The negative of the city

Abstract

This paper aims to analyse Alberto Burri's Grande Cretto of Gibellina with a view to showing how the work constitutes an exemplary instance of ‘negative’ discourse about the city. The term negative is understood in a double sense: 1. The Cretto accounts for negative, dysphoric processes that affect the city (the earthquake and the problems associated with the uprooting and reconstruction of identity) 2. The Cretto makes visible a negative of the city - in a photographic sense - fixing the ruins of the old town of Gibellina. It speaks of issues such as the relationship of a city with its past and its future, the role of art in the reconstruction process, the relations between villages, the link with the territory, life and death, nature and culture. Among the many possible aspects, we will focus especially on a visual reading of Burri’s work and seek to clarify how the latter constructs its own discourse on the earthquake and on the urban identity captured in its evolution.