Presentation short abstract

On 9 October 1963, a landslide into the Vajont reservoir sent a wave that killed 2,000 people. Beyond an Anthropocene tale of humans moving mountains, Vajont exposes a Wasteocene logic in which profit overrides human and ecological safety, revealing entangled power, science, and resistance.

Presentation long abstract

On October 9, 1963, a massive landslide into the Vajont reservoir unleashed a wave of water and mud that killed two thousand people. This tragedy might initially appear as a quintessential Anthropocene narrative: humans, acting as geological forces, moving mountains—and, in a prophetic interpretation, facing nature’s retribution for attempting to dominate her. However, viewed from the cemetery where the victims are buried, the story of Vajont reveals itself less as an Anthropocene parable and more as an expression of the "Capitalocene" or "Wasteocene"—an era in which capitalism generates socioecological assemblages that prioritize profit over human and environmental well-being. Vajont acts as a kaleidoscope, refracting contemporary discourses on science, species, and agency, and showing their entanglements with power, oppression, and resistance.