ZRAlt! or, in Italian, “Zona Rossa Alt!” (which may be translated with the semi-acronym RZAlt!, “Red Zone Alt!”).

The dramas, or rather the tragedies behind that ban, have been bitterly experienced worldwide by millions and millions of people. Caused by natural, environmental, civil disasters (wars, famine and epidemic diseases) and, above all, the psychological distress. Feelings of fear, helplessness, and the incessant questioning “when will that damned icon-sign be removed?”, are the main elements of the individual or collective equilibrium  that, most of the times, is abruptly interrupted  in just a few seconds. This is what recently happened with the devastating earthquakes that shattered L’Aquila and Emilia Romagna, Haiti or the Japan tsunami. How to react, or rather, how did the individuals and the entire communities respond […]

A tent of colour and two monumental works of art for wounded L’Aquila

Chronicle of a unique performative event. (Tent Camp in sports field Centi-Colella, L’Aquila, 25 June / 12 July 2009)

Antonio Gasbarrini

End of May-24 June 2009

She came to visit me at the end of May, at the hotel on the coastline where, since 8 April, I was put up along with about other hundred homeless people from L’Aquila. I am talking about Anna Seccia, the painter from Pescara. “We should do something for the artists and for the rest of the people residing in the tent camps”.  […]

The philosophy of Angelus Novus, of the society to come and the faces of indignation of L’Aquila residents in July 2009

Pino Bertelli

still to Pier Paolo Pasolini, friend and mentor

because his defenceless scroungers, his miserable prostitutes,
and the best of youth that has gone to fight
a war of Resistance wearing a red bandana around their neck…
are angels essential to comprehend the lost love
of a suffering human race and the conquest of the coming
Spring of beauty to the song “Bella ciao”  […]

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

[…]