Artpaper. Issue #4 by Artpaper

E P I TA P H Prof. Richard England pays tribute to the late Gabriel Caruana

O P I N I ON Public Sculpture: Our monuments are now reduced to men in suits

REVIEW Anish Kapoor stages complex reconfigurations of space and perception

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+ NAOMI BAJADA YOUNG

HERITAGE; CINEMA ARCHITECTURE 26 IN MALTA Our cultural heritage is at stake. Despite Malta’s artistic and historical wealth, a large part of our architectural heritage is constantly being savaged, desecrated and carelessly left to deteriorate. There is a lack of sensitivity, particularly towards 20-century architecture and its cultural history. The pasting of a permit on the façade of a building for that building’s demolition has become a daily occurrence and, regardless of many objections and public statements made by persevering groups, the buildings are reduced to dust and stone, only to be replaced by hideous concrete edifices. Continued. Pg.26 K E N N E T H Z A M M I T TA B O N A

Public Sculpture

‘Mobile’, Oil paint on discarded tyre and metal chain, Gabriel Caruana, 2004 - Private Collection

On a recent visit to Oslo, I was struck by the number of bronzes that abound in the city – not only in the Vigeland Park, with its enormous avenue of bronzes that culminate in an obelisk of bodies in hard stone, but literally at every street corner and in every square. I did, in fact, conclude that Oslo seemed to have more statuary than the Vatican Museum – which is saying something.

OPINION: When will public art be taken seriously? ART MARKET: Morocco’s art-scene is ART NEWS: Manifesta 12 gains attention in Palermo flourishing with a booming economy to boot DESIGN: Vitra: Folk art becomes design – and vice versa INTERVIEW: Goxwa catches her SPOTLIGHT: Can true art be taught? BOOKS: Christo and breath before her show in New York Jeanne-Claude’s newest installation: The Mastaba

I find the lack of inspired statuary in Malta to be disconcertingly inexplicable. It seems as if we produced only a couple of sculptors: Sciortino and Apap. As for the rest...? Continued. Pg.11

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Welcome / Team / Inside Sept – Oct ‘18

Creative Director / Head Designer Chris Psaila Sales Manager Samantha Psaila (+356) 77880300 Contributors Alex Attard Jo Caruana Tony Cassar Darien Eve Cocks Iz Collins Joanna Delia Richard England Bruce Eynaud George Eynaud Judy Falzon Lisa Gwen Baldacchino Duska Malesevic Margerita Pule Maren Richter Gabrielle Spiller Karen Elizabeth Steed Christine Xuereb Kenneth Zammit Tabona Artpaper is owned / produced by Lily Agius and Chris Psaila [ V ] Publications

Art has a profound effect on all who experience it, and it should be everywhere - but only the good stuff: works that speak to us and create an

International Christies, London Fimbank Hublot MutualArt.com Nicolas Van Patrick, London Soho Radio, London Sotheby’s, London Taschen Tate Britain Tate St Ives The Leopold Museum,Vienna Victoria & Albert Museum, London Vineria,Venice Vitra

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With the loss of one of our founders of modern art in Malta, Gabriel Caruana, we have lost a brave and bold artist who was never afraid to test the boundaries and to bring art to the people - his legacy

NEWS

30. Exhibition / Vienna Gutav Klimt: The artist of the Century at Leopold Museum

11. In Memory Malta loses one of the most outstanding artists of the modern era

31. Exhibition / London Frida Kahlo: Making Herself Up

25. Interview / New York Paris-based Maltese artist Goxwa exhibits in New York 35. Interview / V18 Q&A with the curator of the main exhibition, Maren Richter

ART MARKET 12. Art World How the lost Da Vinci went from £45 to $450 million in 59 years

DESIGN Supported by / Malta AP Blitz Christine X Gallery Creative Works Gabriel Caruana Foundation Iniala5 Galleries Loft Malta School of Art Malta Tourism Authority Manoel Theatre Palazzo Falson Society of Arts St James Cavalier University of Malta Vamp Magazine Victor Pasmore Gallery

emotion or effect. Public art needs to present a ‘good’ example of quality to its people. In fact, a knowledgeable writer in this issue talks about his astonishment when on holiday in Norway at how public sculpture is taken so seriously and is everywhere, and good. The choice of art speaks volumes about its country’s culture - this is clearly one example of many to take note of and consider on our own turf.

