Tracing The Faults

Sicily’s Grande Cretto Memorial

A 1968 earthquake claims over a hundred lives and leaves the village of Gibellina in ruins. Artist Alberto Burri is commissioned to build a memorial on the footprint of the old town, encasing the rubble andthe remains in a mass concrete edifice, set amongst the rolling hills of the Sicilian landscape. The voids in this solid monument retrace the paths that the villagers once walked, and ask the visitor to consider all whichhas been lost.

40 years on, camera in hand, it’s a visit to remember. Questions arise on the notions of memorial and conservation. How do we remember? Is there one true method? The man-made fissures within the landscapecertainly evoke memories of loss, but do they also plaster over that which has been lost? This series of images hopes to express the sense of solemnity in this space; a permanent monument to loss in a landscape where naturehas already shown its apathy for such structures.