Old Gibellina: the map, the world, the Aleph

The present contribution intends to propose an epistemological reflection on the links and relationships that interweave the map, cultural heritage, landscape and places. I have identified an interpretative horizon that intersects the scientific geographic debate with the literary subject and proposed a specific reading of the site of Old Gibellina in Sicily, Italy, where reality and representation seem to converge. In 1968, Gibellina was razed to the ground by an earthquake. Then the site of Old Gibellina was covered by the ‘Grande Cretto’: the work of Land Art made by the artist Alberto Burri. In my perspective, the Cretto represents a unique place: it is a full- size map, it is landscape and it is world at the same time. What happens, then, when reality and representation coincide in a place?