29. Art Fairs A pick of some of the best art fairs around the world

07. Manutti and Lionel Doyen’s intersecting paths 17. Vitra Folk art becomes design – and vice versa

BOOKS / ARCHITECTURE 15. Review Richard England, exhibits at, and explores the Venice Architectural Biennale

OPINION

26. Heritage / Malta The neglect of cinema architecture in Malta

11. Public Art Why isn’t it taken seriously, and everywhere, in Malta? (cover story)

39. Book / London Christo and JeanneClaude’s newest installation: The Mastaba

13. Baroque Art always need to be put in context to be understood 18. Education The influence of art schools in Malta

SPOTLIGHT 06. Exhibition / Malta Incredible photography by Alex Attard of forgotten manuscripts 14. Exhibition / Serbia Postcards from Paradise 30. Exhibition / St Ives Retrospective for one of Britain’s most acclaimed artists

REVIEWS 09. Painting / Malta A close look at the paintings by Karen Caruana 32. Photography / Berlin Timeless elegance with Helmut Newton 34. Sculpture / Portugal Anish Kapoor in new and surprising ways

lives on at his foundation, and so must his spirit for breaking the mould whilst keeping standards high. Art should be enjoyed by, and be available, to all. Until autumn, we bid you farewell and to enjoy the abundance of exhibitions and events happening around the globe and in Malta - there’s something for everyone. If you are interested to get involved with Artpaper please email us on info@ artpaper.press

Competition by Bruce Eynaud Go Figure! Can you guess any of the 5 artworks that make up this figure? Send your answers by email to info@artpaper.press by 20 September, with ‘Competition’ as the subject, for a chance to win: First Prize: A year-pass to all heritage sites from Heritage Malta Second Prize: €20 voucher from VeeGeeBee Art Shop

Winners of from previous issue (1) Melanie Erixon has won a year-pass to all Heritage sites from Heritage Malta and (2) Nina Pace a €20 voucher from VeeGeeBee Art Shop.

Executive Editor / Manager Lily Agius (+356) 99292488

here is no denying that the art world is unpredictable and uncontrollable. From works of art selling for preposterous amounts of money to people in power using it as a tool for credibility. It seems like an unfathomable and impenetrable world by the likes of us, mere mortals who only know what we’re told and see. However, it is also an enthusiastic world with relentless energy and possibilities.

Hack, Konstantin Grcic, 2016 Designed by Konstantin Grcic, Hack is a table system that anticipates the requirements of companies and employees – a provocative solution which can be understood as a ‘hack’ of the office environment. Grcic counters traditional desks with an innovative functional and aesthetic approach that satisfies the demands of today’s high-tech companies. Such companies need to offer young university graduates an attractive, practical and creative work environment while also being able to respond to dynamic changes in their office structures.

Available at your exclusive, local Vitra dealer: DEX Workspaces, Mdina Road, Qormi, QRM 9011 • 2277 3000 • www.dex.com.mt

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Art News / On the Scene Sept – Oct ‘18

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ON the SCENE. “ T h e y t h o u g h t I w a s a S u r r e a l i s t , b u t I w a s n ’ t . I n e v e r p a i n t e d d r e a m s . I p a i n t e d m y o w n r e a l i t y. ” – F r i d a K a h l o

FILM

BOOKS

INTERVIEW

DESIGN

ART SALES

SPOTLIGHTS

OPINION

ART NEWS

A Schoolteacher Couple’s BIG Secret? Last year, the University of Arizona Museum of Art in Tucson was thrilled to announce the long-awaited return of Willem de Kooning’s Woman-Ochre (1954–55), which had been stolen from the museum in 1985. Now, new details have emerged about the elderly couple who kept the painting in their bedroom for decades, suggesting they may have carried out the daring heist. No one who knew Jerry and Rita Alter, mild-mannered former school teachers, ever suspected they were hiding a stolen masterpiece in their Cliff, New Mexico, home, but that’s exactly where Woman-Ochre turned up, 32 years after a pair of thieves first made off with it. news.artnet.com

Hublot Loves Art Luxury Swiss watchmaker Hublot and Shepard Fairey, American contemporary street artist, graphic designer, activist, and illustrator, announced the artist as an official brand ambassador, and unveiled an exclusive new timepiece titled the Big Bang Meca-10 Shepard Fairey. The Shepard Fairey collaboration and the Big Bang Shepard Fairey watch is the latest and most prominent addition to the “Hublot Loves Art” series. Shepard Fairey’s art is prominently found throughout various districts of Los Angeles and all over the world. His most recognisable work is his OBEY art project challenging viewers to question authority found on the streets or on a t-shirt, as well as the Barack Obama “Hope” poster which became an iconic representation of the 2008 U.S. presidential campaign. See the Hublot collection at Edwards & Lowell, 11 St George’s Road, Spinola Bay, St. Julian’s or 7 Zachary Street, Valletta. www.elcol.com

