Christian Caliandro's essay on apocalypse, architecture, and cultural decay

Christian Caliandro, an art historian and professor at the Accademia di Belle Arti di Firenze, published a reflective essay on Artribune in August 2016. The piece opens with a quote from Elio Petri's 1976 film "Todo Modo" and weaves together observations on social conformity, urban decay, and the concept of apocalypse as a localized phenomenon. Caliandro describes well-dressed young people as waiters to the elderly, trapped in a life of obedience. He recounts a train journey from Taranto to Siderno on July 7, 2016, noting the degraded state of Puglia, with cheap buildings, Chinese shops, and perpetual delay. He then discusses the "brutalist" architecture of Calabria, exemplified by a structure in San Giorgio Morgeto seen on July 9, 2016, during the "Libero Cinema in Libera Terra" event. This architecture combines unfinished surfaces with sharp spatial decisions, reflecting a mental disposition that merges archaic and futuristic, imposing a philosophy. The essay cites Article 32 of the Italian Constitution on health rights, a quote from screenwriter Furio Scarpelli on place, and a passage from Emanuele Trevi's "Il popolo di legno" (Einaudi, 2015) about each place reaching its own apocalypse at its own speed.