The shape of the places
L’Aquila, 2019 / in progress
What did L'Aquila become in 2021? The photographs of the series "The shape of the Places" [January 2019 / in progress] explore the current image of L’Aquila as a synthesis of transformations and choices made in the process of (re) construction after the 2009 earthquake. Perhaps it will become a new city, for new citizens, but today - in 2021 - it is a complex place with continuous changes in its form, with changes in social spaces, with lights and voices that slowly begin to alternate with the noises of the construction sites. What can a person find, when he decides to cross the historic centre of L'Aquila for a simple walk? It is difficult to contextualize streets and squares of the city, just as it is often difficult to cross and use them. The redevelopment of places, which for years have been a deposit of materials and objects, is still far from the idea of a public usable space. Historic buildings, harnessed by metal structures, alternate with shining facades, which still have to know the coat of time. With an effort of imagination, it is perhaps possible to visualize the conclusion of the interventions that follow one another discontinuously in time and space.
It is the same effort of imagination towards the future, that many citizens made in 2009, when the so-called C.a.s.e. project was carried out, five thousand apartments distributed in 19 areas between the first suburbs and the hamlets of the city. The settlements are places that are still trying to resist the wear and tear of time, with all the lacks accepted by those who live there daily.
L'Aquila is not only made up by the historical center and C.a.s.e. projects, there are also many suburbs that have become inhabited again, the 59 hamlets with their red areas and temporary structures, and a vast territory that increasingly needs to imagine the future without losing memory.
