Opere pubbliche d'arte contemporanea come definizione dell'identità collettiva italiana. Il Cretto di Burri

Abstract

On the 150 ̊ anniversary of the birth of Alberto Burri, the numerous activities of research organized by the Palazzo Albizzini Foundation – Burri Collection have reignited the debate on the role played by the majestic land art work Grande Cretto, in the past and nowadays too. The work was created by the artist on the rubbles of the town of Gibellina, after the 1968 earthquake. This article has a double function: on the one hand it can be seen as a reflection on the possibility of building a collective identity, be it national or local, starting from the public art; on the otherhand, it addresses the critical debate, started since the ‘80s, on the foundation of the new town of Gibellina, built a few kilometers from the destroyed one, and on the social and cultural value of the inclusion of the public art in the urbanistic plan. The case of Gibellina is an effective example of how the practice of contemporary art is recognized as a powerful vehicle to inspire a new desire of collective identity. The project of building the new Gibellina starts hand in hand with the idea of including works of public art in urban pattern, with the aim of ornamentation and, above all, of donating new symbols to the population, capable to represent the culture and the material identity that were lost. The aim of building a renewed feeling of identity had different results for the new Ghibellina, being considered disastrous by many critics and historians, whereas the reappropriation of the sense of civic identity for the old Gibellina was obtained through the formal annihilation of the memory, by means of the Grande Cretto and the increasment of the grief of the tragedy.