Sandro Scalia's photographic project documents Palermo's peripheries and Belice earthquake aftermath

Photographer Sandro Scalia coordinated a major photographic campaign on Palermo's peripheries, involving students from his photography course and drawing from archives of Giovanni Chiaromonte, Gabriele Basilico, Guido Guidi, Sebastiano Raimondo, Daniela Tartaglia, and Stephen Koppelkamm. The project includes works by younger photographers like Selene Grifò, whose 2018 shot of an empty classroom at Istituto Comprensivo Leonardo Sciascia in the ZEN district is noted for its prescient quality. Scalia published previously unseen images by Giovanni Chiaramonte. The project aims to put the city before a mirror and provoke reflection, excluding anthropological tactics and exoticism. Separately, Scalia oversaw a photographic study on the 1968 Belice earthquake titled "Belìce Punto Zero," combining archival photos with current images of ruins. The work is framed as a monitoring activity on the territory, fostering a geological model of inquiry. The project was carried out with the visual arts department of the Accademia di Belle Arti di Palermo, where Maia Mancuso published a study on peripheries. The article criticizes the local intelligentsia for rejecting Manifesta 12's proposals for Pizzo Sella and the ZEN district.