A personal book about the island of Malta After hearing how much the word ‘mela’ is used in general conversation by the Maltese, Laura – a French graphic designer living in Malta - wanted to create the feeling of the word in a book with humorous overtones by including personal photographs taken during her time in Malta. The project is a personal take on something that she considers to be very Maltese. Initially made as a passion-project to highlight some of her favourite things in Malta, the book is not yet available for sale. At the moment, there are only two copies in existence, but you can email Laura for more information and to request a printed copy at laura. morellon2@gmail.com

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Art News / Exhibition / Concert Sept – Oct ‘18

PHOTOGRAPHY

“He was one of the most outstanding artists of the modern era” © Alex Attard

{ See Pg.11 }

BERLIN

Parallel Existences The past and present merge in a series of photographs by Alex Attard to be exhibited at Valletta Contemporary, a new space for art within the historical vaults of the capital.

panning 600 years and countless historical episodes, the 20,000 manuscripts found in the Notarial Archives in Valletta are a repository of information unmatched on the islands. But there is one particular room where one finds useless fragments of centuries-old registers, destroyed and mutilated over time. These are retained in the hope that, one day, technology will be able to once again give them a voice. And yet, as they lie in their motionless state, they do speak and one man who heard their faint whispers was photographer Alex Attard. “Looking at these volumes, I was fascinated by their form,” the artist, who is most renowned for his Overlooked Performance series, explained. “It was as if I had found sculpture, waiting patiently to be brought into the limelight.” These documents, held in the ‘Crying Room’ of the Notarial Archives – so called in acknowledgement of what it holds – cannot be removed from the building and so Alex created a makeshift studio inside it and turned to the two-dimensional medium of photography to give these records a new, three-dimensional existence, using light and shadow. “It’s about giving life to a part of our history

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Maltese Concert in Germany

which is just lying there,” he continued. “But I do hope that the photographs will lead those who see them to question what they are looking at and why they are in this state, as well as to ignite critical discourse and awareness regarding the under-appreciated wealth in our archives.” The project, which is a collaboration between Alex and Dr Joan Abela, the founder of the Notarial Archives Foundation, also has another aim: Parallel Existences gives the Archives a scope beyond that of research, thus turning them into a centre of artistic excellence, of shared knowledge and of opportunity that goes beyond the pages of the documents stored within. “We wanted Parallel Existences to give viewers a different perspective on the Archives… to turn the space into one where the synergies of the past come together with those of the present to reveal and inspire creativity. Moreover, I wanted to show that photography is not only about capturing or documenting a moment, but that it can also be an active participant in history,” Alex concluded. Parallel Existences will be held at Valletta Contemporary, 15,16 & 17 East Street, Valletta, from Friday, 5th October to Friday, 2nd November. The project is supported by Arts Council Malta – Malta Arts Fund, Project Support Grant, Gasan Mamo Insurance and The French Embassy in Malta.

The Ambassador of the Republic of Malta in Germany, Dr Albert Friggieri, reading Artpaper

n interdisciplinary concert entitled Transition, featuring a piano recital, video-art, electronic music, gesture-control technology and extended piano technique with Maltese pianist Tricia Dawn Williams and Maltese composer Ruben Zahra – who conceived the programme and composed one of the works – was held in June at the Silent Green Culture Space in Berlin. After the concert, the guests had the opportunity to meet the musicians, Malta’s Ambassador to Malta Dr Albert Friggieri and his wife, as well as Embassy staff in the café and the cultural centre’s adjacent garden. The event was organised by the Embassy of Malta in Germany and sponsored by the Cultural Diplomacy Fund of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs and Trade Promotion of Malta.

