STILLNESS IN TIME
A documentary about Belice Valley and their habitants, Sicily. 


In January 1968 an earthquake of magnitude 6.5 occurred in the Belice Valley in Sicily. The municipalities of Gibellina, Montevago, Salaparuta and Poggioreale were completely destroyed.

The ruins were abandoned and new villages were rebuilt, sometimes a few kilometers away from their original location. The social structure, totally shaken by the disaster, has remained destroyed forever since then due to the lack of aid from the Italian state, a large amount of funds and capital disappeared in the hands of the Mafia, as well as fictitious urbanisation projects that failed to take into account the needs of the population.

The new villages are often deserted and empty, loneliness and silence reign. The surrealism of the new post-modern architecture already in ruins (after only 40 years of construction) leaves the inhabitants in a feeling of immobility, sadness and constant abandonment.

The series was shot in September 2020 during a photography workshop with Martin Parr and Mimi Mollica. The diptychs responds to each other, mixing different days, cities and hours to create a complexe unity of narrative about the region of the Belice Valley and the stillness in time of its inhabitants.




Photographer
Andrea Bresciani


Italy