It could have been a park, a farm, a forest. It could have been left as an interesting ruin for humans to explore and nature to reclaim. But in the name of some selfish artistic vision, this person built a vast concrete wasteland.
Good art triggers strong emotions, I suppose. I feel horror and revulsion.
Its really a memorial, not modern art:
"I told him immediately, ‘let’s go see the old town’. It was almost 20 km away and I was just shocked. I almost felt like crying and then this idea came to me: here I could do something… This is what I would do: we compact the ruins — which are a problem for everyone — we reinforce them well, and with concrete, we create an immense white crack as a permanent symbol of what happened here,” Burri described on first seeing the ruins of Gibellina.
Did he see the disaster as an opportunity to ply his trade at an even greater scale? Sixteen years after the earthquake, he was asked not to build a memorial, but to help reconstruct the new city. He declined and created this piece instead. Your quote in context:
> mayor Ludovico Corrao called upon numerous architects and artists to help with reconstruction efforts. [...] “We went to Gibellina [...] When we finally arrived to visit the place, the new city was nearly complete and full of new pieces. ‘I can’t do anything here,’ I told him immediately, ‘let’s go see the old town’. It was almost 20 km away [...]
So what? The artist had a style of art in which he was an expert and known for. I totally get and respect that his art is not your cup of tea, but I don't see any negatives in the fact that he did see the opportunity to build this as a opportunity to "ply his trade" as you put it. Would you rather have him build something in a style he's totally unfamiliar with and bad at?
Most importantly, given that globalization and technology have resulted in a "homogenization" of a lot of art and culture, this piece feels truly unique to me (I also thought it was just a glitch in Google Maps when I first saw it) in a way that's very rare these days.
I find it irrelevant myself.