Design News / Loft Sept – Oct ‘18

DESIGN

Manutti’s & Lionel Doyen’s Intersecting Paths

anutti strives for long-term relationships and resolutely selects designers who complement its own attitude, both from a professional and a personal point of view. The collaboration with French design Lionel Doyen illustrates this perfectly with two consecutive successful collections: KUMO and SAN. The sofa concept comes with two modules that can be used in different outdoor and indoor settings, both privately and publicly, large or small: intimately, on a terrace or by the pool, but also in the reception area of hotels or in public buildings. Kumo invites you to create a personalised outdoor cocoon: its concept with inter-changeable covers comes in different shapes and sizes, decorative pillows, seat and back cushions which you can choose from the extensive Manutti fabrics range. The armrests and back supports are easily adjustable and can be moved around, transforming the Kumo cloud into a plush sofa or stylish lounger, a lounge chair or cool footrest. Mixing and matching was never this easy! 1. KUMO Kumo is the Japanese word for cloud. This collection is a light and playful contemporary seating island and invites you to create a personalised outdoor

cocoon. Its concept with interchangeable covers comes in different shapes and sizes, with decorative pillows, seat and back cushions. The armrests and back supports are easily adjustable and can be moved around, transforming the Kumo cloud into a comfortable sofa or stylish lounger, a lounge chair or cool footrest. Mixing and matching was never this easy! 2. SAN Inspired by Japanese art, San is an iconic and sculptural piece of furniture for true design aficionados. Timeless and contemporary at the same time, the design radiates minimalist elegance with an eye for detail. A natural seating structure in exotic Iroko wood, powder coated stainless steel for the base, an Italian marble table, rounded backrests… San enjoys mixing shapes and refined materials. This bench combines refinement and ingenuity. It fits perfectly in any design setting, exterior or interior. San is the winner of the 2016 Interior Design’s Best of Year Award in the category Furniture - Outdoor seating. The KUMO and SAN Collection, is part of the Manutti Brand – available exclusively at LOFT Naxxar. Tel: (+356) 2099 9966 E: info@loft.com.mt W: www.loft.com.mt Facebook: LOFT Malta

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Lisa Gwen Baldacchino holds a first degree in History of Art and a Masters in Cultural Heritage Management. She is a freelance curator and writer for art and design events.

Art News / Karen Caruana Sept – Oct ‘18

ART EXHIBITION LISA GWEN BALDACCHINO

Girl, Interrupted Smudged and smeared; dripping, spilling; pulled by gravity; heavy and weighty, yet simultaneously light and wispy

here is scarcely a figure in Karen Caruana’s Vernacular repertoire that can be defined as ‘complete’. Blurred, displaced ‘skins’ are stretched across the surface, often diffusing into nothingness, merging into the background and environment in which they are placed, yet to which they don’t seem to belong. These forms inhabit her canvases but they are snapshots out of dreamscapes, juxtaposed over familiar, idyllic and often impossibly quaint Maltese scenes. Karen has brought ‘the two’ together – creating what would be an impossible marriage under any other circumstances and yet one that inevitably works: harmoniously, deliciously and candidly. Her work sits somewhere between illustration and photorealism – the modelling of form, and the three-dimensionality of the latter, with the often exaggerated features and pop qualities of the former. There is a dominance of pinks, pastels and mints, as well as a general feeling of bright and even highlighter tones that characterise her work: not necessarily overt, yet always embedded in the layers of paint. So much so, in fact, that I can’t help but coin the phrase ‘Karen Pink’ – especially when it is used as a perfect flat ground for her scenes. Sweet sunset/sunrises or ominous predictions: methinks, the latter. Karen explains that she finds the current ‘war’ against the urban and rural environment exceedingly frustrating. She is not vocal: she doesn’t air her concerns in writing or via social media, she airs them through the images she fabricates. Many of the settings and backgrounds to her figures are representations of her hometown – on the outskirts of Zejtun – scenes she fears are under palpable threat. This is the reason why there is more than a dash of nostalgia prevalent in her paintings – nostalgia coupled with apprehension and

a sense of urgency, that is. Her state of mind and her emotions are referred to time and again – most notably through symbols such as the frail paper boats, for instance. It is easy to be drawn to Karen’s work. Her style and aesthetic are so distinct and recognisable; her fantastical dreamscapes are so akin to some surreal adult fairytale book. And yet I struggle to get my head around the fact that this is her debut show – 10 years in the making, she confesses. Her name and work have, however, been a constant in collectives, which only reinforces the timing of the show. Her work was decidedly ripe for the picking and needed to be shown. The truth be told, the Vernacular series could have easily been broken down into smaller collections each of four or five works. Her method seems to point towards a need or a desire to exhaust a theme, hence the repetition of subjects as well as titles. I specifically refer to the Blurred Boundaries series, in which multiple severed heads dominate her surfaces. They ‘sit’ atop landscapes, they float in space, they hover above waves. It’s impossible to tell how many faces stare out at us. In the fifth work of the series, one dramatically exhibited in silo, in a darkened annex of the gallery, I look at the eight (or more) figures in the painting. Some challenge my gaze whilst others look away and I’m easily drawn in. The concept is simple: where does one begin? Where does one end? It’s a never-ending series of influences: cultural, social and ancestral.

