Concrete Memory

Sara Moiola tells the story of Alberto Burri’s work in Gibellina Vecchia, an open-air cathedral caught in an infinity yard, with the spontaneous vegetation as the only spectator.

Gibellina was a small town in the mountains of central Sicily, Italy. On January 1968, the urban center has been left in ruins by a terrible earthquake that raked through the so called area Valle del Belice.

A brand new city was rebuilt some kilometres from the old one and some of Italy’s top leading artist such as Arnaldo Pomodoro, Mimmo Paladino and Alberto Burri were commissioned to transform the newborn city into an architectural and artistic workshop.

Alberto Burri focused his research on the remainings of the old city. He decided to entirely cover the ruins with concrete, preserving the original shape of the buildings and the streetscape.

Through the celebration of the traces of the vanished architecture, Burri’s work becomes not just a powerful tribute to the ghost city and its past life but also a strong link between the old and new towns. Unfortunately the work is still not completed.