I’d love to say Happy New Year, but it’s difficult to feel happy in the shadow of what has been taking place in the world these last few days. Following the godawful press conference from the American administration on the 3rd January, after its Republican cabal chose to invade Venezuela and ‘capture’ (do they mean kidnap?) its sovereign – albeit illegitimate – leader, I was tempted to post a clip from The Boys (Prime, 2019 – 2026): perhaps Homelander waxing lyrically about power. We live in a frightening world in which a comic-book-like series about evil superheroes no longer looks like mere satire, but almost like a carbon copy of reality. Therein, however, lies one of the biggest and most profound problems with and in our society – the entertainment and meme-ification of absolutely everything. Incidentally, Vilém Flusser’s (2013) chapter, Our Diversions from Post-History, is an excellent place to begin for anyone who wants an analysis of why turning everything into entertainment is desperately unhelpful for all of us.
Nothing is taken seriously, everything entertains us. Not only the programs aimed explicitly at entertainment. We devour everything with sensationalist attitude. Art, philosophy, science, politics, including the events that relate to our concrete experience: hunger, sickness, and oppression. Our work entertains us. Our human relations entertain us. We are incapable of seriousness, because what we want is the concrete sensation in exchange for the symbolic games of which we take part. Since these games no longer mean the concrete sensation, then it no longer has meaning. We live absurdly (p 85).
And so, I resisted: no The Boys meme from me. Just an expression of horror and absolute seriousness and sadness about the way the world is, and frustration with how predictable this latest development is from the authoritarian regime, which the United States has lately become, or to a greater or lesser extent, perhaps always was. (To understand this moment, perhaps I will re-read John Gerassi’s Imperialism and the Revolution in America from The Dialectics of Liberation (2015[1968]) to remind myself of how we arrived here.)
In place of memes, here are some images from my recent time in Ferentillo, a place I have been visiting regularly since 2000 and creating work in since 2015. (For anyone interested, see blog posts relating to Ferentillo and previous projects: i will have call you (2018) and this family too (2020)).
The images I’ve shared here are not a cohesive or final edited piece of work. It is not yet a photo-essay, but rather a preview. You will notice the focus on the development of an electrical substation, which is called the Cabina Primaria Ferentillo [Ferentillo Primary Cabin]. The decision to place the substation slap bang in the middle of the valley, surrounded by farmland and nature walks, has caused significant distress amongst residents, permanent and seasonal alike. As a foreigner and outsider, I am aware I need to be careful with any critique. It is important to state that Ferentillo is a working village. I love being there precisely because it has not been Disneyfied. Any critique here is not directed at the substation itself, which has the potential to contribute positively, but to its position and the way in which decisions about its implementation seem to have come about. To this outsider, the process appears to have been antithetical to the spirit of community, well-being and democracy. Democracy, perhaps, being the operative word.
As I mentioned, there are many local people not happy with the substation. I am trying to avoid ‘gossip’ in this post, but to give you an impression of how it is viewed, I overheard the substation referred to as the Devil’s Cabin. Perhaps more pertintently, a local protest group, known as Noi amiamo Ferentillo [We Love Ferentillo], wrote to the EU commission in October 2025, saying:
The transformer would be located in a Natura 2000 Special Protection Area (SPA) – at a distance of only five metres from the Nera river park and the Quattrini main collector – and could cause significant harm to the area’s biodiversity and to two protected species in particular, the lesser horseshoe bat (Rhinolophus hipposideros) and the greater horseshoe bat (Rhinolophus ferrumequinum) – which are classified respectively as endangered and at risk by Italy’s IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) Red List of Threatened Species.
This project also risks jeopardising the ERDF ROP funds that have already been allocated, and could also have repercussions for local landscapes. Other issues include the decision to build the transformer in an area with a high risk of hydrogeological and seismic activity, as well as the project’s failure to comply with the opinion issued by Central Apennines District Basin Authority, its potential violation of DNSH principles and its lack of public transparency, a breach of the Aarhus Convention.
