THE LAND WE LIVE IN – THE LAND WE LEFT BEHIND
Sicily’s history is one of successive empires or “dominations” as Sicilians term them. Its culture comes as much from its position as a Mediterranean island as it does from its inclusion in a relatively recent Italian union. In geological terms, it stands on both the European and the African plates, our area of research occupying the Africa plate. It Sicilian history it has not been uncommon to transplant whole populations there from other lands. This project looks at one such population and the town that emerged in the 18th Century from a Maltese migration called, Pachino, a town which even today preserves its distinctive character as a tight urban grid bordered on all sides by wheat fields. The wheat itself emerged as an essential character within my project when I discovered that this is one of the crops which Sicily continues to cultivate in its ancient form, just as it was when it first migrated to the Island from the African continent. The knowledge gained from this research was used to propose possibilities for the development of a large and famous Asylum Seekers Reception Centre (C.A.R.A) close to the town of Mineo in the same region. The C.A.R.A di Mineo, is a former US Naval base built by a private firm which was quickly abandoned because it was too secluded, was transformed into one of the largest reception centres for asylum seekers in Europe. This analysis and investigation based on both empirical and literal findings, proposes possibilities for the development of the CARA and other secluded settlements on the Island.
BRINA MEZE-PETRIC CMT STUDIO JUNE 2018 Akademie der bildenden Künste Wien