In January 1968 a catastrophic earthquake destroyed Gibellina and some of the surrounding towns in Sicily’s parched Belice Valley.
When reconstruction began on New Gibellina in the 1970s, the local mayor Ludovico Corrao invited prominent artists to help shape the town, turning this sleepy valley into an international centre for contemporary and performing arts.
The town of Gibellina is truly a surprise. The city plant is a butterfly. There is no center, there is no main course. The streets are wide, the public buildings are avveneristic but partly abandoned.
It looks like a surrealist picture of De Chirico.
As you enter the town from the highway there is a huge star installation (Stella), you will know you have arrived to European largest permanent outdoor Art installation, the artist and architects works are well known and have contributed as gifts to rebuild the town.
There are lots of huge installation all around the town, you will see interesting architecture built in the 80’s, mosaics and sculptures, in fact in almost every place you will see some art.
The city was destroyed by an earthquake in 1968, instead of rebuilding it with remnants of the old buildings it was relocated 11 km away, rebuilt by artist and architects to reconstruct and rebuild from scratch so that the town would not disappear like so many others in Sicily.
The “Dream in progress“, the name of the project given of the new town “Gibellina Nuova” seems to have been only a dream.
When I visited on a rainy day this town, I felt a kind of sadness hanging over and in the city because of its wide empty streets,some of its weird constructions are already crumbling,its two-story dwellings are faded and I didn’t see people congregating and chating… A solitary village in the middle of nowhere.
The Mother Church is considered the symbol of the town and was built in 1970 by Ludovico Quaroni with a modern and unconventional structure.
The Piazza del Comune offers a beautiful view of the downtown centre thanks to a wonderful portico created by Vittorio Gregotti and Giuseppe Samonà. The square also hosts impressive white metal sculptures made by the artists Mimmo Rotella and Alessandro Mendini.
Located in the main square of the village it is possible to admire the Torre Civica, an impressive monument created by the famous designer Alessandro Mendini.
A square is dedicated to Joseph Beuys, a German artist who was in Gibellina in 1981.
On the right one can note four mosaic panels, entitled Lo spazio della parola-The word space (2001) realized by Marco Nereo Rotelli with the group Art Project on the occasion of the Orestiadi 2001 fragments of poems can be read.
The work by Rotelli is characterised by its research of possible mixtures of different forms of art and on the relationship between art and poetry.
This installation, in particular, is a homage to poetry from west and east in which the words of Tawfik, Sanguineti, Luzi and Bonnefoy, are written on a luminous background dedicated to the theme of the sea. Another four mosaic panels by Bruno Ceccobelli, entitled La vera medicina è l’eternità – The real medicine is eternity (2004). With this mosaic, Ceccobelli wishes to adulate the dimension of the a-temporality in a research dedicated towards the interior of the individual.
Le Orestiadi, an international festival with theatre and music performances and art exhibitions.
The Museo Civico d’Arte Contemporanea, in Viale Segesta, (Gibellina) in a wing on the ground floor of the Istituto comprensivo “Pope John XXIII” houses a collection whose jewel is the great cycle of nature of Mario Schifano.
Scialoja works are exhibited and wheel, and Crown Corpora, Afro Basaldella, Beuys and Consagra, Accardi, Iena, S., Fontana, Guttuso and Pirandello, just to mention some of the biggest and well-known.
In this museum about 1900 pieces of great value made by hundreds of artists, including paintings, graphics, sculptures and sketches.
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How to get there:
By Camper:
From Trapani
take A29 to Palermo-Mazara, exit Mazara del Vallo and then continue to Gibellina.
From Palermo
take A29 to Trapani – Mazara
By Train:
From Trapani
How to park: Everywhere in the desert road of Gibellina Nuova but the Stop Parking in front of the FFSS train station, at the entrance of the town. (37.80666, 12.86591)
Sicily in Campervan 