There are times when citizens shape the city and there are times when the city does not let itself be shaped by its citizens. In Il Grande Creto di Gibellina, we are shown the old town of Gibellina (central Sicily, Italy in the Province of Trapani).
Having been destroyed by an earthquake in January 1968, its citizens and influential people, decided that they wanted to rebuilt it, both as land art and memorial. And so it was. The new city was rebuilt 11km away from the original town of Gibellina but this documentary is about the work of Italian artist Alberto Burri (1915-1995) who has conceived how should the memory of the event be preserved and how should the old city look like. The design is unexpected and moving. In Whose City we become aware of how a city, in this case Berlin (despite having such a rich history and embodying still, perhaps, the ideal of unification between different ideologies experienced as a success story) is becoming disconnected from its citizens. Being one of the city’s in Europe that has been most outspoken
about the phenomenon of gentrification, where the process of renovation of the urban fabric was intended to atract influential residents, enabling a price inflation, this is a documentary about the aftermath. Who should have control over the way citizens are allowed to experience the city?

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