At Gibellina, the scars of the past and the memory of the former town coexist in some of the most iconic and painful works of art of the 20th century
The city that symbolises the destructive power of the earthquake is reborn through artistic and cultural experimentation Between 14 and 15 January 1968, the earth shook in the Belice Valley: a violent earthquake reduced the towns of Gibellina, Salaparuta and Montevago to rubble, with enormous consequences for the whole area. The event deeply affected the whole of Italy and the wounds in the local communities ran very deep.
In order to breathe new life into this deeply afflicted area, the former mayor of Gibellina, Ludovico Corrao, decided to rebuild a new town about 11 km from the one destroyed by the earthquake and invited several world-famous artists, such as Pietro Consagra and Alberto Burri, to participate in the regeneration process.
Gibellina Nuova soon became a huge laboratory for artistic experimentation and planning, where artists and works of value renewed and innovated the urban space.
"Come to Gibellina, let us make the flowers of art and culture grow in the desert of the earthquake, of destiny, of oblivion."
Ludovico Corrao, Mayor of Gibellina
Today Gibellina is a diffuse museum of contemporary art, where icons and testimonies of the regeneration process can be found. These include Burri's Cretto, the world's largest land artwork, the Orestiadi Foundation and the MAC, the largest collection of contemporary art in southern Italy.