Karen’s work can easily be described as both meticulous and calculating. Each brushstroke sits alongside or atop another. Each smudge is succinctly smeared. Perfect parallels mimic an elongated form of pixilation. Her work invites you to look closer, deeper. Details take on a kaleidoscopic and psychedelic effect. Broken down into segments, her paintings contain portions of pure abstraction, enhanced by a widely rich and varied palette. I use the word ‘abstraction’ cautiously – because there is nothing abstract or abstracted in Karen’s work, apart from the details one chooses to zoom into. Essentially, the protagonists of the Vernacular series are girls (mainly), unabashed in their childish nudity, devoid of sexual innuendo or connotation: bare, rather than nude or naked – fleshy, even. Each imaginary form is placed in a very real landscape, so no wonder the disjointedness, the surrealism: postcard pictures interrupted by gravitating (celestial?) bodies – or perhaps it’s the other way around and the settings are interrupting the actions of her figures? Maybe it’s neither – maybe these dreamscapes are simply interrupting Karen’s reality or, just maybe, her reality needs interrupting. Vernacular, curated by Sabrina Calleja Jackson, was on show at the Malta Society of Arts in Valletta in May this year.

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Art News / Sculpture / Gabriel Caruana Sept – Oct ‘18

OPINION

INNOVATION

KENNETH ZAMMIT TABONA

La Vallette Statue – Valletta

Ziem – Austin Camilleri – Valletta

Richard England and Gabriel Caruana in the late sixties

Public Sculpture

Vigeland Park – Oslo

Continued from cover

Sciortino’s Christ the King is fascinating in its austerity, while Apap’s Tritons – especially, now after their restoration – are stunningly beautiful. I remember going to the unveiling of Attard’s super-heroic Aeneas down in the Lower Barrakka and wondering why this statue was relegated to an enclosed garden behind a copse of trees and then, of course, realised that it is possibly because it is a male nude.

aged by insensitive – or rather insane – restoration and relegated to the side of St Anne Street. That statue has been shoved from pillar to post over the years and it should be housed in the Museum of Fine Arts and a cast made of it. The new bronze copy should be placed on the traffic island in front of the War Memorial adding to the majesty and drama of the approach to Valletta.

I am at a complete loss to understand why, as a race, we are so hypocritically prudish. Is it because we profess to be the last bastion of Catholicism? That’s total rubbish, as we now have the most liberalised laws in Europe, if not the world, and anyway, Rome – which for centuries was the capital of the Papal States – abounds in male nudes in every square and at every street corner and no prelates seem to have had a problem with it, even though a few fig leaves do still exist...

Aeneas should be rescued and placed on the other side of St George’s Square: he symbolises our Latin heritage, of which we are very proud.

Our monuments are now reduced to men in suits. Is this a sign of the times? On the polar opposite, the statuary in the popular festas are as imaginative as ever, even though we know that they are as ephemeral as the papier mâché from which they are made. Judith and Esther, Athena-like figures symbolising the Church, angels and seraphim, popes and martyrs, prophets and patriarchs all come out of storage every summer in a plethora of flapping drapery and heroic pose. Why have these never translated into something more permanent? The statues of the titular saints and Madonnas by Carlo Darmanin and Andrea Imbroll – and even Melchiorre Gafa – abound, but none of them were ever cast. There is the Vilhena statue and the bust by Troisi, the former badly dam-

Also, poor La Valette – or de Valette – must be placed in front of the gap in the walls of Valletta that serves as its entrance and ennoble it by proclaiming the founder of our capital city, the saviour of Christendom and the man who changed our nation’s history forever. His present position does not reflect this, and the low plinth on which he stands – reducing the proud warrior and haughty aristocrat to a genial grandpa with children sprawling all over him taking selfies – is simply an insult to his memory. I am also at a loss as to why Austin Camilleri’s Ziem was removed from in front of Parliament, when it looked so noble and majestic there. Now we have the cow pyramid, but that’s part of a temporary installation so why not have a gorgeous bronze placed there permanently? We need to make the most of the little we have by way of statuary and, hopefully, we will inspire young artists to work on innovative and attractive monuments and works of art to enhance our open spaces.

