A rich collection of images reconstructs, like a puzzle that intertwines the places of 'yesterday' with those of 'today', the earthquake that devastated western Sicily half a century ago
The photographic book was published today, February 15th "Belice Point Zero", created byIstituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia (INGV) in collaboration with the Academy of Fine Arts of Palermo, the University of Catania, the Central Library of the Sicilian Region "A. Bombace" and the support of CRESM (Center for Economic and Social Research).
The book, which condenses on printed paper a work already exhibited during the last edition of the National Geographic Festival of Sciences, is a journey to discover the consequences of an earthquake, with the aim of inviting the reader to dwell on the fractures radical inflictions on the social fabric and on the territory that sometimes weigh on the affected communities for decades.
The work, the result of the collective work of geologists, geographers, sociologists and artists, takes us back to the places of the devastating Belice earthquake of 1968 by comparing today's images, created by the young students of the photography course of the Academy of Fine Arts in Palermo led by Prof. Sandro Scalia, with those of the period published in the aftermath of the earthquake and in the years of reconstruction by the newspaper "Time" and today kept by the Central Library of the Sicilian Region “A. Bombace".
"Bringing such different professionals together under a single aegis has allowed us to study and tell the story of the Belice earthquake from a perspective that is as exhaustive as possible", explains Mario Mattia, INGV's first technologist and editor of the book together with professors Maria Donata Napoli and Sandro Scalia of the Academy of Fine Arts in Palermo. "It was important for us, more than 50 years after the earthquake, to compare past and present to try to understand the journey that corner of Sicily has made in this half century, with a material, social and cultural reconstruction that has been able to respond to the real needs of the communities of the Valle del Belice".
The Belice earthquake of 15 January 1968 was the first catastrophic earthquake in republican Italy. An earthquake that hit a region where the post-war industrial effort had not yet affected the levels of social and cultural development and which further damaged the first organized attempts that pursued the aim of relieving its inhabitants from the age-old state of material poverty.
The title 'Belice Punto Zero' has the meaning of highlighting how the 1968 earthquake was an earthquake that represented the "zero point" of many aspects: the complex relationship between territories and the State in the management of major seismic emergencies, the attempt (failed ) to re-propose urban and infrastructural schemes borrowed from experiences alien to the Sicilian reality by "resetting" the millennial relationship between the inhabitants and the territory, and finally the beginning of a particular chapter in the history of the media which, for the first time in Italy, made inevitable is the use of innovative tools ("free" radios) capable of narrating, beyond the mainstream narrative, the tragedy of tens of thousands of people forced to choose between an uncertain future and emigration.
This book, which can be viewed on the INGV website, also represents the first title of the new INGV project which sees the Institute as a publisher of books.
#ingv #belice #earthquake #sicily
Link to book
The photographic book was published today, February 15th "Belice Point Zero", created byIstituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia (INGV) in collaboration with the Academy of Fine Arts of Palermo, the University of Catania, the Central Library of the Sicilian Region "A. Bombace" and the support of CRESM (Center for Economic and Social Research).
The book, which condenses on printed paper a work already exhibited during the last edition of the National Geographic Festival of Sciences, is a journey to discover the consequences of an earthquake, with the aim of inviting the reader to dwell on the fractures radical inflictions on the social fabric and on the territory that sometimes weigh on the affected communities for decades.
The work, the result of the collective work of geologists, geographers, sociologists and artists, takes us back to the places of the devastating Belice earthquake of 1968 by comparing today's images, created by the young students of the photography course of the Academy of Fine Arts in Palermo led by Prof. Sandro Scalia, with those of the period published in the aftermath of the earthquake and in the years of reconstruction by the newspaper "Time" and today kept by the Central Library of the Sicilian Region “A. Bombace".
"Bringing such different professionals together under a single aegis has allowed us to study and tell the story of the Belice earthquake from a perspective that is as exhaustive as possible", explains Mario Mattia, INGV's first technologist and editor of the book together with professors Maria Donata Napoli and Sandro Scalia of the Academy of Fine Arts in Palermo. "It was important for us, more than 50 years after the earthquake, to compare past and present to try to understand the journey that corner of Sicily has made in this half century, with a material, social and cultural reconstruction that has been able to respond to the real needs of the communities of the Valle del Belice".
The Belice earthquake of 15 January 1968 was the first catastrophic earthquake in republican Italy. An earthquake that hit a region where the post-war industrial effort had not yet affected the levels of social and cultural development and which further damaged the first organized attempts that pursued the aim of relieving its inhabitants from the age-old state of material poverty.
The title 'Belice Punto Zero' has the meaning of highlighting how the 1968 earthquake was an earthquake that represented the "zero point" of many aspects: the complex relationship between territories and the State in the management of major seismic emergencies, the attempt (failed ) to re-propose urban and infrastructural schemes borrowed from experiences alien to the Sicilian reality by "resetting" the millennial relationship between the inhabitants and the territory, and finally the beginning of a particular chapter in the history of the media which, for the first time in Italy, made inevitable is the use of innovative tools ("free" radios) capable of narrating, beyond the mainstream narrative, the tragedy of tens of thousands of people forced to choose between an uncertain future and emigration.
This book, which can be viewed on the INGV website, also represents the first title of the new INGV project which sees the Institute as a publisher of books.
#ingv #belice #earthquake #sicily
Link to book