from the United States ensure that reporting military emissions is voluntary. This leads to a lack of comprehensive data on the impact of war on the environment. However, military activities without war account for almost 5.5 percent of the world’s annual greenhouse gas emissions due to the excessive use of heavy machinery and airplanes.

Furthermore, a study reported by the Guardian found that after just two months of heightened the invasion of Palestine by Israel, their CO2 emissions had surpassed the annual emission of the Central African Republic. Hence, it is important to remember that now, more than ever, war is killing both people and the planet.

Chiara Gambirasio’s Ammiraggio is a poignant land art piece that highlights the devastating environmental consequences of war, blending art and activism in a natural landscape scarred by past conflict. By using biodegradable pigments to transform a WWII missile crater into a fleeting shooting-target image, Gambirasio draws attention to the carbon footprint and ecological destruction caused by military activities and ongoing conflicts. The artwork’s ephemerality, heightened by Italy’s hottest recorded winter, serves as a stark reminder of climate change’s urgency and its connection to human conflict. At the end of the day, Ammiraggio calls for an end to wars that harm both humanity and the planet.

Find out more about Ammiraggio and other pieces by Chiara Gambirasio on her website www.chiaragambirasio.com or Instagram @gambirasiochiara.