Gabriel Caruana – ‘An Appreciation’

With the demise of Gabriel Caruana, Malta lost one of its most iconic artists, a sculptor and a master of the art of ceramics. Caruana belonged to a group of artists who, in the 1960s, in the spirit of the zeitgeist of the age and the celebratory euphoria of the nation’s Independence, forged a renaissance of the arts. Of the group of artists that included stalwarts of the calibre of Emvin Cremona, Antoine Camilleri, Frank Portelli, Esprit Barthet and others, Caruana was the most daring, provocative and innovative. A product of his surroundings, his prodigious output always reflected the milieu of his land. His works echoed the chromaticity of the whole Mediterranean spectrum, evoking the stratified layers of its artistic heritage from prehistory through the Baroque, and reaching to the zeitgeist of the present age, for he was, above all, an artist who always reflected the norms of Modernity. Throughout his life, Caruana remained a passionate, ardent and original artist, blessed with a Midas touch and yet never losing a child’s-eye vision of things. He was, as his close friend Victor Pasmore noted, “a wonderful artist”, a magician, seer and conjurer constantly producing works of artistic merit and poetic intensity. As a person, Caruana effused a mirror image of the same passion and joie-devivre apparent in the exhilarating production of his work. Despite his reputation as an iconic and internationally recognised artist, he always remained a humble person, generous and loveable, a personality who one could well refer to as the perfect personification of a good man. Caruana will be remembered as an amiable spirited shaman, an exciting explorer, who was constantly searching for the mythical and magical in the world of art. It is his natal island’s solemn duty to honour and esteem his legacy, for he was one of the most outstanding artists of the modern era. An exhibition called Gabriel Caruana: A Contemporary in the Modern curated by Norbert Francis Attard opens on Friday 24th August at Valletta Contemporary on East Street with an evening event and closes on the 5th of September.

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Art Market / New Space

Highlights

Sept – Oct ‘18

OPINION

TONY CASSAR DARIEN

THE LOST DA VINCI. How it went from £45 to $450 million in 59 years the most interesting narratives ever to grace the annals of visual art. The strong probability is that in around 1500 Leonardo da Vinci was commissioned to paint Salvator Mundi by the French Royal family. King Louis XII of France and Anne of Brittany must have been feeling on top of the world after their remarkable conquests of Milan and Genoa, their major twin cities’ competitors in trade. In 1625, the picture travelled to England with Queen Henrietta Maria, on her way to becoming the pretty blushing bride of King Charles I.

eonardo da Vinci is one of history’s greatest artists and thinkers. Only about 15 of his paintings are known to exist and one was thought to be lost forever. Da Vinci painted that masterpiece, called Salvator Mundi (Saviour of the World) in around 1500. It was owned by no fewer than three kings and, in 1763, it disappeared. The story of this incredible painting, how it was rediscovered in 2005 and what happened when it went to auction at Christie’s in November 2017, makes it one of

A huge spendthrift if ever there was one, the first King Charles died in 1649 leaving behind him massive debts and hundreds of creditors. Part of the solution was using his art collection to pacify some of his more irate and influential creditors which explains how da Vinci’s Salvator Mundi parted company with royalty in around 1651, for the measly amount of £30. In 1763, the painting went missing and was not seen again for the next 150 years. In the late 19th century, not in the name of Leonardo da Vinci, the Salvator Mundi became part of the famed collection of Sir Francis Cook, a renowned British merchant and art collector who was also known as one of Britain’s three richest men.

With Sir John Charles Robinson (18241913) – the former curator of the Victoria and Albert Museum – as his advisor, Sir Francis Cook constantly and astutely added more works of art to his collection. When Sir Frances died in 1901, he left his remarkable collection of more than 510 major works of art in trust to his eldest son and heir. On 25th June 1958, the painting popped up at an auction at Sotheby’s in London, where it was acquired by someone named Kuntz for just £45. This was because the Cook family, endorsed by the famous auction house, was of the belief that the artist who painted Salvator Mundi was Giovanni Antonio Boltraffio, a mere contemporary and studio companion of da Vinci. In 2005, the canvas American estate sale ly purchased by the art dealer Alexander $10,000 for it.

resurfaced at an and was promptfamed New York Parish, who paid

Having authenticated the painting as a bona fide Leonardo, in 2013 Parish, and a consortium of fellow dealers, sold it to ‘Freeport King’ Swiss businessman Yves Bouvier, president of Natural le Coultre, for a cool $80 million. Later that year, Bouvier sells it for $127.5 million to the Russian billionaire Dmitry Rybolovlev.

