Belice in Sicily was the center of very violent earthquakes between 14 and 15 January 1968 when entire towns such as Montevago were completely destroyed, so much so that Sergio Zavoli titled his journalistic investigation "the vice brigadier of Montevago".
The villages of the Belice Valley were rebuilt far from the old centers which however took on a new life thanks to art, just think of the impressive Land Art of Gibellina.
This summer, among the remains of the ancient village of Montevago, the open-air museum Percorsi Visivi was proposed again thanks to 5 works by the master Gianbecchina (real name Giovanni Becchina 1909-2001) from Sambuca - Sicily. The works are a large artistic installation that continues the path started by internationally renowned artists such as master Bruno D'Arcevia (founder of the Nuova Maniera Italiana) and Bruto Pomodoro (son of the well-known artist Giò Pomodoro).
The 5-blow-up works of art tell the beauty of the faces of Sicilian men and women and narrate the peasant civilization that founded its existence on the hard work of the land. These faces belong to the land of Belìce, to that people who have gone through immense pain and who have found in art the tool to be reborn to a new life.
It is a path of lyrical realism that contaminates the past to transform it into the present and seeds of the future.
Master Gianbecchina is famous for his personal linguistic trait made up of faces severely marked by fatigue and gestures full of love and had joined the Milanese artistic movement CORRENTE of the 1940s. A movement of critics and painters who rejected the formalism and rhetoric of the twentieth century.
The installation will be visible in the old center of Montevago from 23 July 2024 and has had the patronage of the Academy of Sicily and ENIT - National Tourism Agency. It is curated by the Regia Mania cultural association of Montevago.
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