Wildlife in Ferentillo is not only important for its own sake, it also contributes to the local economy. Ferentillo businesses rely on visitors seeking natural habitat, and, as indicated in the letter to the EU above, the area has received funding to maintain and even promote that. Along the river and paths, helpful directional signs and educational information are available.
The grant for the substation was made through Italy’s National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR) and financed by the EU’s NextGenerationEU package of grants and loans, designed to support economies following the impact of COVID-19 and the war in Ukraine. The substation project is part of a wider programme to strengthen electricity grids, being delivered by E-Distribuzione S.p.A., part of the Enel Group (Italy’s main electrical supplier). Such infrastructure is designed to carry renewable energy, increase grid resilience, and enable further electrification ahead of gas reliance — all central to EU energy transition policy.
While the need for such improvements is not in question (people regularly put up with terrible WIFI, low water pressure and power cuts), what is understandably upsetting for residents is the location. Was there really not a less destructive, less contentious location in the area? To intrude on this stretch of land when an industrial park lies less than half a mile away is confounding, to say the least.
Projects funded through the PNRR are required to comply with the EU’s Do No Significant Harm (DNSH) principle (see page 57/21) in the linked document) also mentioned in Noi amiamo Ferentillo‘s letter to the EU, which stipulates that investments must not cause significant damage to environmental objectives, including biodiversity, water systems, and ecosystems. And what about harm to human communities? Either way, the EU has replied quite inadequately, suggesting it is up to local government, which has evidently gone ahead regardless of how local people might feel.
I began this post by expressing my dismay and horror about the way the US government has begun 2026, unashamedly colonising another country, not based on drug trafficking as claimed, but rather more likely due to Venezuela’s vast oil reserves. Energy — its extraction, control and securitisation — resides at the centre of contemporary geopolitical violence, shaping Russia’s war on Ukraine, Israel’s ongoing assault on Palestinians, and now the United States’ blatant disregard for and aggressive dismantling of a rules-based world order. The images above may seem like a small, perhaps insignificant story, but they speak to the concerns of today – the increasing need for energy alongside disregard for real humans and their lives from governments and institutions, a disregard that risks perpetuating resentment and yet more rage in a world increasingly fuelled by animosity and greed.
I wish I could end with Happy New Year…
Perhaps Resilient New Year is more apt.
Refs:
Distributed energy in new grids (no date). Available at: https://www.enel.com/company/grids (Accessed: 5 January 2026).
European Parliament and Council (2021) Regulation (EU) 2021/241 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 12 February 2021 establishing the Recovery and Resilience Facility. Official Journal of the European Union, L 57, pp. 17–75. Available at: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=CELEX:32021R0241 (Accessed: insert date).
Flusser, V. (2013) Post-History. Edited by S. Zielinski and N. Baitello Junior. Minneapolis, MN: Univocal.
Gerassi, J. (2015 [1968]) Imperialism and the Revolution in America. In: Cooper, D. et al. (eds.) The Dialectics of Liberation. London: Verso, pp. 72–94.
MARINO, I. R. (2025) Parliamentary question | Environmental and biodiversity concerns arising from the plan to build an electrical substation in Ferentillo (Umbria) | E-004066/2025. European Parliament. Available at: https://www.europarl.europa.eu/doceo/document/E-10-2025-004066_EN.html (Accessed: 5 January 2026).
Our story (no date). Available at: https://www.enel.com/company/about-us/our-story (Accessed: 5 January 2026).
Parliamentary question | Answer for question E-004066/25 | E-004066/2025 (ASW) (2025). European Parliament. Available at: https://www.europarl.europa.eu/doceo/document/E-10-2025-004066-ASW_EN.html (Accessed: 5 January 2026).
The Boys (2019–2026) TV series. Amazon Prime Video. Directed by various.