Il brand «Palermo arabo-normanna» e le sue geografie immaginarie

In 2015, Unesco included the Arab-Norman itinerary of Palermo, Cefalù and Monreale in its list of World Heritage Sites. The application dossier states: “is the international confirmation of the beauty and cultural, artistic and historical greatness of Palermo [...] it will represent (...) a stimulus of tourism development and new economy”. The intentions of the promoting committee are immediately stated: it will be the cultural lever that will set in motion the new foundations of the experience economy (Pine e Gilmore, 1999), now dominant since the end of the 20th and beginning of the 21st century. The underlying question will be “who possesses the powers of imagination – and – where they are materially deployed” (Daniels, 2011). And again, how is culture shaping our spatial imaginaries and material understandings of the landscapes around us?