The Abandonment x Cretto Burri
The story of Cretto Burri is one of loss, memory, and a radical act of care.
In 1968, a powerful earthquake destroyed the town of Gibellina in western Sicily. Houses collapsed, streets disappeared, and the town was abandoned. Years later, instead of rebuilding on the ruins, the decision was made to leave the old town as it was—a wound in the landscape. In the 1980s, the Italian artist Alberto Burri was invited to respond to this absence.
Burri did not reconstruct the town. He sealed it.
He poured white concrete over the remains of Gibellina, filling the voids left by destroyed buildings. What emerged was the Cretto di Burri: a vast, cracked concrete field covering nearly 9 hectares. The cracks _cretti_ follow the original street grid of the town. Walking through it, you are literally walking where streets once were, between blocks that mark former houses, rooms, and lives.
Nothing is shown.
Everything is present.
Cretto Burri is not a monument in the heroic sense. It is closer to silence.
It is architecture as a stage without actors, as a host without events, as a pure second layer.
In September 2025, I visited this remarkable place and observed it through the lens of my camera. These images emerged from that moment of observation.
Copyright © 2025 Hamed Sarhadi