Ghosts of the Belice

In the terrible January of 1968, when an earthquake struck Sicily and devastated the Belìce valley, Poggioreale suffered catastrophic damage. Some districts were destroyed, but the town’s urban and architectural fabric remained standing, albeit deeply scarred. The town was evacuated, and today Poggioreale occupies a new site further down the valley.

The old town, abandoned, remained just as it had been left: houses torn open, possessions forgotten inside buildings or in the corners of its streets. Between 1998 and 2001, Ezio Ferreri produced three photographic series, each with its own technique and visual language, paying tribute to Poggioreale and to the memory of the town that survives in the many things found and revisited there: everyday objects, scraps of newspaper and domestic interiors. Between 2017 and 2018, fifty years after the tragedy, Ferreri produced a new series. This time, his photographic investigation encompassed the entire Belìce valley and the still-visible traces of nature’s fury.