From 3 to 6 September 2026, Gibellina will host “Shaken Grounds: At the Edge of Form”, a four-day programme of encounters dedicated to the theme of living with seismic uncertainty. The initiative brings together local residents, artists, writers, philosophers, curators and geophysicists to explore the concepts of memory, vulnerability and transformation in a territory marked by the 1968 Belìce earthquake.
Symposium: Shaken Grounds. At the Edge of Form
9:30
Welcome Coffee
10:00
Opening Remarks
Claudio Saponara, Project Officer, European Commission
10:15–10:40
Where is the Edge of Form?
Lucie Strecker, Artist and Researcher, University of Applied Arts Vienna
10:40–11:00
Questions on Questions
Olga Bach, Writer, Fondazione Studio Rizoma, Palermo
11:00–11:20
Between Fear and Hope: From Seismic Fragility to Awareness and Response
Alessandro Amato, Geophysicist and Seismologist (INGV, Rome)
11:20–11:40
Is the Heart of the Earth a Fire Dog? Seismographies of the Elusive
Nikolaus Gansterer, Artist and Researcher, University of Applied Arts Vienna
11:40–12:00
Isola Ferdinandea: The Ontopoetics of Emergence and Disappearance
Lorenzo Marsili, Philosopher and Director, Berggruen Institute Europe, Fondazione Studio Rizoma
12:00–12:20
Embodied Reverberations amidst Seismic Wave Oekologies – What Epistemes
Emerge Between Tremor and Trauma?
Mariella Greil, Artist and Researcher, University of Applied Arts Vienna
12:20–12:40
Light Reading
Victor Jaschke, Independent Filmmaker
Mariella Greil, Artist and Researcher, University of Applied Arts Vienna
12:40 -13:40
Lunch Break
13:40–14:00
Unstable Grounds: Artistic Practices from Croatia in the Context of the Shaken
Grounds Project
Vesna Meštrić, Art Historian and Director, Museum of Contemporary Art Zagreb (MSU)
14:00–14:30
Volcanic Attitude ‘Vibrant Elements’: A Nomadic Festival Activating Permanent
Transformations – Conversation & Video Screening
Helga Franza, Susanna Ravelli, Giulia Restifo, Curatorial team, Volcanic Attitude
Festival
14:30–15:00
Closing Discussion, moderated by Vesna Meštrić