The Cretto di Gibellina is a large land art by Alberto Burri who began the work in 1984 and left it unfinished in 1989 due to financial reasons. The monument lies over the old city of Gibellina which was destroyed as a result of the 1968 Belice earthquake. Later, the city was rebuilt 20 km away from its original location, and the land art was completed in 2015.
Inspired by the natural cracking of the land, Burri experimented with cretti (cracks) in his paintings in which he applied thick white plaster on the canvas that would crack with time from 1973 on. These experiments led to a labyrinthine made out of white concrete. Also known as the Cretto di Burri, Cretto di Gibellina is one of the largest artworks in the world, spanning over 85,000 square meters.
The 1.6-meter-high cracks of the Cretto di Gibellina represent the streets and corridors of the old city as well as the traumatic effects of the earthquake.
