This artwork is called, Nature Thriving by Gianna Fallavollita and if you look closely, you’ll see it is a front door in Fossa, which has been a ghost town since the 2009 Abruzzo earthquake. I have to say, it evokes many different emotions to see the town where my ancestors lived over more than six centuries, now gradually being taken over by nature, forever entwined with Monte Circolo on which it sits.
Gianna, whose parents are from Abruzzo and who has a strong connection to her own Italian heritage, contacted me to tell me how much Mezza Italiana resonated with her and I was so touched and thrilled when she said this has also inspired her to create a series of artworks depicting my family’s town of Fossa in, ‘Where the Wild Things Thrive’, a group exhibition currently on display until Sunday 26th November, 2023 at Back2Back Gallery, 57 Bull Street, Cooks Hill, Newcastle.
‘I retold your story of that tragic day, April 6th in Fossa,’ Gianna wrote to me. ‘I depicted the devastation of the aftermath of Mother Nature and how weeds, plants, vines reclaimed this abandoned town. I hope that one day the town thrives again with people, children, babies and other living creatures.’
My deepest thanks to you, Gianna, and for your beautiful art. I hope so too. I’m still heartbroken about what happened to Fossa and many other beautiful towns in Abruzzo after the earthquake. Particularly that it will soon be 15 years, in April, that most residents have been unable to return to their homes in Fossa. Some of these houses, like my family’s one, which I wrote about in Mezza Italiana, have belonged to the same families for hundreds of years.
I’ve long had a love of art and it feels particularly special to discover my writing may in some small way have played a part in some of Gianna Fallavollita’s artworks. I hope that together these may convey how natural disasters continue to affect a place and its inhabitants long after the media reports have faded away.
(Hover mouse on each artwork for details.)
Town Disappeared Overnight… watch here
Since the earthquake, my family’s house in Italy remains too damaged to stay in. Much of the village remains empty. And now, thieves have broken into the house. They mainly upturned drawers adding to the mess of earthquake damage, since belongings inside are mostly of sentimental value, but of course it is another blow.
Zoë Boccabella 