Gibellina and Contemporary Arts. Landscape, Public space and Identity beyond the ruins

Abstract

This article is about Gibellina and Contemporary Arts with a special focus on the relationship between landscape, public space and identity beyond the ruins. On January 15th, 1968, several towns in the Valley of Belice, Sicily, were hit by a powerful earthquake. Shaking off from that natural disaster, today’s Gibellina has heeded a calling to a double role, suspended as it is between the old and the new, the destroyed city and the rebuilt one. The town’s image is imprinted in the collective imaginary as a real topos in which visual arts, along with poetry, architecture and theater are woven into the urban and natural landscape through a shared, participatory process, from its clear identity relapses. In the post-earthquake years, the most impactful role in the area was that of Ludovico Corrao, town mayor and promoter of the arts. Thanks to this shared effort, a multitude of works of art were created and then placed in a sort of open-air museum where more than 70 pieces are now publicly accessible in open spaces, including Alberto Burri’s “Il Grande Cretto”. In this context, along with the ever important link between artwork and its environment, the crucial role of the relationship between ancient and contemporary emerges. This relationship conceptually sustains the formulation of the works through which the earthquake-hit community has been able to rebuild its identity and adopt new forms of collective rituals.