The before and after of L’Aquila artists following the earthquake that struck at 3.32 a.m.

Antonio Gasbarrini

It took only two minutes to uproot and entoiled the life of nearly 70,000 L’Aquila residents. In only 120 flickering seconds, the centuries-old history of the city of L’Aquila (founded in 1254, destroyed five years later by Manfredi, and rebuilt in 1266), has been reduced to piles of masonry stacked high and still sitting there, stained with screams, dust and blood.  […]

(the Italian poets for L’Aquila)

Anna Maria Giancarli 

The identity of a people that, until 3.32 a.m. of 6 April 2009, had in their mind and heart the prestigious architectures and the art and cultural heritage from centuries of glorious social history, risks to crumble into a dramatic dimension, under a blanket of white dust, under the ruins of the destroyed city.  […]

People and politics on the Internet: from the aesthetics to the “feeling” through the CT  (Catastrophe Theory ”) – Part One

Giuseppe Siano

The models, or the parameters, whereby we perceive and measure the surrounding environment have changed and, consequently, also the way we logically understand or “feel” a disaster or a catastrophic event.  […]

The shattered Proustian memory in a poignant footage

Antonio Picariello

The catastrophe theory, developed by  René Thom during the 1960s and first emerged into the Italian academic practice in the 1970s, held out hope and illusion presenting the scientific thought as a solution to apply to all unruly phenomena, including earthquakes. Later, however, the catastrophes that shattered first the Italian regions of Irpinia, Molise and more recently those of Abruzzo and Emilia, proved that catastrophes are not only a problem regarding the structure, but a quality related to human consciousness.        […]

For art historians L’Aquila represents an Italian tragedy

On 5 May 2013, one thousand art historians met in L’Aquila in order to claim a “civil reconstruction” of the European artistic heritage for the martyr city. The following is the final document, which was also handed in to Mr. Bray, Italian Minister of Cultural Heritage, who attended the event. 

“The art historian who today, 5 May 2013, have gathered in L’Aquila, aim to galvanise the institutions as well as the Italian citizens into taking action. We want to remind that the tragedy of such a monumental built-up centre is beyond compare and it is still in disrepair, four years later the quake that destroyed it and four years later the political choices that sentenced […]

To know more about it (source: Wikipedia)

A catastrophe or disaster is an event (or a series of events) causing either unrecoverable or recoverable damages, requiring years to repair. Catastrophes may be categorized into:

• Natural disasters
  • Geological
    • Earthquakes
    • Lahar
    • Landslides
    • Avalanches
    • Volcanic Eruptions
• Hydrological

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