Museo del Grande Cretto Opens in Gibellina

The Museo del Grande Cretto, dedicated to Alberto Burri's monumental land art work in Gibellina, Sicily, opened on May 24, 2019, inside the former Chiesa di Santa Caterina. The museum houses photographs, historical documents, models, and projections that trace the genesis of the Cretto, a vast white concrete cast covering the ruins of the old town destroyed by the 1968 earthquake. Burri conceived the work in 1981 after visiting the site with architect Zanmatti at the invitation of then-mayor Ludovico Corrao, who had enlisted international artists for the town's reconstruction. The Cretto, spanning over 80,000 square meters, recreates the historic center's street plan as a labyrinthine memorial. The museum, initiated by Mayor Salvatore Sutera and curated by Culture Assessor Tanino Bonifacio, aims to educate visitors about the work's history and the buried ruins beneath its 122 concrete islands. Its sections include Gibellina before the earthquake, from tragedy to rebirth, and the Cretto's design and construction. The exhibition concludes with screenings of Petra Noordkamp's film, presented by the Guggenheim Museum in 2015 for Burri's retrospective "The Trauma of Painting," and the short "Alberto Burri, la vita nell'Arte" by Davide Gambino and Dario Guarneri, produced by the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia di Palermo. Bonifacio emphasized the museum's role in preserving memory and explaining the Cretto's profound significance as a place of life emerging from death.