Looking at a map, an island gives us the illusion of being a small world unto itself. With its well-defined borders, it seems to contain a society impermeable to the passage of time and seasons, easier to decipher because it is sheltered from the changing complexity of the world. But this is a misconception, especially if — like Sicily — it lives under one of the most powerful and unshakable imaginaries that such a small place has ever managed to create. Behind the island "built and rebuilt by books, films, paintings, black and white photography" there is now a new one, hidden but no less real. The urban and metropolitan one, that of landings, of wine and tropical fruit. A Sicily sometimes invisible like the poisons that the second largest petrochemical hub in Europe discharges into the sea and air. Like the migrants arriving in Lampedusa, kept at a distance by the paths of tourists and locals. Like the population flows leaving it, giving it the sad record among Italian regions for emigration. A place where extremes coexist, like the central neighborhoods in Palermo, where the capital of culture vibrates and the invisible city of crack survives. Sicily where climate change transforms the agricultural landscape increasingly at risk of flooding and desertification, and some take advantage to replace vines with coffee and avocado. Far from trying to explain it, the following pages collect postcards from this new Sicily. They are blurred images, because the subject is in great movement. Because Sicily too moves and, yes, changes.
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Looking at a map, an island gives us the illusion of being a small world unto itself. With its well-defined borders, it seems to contain a society impermeable to the passage of time and seasons, easier to decipher because it is sheltered from the changing complexity of the world. But this is a misconception, especially if — like Sicily — it lives under one of the most powerful and unshakable imaginaries that such a small place has ever managed to create. Behind the island "built and rebuilt by books, films, paintings, black and white photography" there is now a new one, hidden but no less real. The urban and metropolitan one, that of landings, of wine and tropical fruit. A Sicily sometimes invisible like the poisons that the second largest petrochemical hub in Europe discharges into the sea and air. Like the migrants arriving in Lampedusa, kept at a distance by the paths of tourists and locals. Like the population flows leaving it, giving it the sad record among Italian regions for emigration. A place where extremes coexist, like the central neighborhoods in Palermo, where the capital of culture vibrates and the invisible city of crack survives. Sicily where climate change transforms the agricultural landscape increasingly at risk of flooding and desertification, and some take advantage to replace vines with coffee and avocado. Far from trying to explain it, the following pages collect postcards from this new Sicily. They are blurred images, because the subject is in great movement. Because Sicily too moves and, yes, changes.
