The Great Cretto is the largest piece of site-specific land art in the world, created by Alberto Burri between 1984 and 1989 on the spot where the city of Gibellina (in the province of Trapani, Sicily) was completely destroyed by an earthquake in 1968. A vast expanse of white concrete covers the ruins of the town, almost like a shroud upon which the artist reconstructed the map of the historic town center, transforming the streets into crevices, thus creating a sort of labyrinth measuring more than 80,000 square meters.
An intensely emotional work that is a symbolic remembrance of this dramatic event, this is the site Blackfin chose for its new 2020 Timeless Memories ad campaign.
Burri’s Cretto offers a barren, almost immaterial background populated with three eyewear styles – two women’s and one men’s – that barefoot, tread lightly, respectful of this dreamlike setting. At the same time, it is also an absolutely real background, imbued with profound historical, emotional and artistic values that tie it to the eyewear brand. The choice of the location is part of a continuum in the brand’s growth process that, in its three main pillars, acknowledges the company’s shared values: neomadeinitaly, the company’s ethical and historic ties to the land it inhabits; titanium, the concrete material aspect of the product that also characterizes the site of the photo shoot; and credo, as in awareness of the campaign’s message that, in this case, is not only a transfiguration of images, but also of deep meaning and substance.
The atmosphere of the shots is symbolic of an almost undefined place – the Great Cretto becomes a narrative space that issues a strong warning and timeless remembrance of our history. A history made up of memories, always ready to remind us that what we are today is a product of what we were then.
