Art Exhibition Reflects on Xylella's Devastating Impact

The Sigismondo Castromediano Museum in Lecce, Puglia, will host the ​‘Xylella Studies’ exhi­bi­tion by the Canadian pho­tog­ra­pher and artist Edward Burtynsky, who has cap­tured the dis­rup­tion caused by Xylella fas­tidiosa in 12 large-for­mat pho­tographs and a video until September 10^th.

The event is the result of a part­ner­ship with Sylva Foundation, a non-profit founded in 2021, aim­ing at the envi­ron­men­tal regen­er­a­tion of lands affected by Xylella fas­tidiosa through refor­esta­tion.

Last year, Burtynsky was invited to a res­i­dence in Salento by the foun­da­tion and com­mis­sioned to trans­late the effects of the bac­teri­um’s spread on the Apulian land­scape into pho­tos and videos. He was then selected to receive the 25^th Pino Pascali prize, awarded each year to a con­tem­po­rary artist.

“Focusing on the impetu­ous and neg­li­gent action of man on the planet, anthro­pocen­tric phe­nom­ena become for Burtynsky the ful­crum for redefin­ing the spir­i­tu­al­ity of nature and the pre­car­i­ous bal­ance between liv­ing beings,” said the com­mis­sion of experts in the explana­tory state­ment to the award.

The artist ded­i­cated his 40-year career to doc­u­ment­ing humanity’s effects on the planet, and his works can now be found in the col­lec­tions of the most renowned muse­ums in the world.

Among the most pop­u­lar is the mul­ti­dis­ci­pli­nary body of work ​‘Anthropocene Project,’ com­bin­ing pho­tog­ra­phy, film, vir­tual and aug­mented real­ity and sci­en­tific research.

“The set­ting of the exhi­bi­tion of a con­tem­po­rary artist like Burtynsky in this archae­o­log­i­cal museum makes the rep­re­sen­ta­tion of the Xylella fas­tidiosa epi­demic even more dra­matic, enhanc­ing the under­stand­ing of the dam­ages caused by this plague,” Luigi De Luca, the Sigismondo Castromediano Museum’s direc­tor, told Olive Oil Times.

The ​‘Xylella Studies’ works are put in close dia­logue with the archae­o­log­i­cal col­lec­tion of the museum, min­gling with the arti­facts located along the per­ma­nent itin­er­ary, which is divided into five sec­tions defined as cul­tural land­scapes of the sea, the land, the sacred, the liv­ing and the dead.

At the same time, on the exter­nal perime­ter of the museum, a selec­tion of shots taken by the pho­tog­ra­pher and artist from Salento Daniele Coricciati dur­ing the days in which Burtynsky worked in the olive groves will be dis­played through­out the exhi­bi­tion.

“It is not just a mat­ter of destroy­ing mil­lions of olive trees, and there­fore a nat­u­ral­is­tic as well as pro­duc­tive her­itage, since the pro­duc­tion of extra vir­gin olive oil is so piv­otal in Puglia, but it is also about destroy­ing a sig­nif­i­cant piece of the cul­tural iden­tity of our land,” De Luca said.

“Indeed, the set-up in the museum, along­side items that tell us how ancient and rooted the tra­di­tion and cul­ture of olive oil are in our land and the entire Mediterranean basin, helps us reflect even deeper on the plague that our land is expe­ri­enc­ing,” he added.

As of today, 10 years since the Xylella out­break asso­ci­ated with the dry­ing up of olive trees was dis­cov­ered, more than 8,000 hectares of ter­ri­tory, equal to 40 per­cent of the region, is affected at dif­fer­ent lev­els by the epi­demic and con­tain­ment pro­to­cols.

Still, in the last two years, the infec­tive capac­ity of the bac­te­ria decel­er­ated, experts told Olive Oil Times in June.

• Edward Burtynsky
• ANSA