NEW SPACE

New Contemporary Art Space Malta’s first national space dedicated exclusively to contemporary art, MICAS (Malta International Contemporary Art Space), is scheduled to open in 2021 at the Floriana Ospizio and the adjacent Ritirata. It will be officially launched in October with a programme of events, whilst it prepares itself to serve as a platform to showcase worldclass contemporary art and visual culture through exhibitions, collection displays and installations, as well as a range of cultural activities and educational events. MICAS is a Government of Malta infrastructural legacy project for the Culture and the Arts sector. With a footprint of over 1300 square metres, MICAS will be achieved through state funded restoration of historical fortifications and an EU co-funded project that will deliver the MICAS internal galleries through the European Regional Development Fund in 2021.

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And less than four years later, on 15th November 2017, Rybolovlev put the painting up for sale at Christie’s, where it fetched $450.3 million, becoming the most expensive work of art ever sold. The auction house initially kept quiet about the buyer, but eventually released a statement some 30 days later: ‘Christie’s can confirm that the Department of Culture and Tourism, Abu Dhabi, is acquiring Salvator Mundi by Leonardo da Vinci. We are delighted to see that this remarkable painting will be available for public view at the Louvre Abu Dhabi.’ A document seen by Reuters showed that a Saudi prince was authorised to purchase the painting on behalf of the Abu Dhabi Department of Culture and Tourism. Dated 12 November 2017 and addressed to Prince Badr bin Abdullah al Saud, it thanks him for “agreeing to bid as undisclosed agent for and on behalf of the Department at Christie’s auction on 15 November.” The letter authorised the Prince to “bid up to a hammer price” of $500 million. The last da Vinci left in private hands had fetched more than four times Christie’s pre-sale estimate of around $100million: clearly a case of ‘the beauty (and value) of Art, lies in the eyes (and pocket) of the beholder’!

Art News / Architecture / Baroque Sept – Oct ‘18

VENICE

OPINION

KAREN ELIZABETH STEED

‘Caravaggio didn’t just come out of nowhere; he built on what he knew. You’ve got to think of the context.’

Photographs by Lisa Gwen Baldacchino

St Jerome Writing, painting by Michelangelo Merisi Da Caravaggio, 1607 or 1608, Oratory of St John’s Co-Cathedral

ntiporta – a Fading Negotiation by Chris Briffa Architects is showing at the Venice Architecture Biennale as part of the Time Space Existence exhibition organised by the Global Art Affairs Foundation. The exhibition runs until 26 November at Palazzo Mora on Strada Nuova in Venice. The project is supported by the Malta Arts Fund of the Arts Council Malta, is sponsored by Camilleriparismode, Malta and is part of the cultural programme of the Valletta 2018 European Capital of Culture. The team consists of: Creative Director, Chris Briffa; Curator, Andrew Borg Wirth; Architectural Assistant, Katrina Galea; Project Coordinator, Louise Spokes; Artist & Photographer, David Zammit and Research & Consultation, Lisa Gwen Baldacchino.

So said Dr Helen Langdon, author of Caravaggio: A Life, on a recent Martin Randall tour of the National Gallery. I was reminded of this when I saw a review of Denis De Lucca’s new book The Baroque Mind, newly published by the International Institute for Baroque Studies at the University of Malta. De Lucca and his department came together with the Friends of Teatru Manoel in January for a day-long symposium on ‘Valletta in the Baroque Age.’ Most of the themes in De Lucca’s book were explored in front of a packed house in the Music Room of St James Cavalier. The Valletta International Baroque Festival has gained a worldwide reputation over the past decade and it makes all the sense in the world to put the music and the city into context. Context, as De Lucca writes, includes political, military and civic affairs, the prevailing philosophy and aesthetics of the age, discoveries in science and medicine, obscure and popular literature and society’s sometimes fractious religious frame. It is the same list of concerns that preoccupy us today, but

add in the elements of a love of theatrical spectacle and ‘repeated evocations of past grandeur’ and it begins to sound very contemporary indeed. One key difference is the speed of communication: artists and intellectuals hung out together, especially in Rome, but it sometimes took years for news to percolate through into artistic expression. Take, for example, the way Caravaggio understood light. Dr Langdon showed us several pictures to give context to Caravaggio’s work, including Christ Before the High Priest by Gerrit van Honthorst, known for his skill at portraying lighting – often using a single candle as the source. Caravaggio never painted the source of light in his pictures, she told us: ‘the source was always spiritual’, as in The Beheading of St John the Baptist here in Malta. Oceans of ink have been spilled on whether or not Caravaggio made use of a lens system. Dr Langdon told us ‘hot off the press’ that Caravaggio had apparently become known as a proficient copyist of others’ work until the astonishing breakthrough of his first major public commission for the Contarelli Continued >>

