Rooting the detachment – The anomalous monuments of Francesco Venezia in Belice

Abstract

The failure of the reconstruction of Valle del Belice in Sicily after the earthquake in 1968 is largely due to the ignorance of continuity and memory. It can be interpreted as the result of the dominant paradigm that consists of two trends: the construction plan according to modern functionalism and the search for a certain architectural language linked to the blossom of postmodernism. In this complacent collage, the Museum in Gibellina Nuova and the open-air Theater in Salemi designed by the Neapolitan architect Francesco Venezia can be understood as exceptional cases. His works are distinguished not only by the preservation of the ruins in the new construction, but also by the implementation of excavating action that roots the architectures into the earth. Venezia retains a quality of detachment towards the place through superimposed forms and architectural itineraries in spiral form, creating a state of constant tension that coexists with a sense of vulnerable equilibrium. In this way the monumentality of the Museum and the Theater is recognized through re-establishing the relationship between history and territory. These monuments have been transformed into a representation of the condition of survival in the face of catastrophe or the protection against adversity.