Gibellina PhotoRoad 2023: 49 Artists Explore Alterations Across the Sicilian Town

The biennial international photography festival PhotoRoad returns to Gibellina, Sicily, with 49 artists from 11 countries. This edition's theme is 'alterations,' curated by director Arianna Catania. The festival site-specifically integrates into Gibellina Nuova, a town rebuilt after the 1968 earthquake, itself an 'alteration' of the original buried under Alberto Burri's Cretto, Europe's largest Land art work. Exhibitions occupy museums, foundations, and everyday spaces like bars, churches, and abandoned buildings. Key shows include Mimmo Jodice's archive of 1980s reconstruction, Kensuke Koike's interactive 3D face puzzles, Rossana Taormina's photographic memory of post-earthquake shantytowns, Gloria Oyarzabal's enlarged images of the first Orestiade performance on the Cretto, and Jennifer Niederhauser's panoramic collage of Gibellina's utopian architecture. Climate emergency is addressed by Smith's thermal camera series 'Anno 2666' and Francesco Zizola's night photos of Mediterranean tuna nets. Other artists tackle AI, fake news, and visual pollution. The festival runs concurrently with the Orestiadi Theatre Festival, making Gibellina a summer art destination.