La Maddalena: Before and After
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The video opens with the new G8 logo animation, which opens showing a strip of blue sea, from which the continents emerge and plunge back into the water to metamorphose into turtles. The sound of the waves is reproduced. The four turtles bob about in crystal-clear waters as if in a dance, eventually grouping together inside a globe, their outlines denoting the continents. The circular inscription, “G8 Summit 2009 From La Maddalena to L'Aquila,” appears around the blue turtles. The concluding image pulses to the audible rhythm of a heartbeat. After fading into black, the video shows a rapid sequence of frames of the La Maddalena site before the work began, featuring tumbledown buildings and tottering disused ruins. There is a musical soundtrack. The first frame shows the former Arsenal area, moving on to the arches of the building that was to have housed the delegates’ area. After a rapid shot of a rusting abandoned hulk, the camera moves swiftly on to the disused former Hospital building, inside the former Arsenal, coming to rest on the long building nicknamed the “Stecca” (rib) which was to have housed the press area after its renovation. A shot of heaps of assorted rubble follows, giving way to rapidly alternating views of the “Stecca” interior and the former Hospital façade. The first part of the video, which shows the site before the conversion work began, ends with a long sequence of shots of the start of the work, with footage of cranes and bulldozers at work in the former Arsenal area. The video cuts to views of La Maddalena’s beauty spots, with overhead views of the sea and rocky coastline, before returning to the site with the work completed. We see the area that was to have been given over to catering. The difference between before and after is striking, and the background music underlines the change as well. The video shows us a sequence of impressive frames of the renovated buildings of the former Hospital, those that were to have been the delegates’ area and the main conference hall, the latter being a transparent structure that plunges into the bright blue of the sea. Shots of inside and outside the catering, former Hospital, delegates’ area and main conference hall buildings alternate at length as the light changes and broad daylight fades into sunset and night falls. The buildings now look as if life has been breathed into them by the play of the lighting, which enhances their architectural qualities. After a frame of the former Hospital illuminated with the colours of the Italian flag – red, white and green –, the video closes by zooming in on the moon.
