DAY 8

UNEXPECTED ART FORMS

Covered in Clay, Plastic, and Concrete

ALBERTO BURRI’S CRACKED ART

Throughout the course of human history, the merciless forces of war, disease, and natural disaster have wiped many communities from the map.

Such is true of the Sicilian town of Gibellina, which was abandoned in the 1960s after a massive earthquake. The inhabitants of the hamlet fled for a different community, leaving behind a ghost town. In an existential work of apocalyptic proportions, Alberto Burri covered the entire hamlet with cracked white concrete.¹

Other works, while much smaller in scale than the vast expanse of Gibellina, nevertheless evoke the same arid, desolate look of cracked mud. The artist elicited this effect from various materials, including mud, concrete, and a plastic substance known as acrovinilico.

There is a corporal feel to Burri’s creations. His work was often charred and otherwise punished, creating a crisscross of zigzagging scars that exposed the layers beneath the wounded surface. Having experienced the horrors of war as a doctor during World War II, the artist explored themes related to human suffering. The intimately personal inspiration behind Burri’s cracked sculptures endows them with a timeless, universal relevance. —DJS