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Art News / Exhibition / Serbia Sept – Oct ‘18

OPINION <<

Chapel in Rome: two pictures of St Matthew, painted in 1599-1560. If Caravaggio did make use of a lens system, then he was playing with fire, as Giambattista della Porta’s book, Natural Magic, published in 1558 and describing – among other scientific wonders – the camera obscura lens system, was banned by successive Popes until 1598. Death by the fires of the Inquisition was the punishment for those who defied the ban. It wasn’t just imaginative of Caravaggio to play around with new technology, it was brave. Can we think of a similar situation today? What magic is Elon Musk up to for giving it a go with the Block-5 edition of the

SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket? The ultimate goal is to send humans to Mars in the reasonably near future. Apply context: are there any socio-economic-political-religious hurdles in his way? Where will we find the artist to show us ‘Pilgrims to Mars’? To compare the baroque age with our own brings slavery into the context. Depending on which expert you listen to, there are at least one million slaves among us today; the late Baroque period, with its lust for power, also had a taste for trade in slaves. At the January symposium in Valletta, Dr Theresa Vella gave an absorbing talk on baroque art and architecture, pointing out that the Grand Master’s Palace was strategically placed at the centre of the new city, not on the out-

SERBIA

POSTCARDS

from paradise

A look beyond Malta’s postcard exterior

solo exhibition by Malta-based photographer Duška Malesevic took place in June at the Main Gallery of the Cultural Centre in her home town of Novi Sad in Serbia, entitled Postcards from Paradise. The collection of photographs was first presented at Malta Design Week in 2014 and is based on a project that documents change in Malta since making it her home. Duška’s photographs reveal an ‘unofficial’ Malta – the story of an archipelago and its mutations, where time is indefinable and events unfold at a slower pace. The images are candid and sincere – there is no abstraction or mystery: it is a stratification of customs, some long preserved, others irretrievably lost. Duška’s explanation for her fascination with photographing Malta is that it is naturally photogenic, but for this project, however, she looked beyond Malta’s postcard exterior and documented the more intimate, surreal side of life on the island where space and time undergo peculiar transformations, exploring the Maltese complex identity that has a mix of North African, southern Italian, Mediterranean and British influences. Duška has not captured any aspect of the ‘picturesque’, she isn’t on the beach, floating in the water or sipping coffee in the pjazza. Instead, she is hidden around the corner, perched on the rooftops, on the threshold of a door left ajar – this is her paradise. She

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contemplates the norm with an open and receptive spirit; with the eye of an outsider who has lived intimately amongst the relics and symbols of this unique and contradictory island, she underlines transience, she documents the dilettantism as it slips away and, in so doing, questions the destiny of this ancient archipelago as it moves into the future. 15 photographs were exhibited from this project, supported by Arts Council Malta – Cultural Export Fund, endorsed by V18 in collaboration with Foundation Novi Sad 2021 and sponsored by InterVisions. Apart from these pieces, Duška has exhibited examples of her work from her two latest projects, Displacements and Bonjour Tristesse, that explore contemporary urban photography and the gentrification and commercialisation of Malta and its capital, Valletta.

skirts as was the Renaissance style. The new Palace needed decoration and someone mentioned to Grand Master Verdalle that there was a rather talented slave chained to the oar of a galley sitting right there in Grand Harbour. The Florentine Mannerist painter Filipo Paladini was duly fetched, freed and given the commission to decorate the chapel at the Palace and then Verdala Castle. The centuries are changed, but the story is the same. Artists are found in context. Karen Elizabeth Steed is the author of Malta: The Beautiful Hour

Art News / Architecture / Venice Sept – Oct ‘18

Richard England is an architect, poet, artist and the author of several books on art and architecture. His buildings have earned him numerous International prizes and awards.

Argentinian Pavillion

An arduous five-day tour of the Biennale venues, in sweltering heat, in overcrowded vaporetti, constantly accosted by swarming iPhone-hooked tourists, did yield some soul-lifting architectural experiences.

Venice Architecture Biennale

he 16th Venice Architectural Biennale was inaugurated on 24th and 25th May 2018. This year’s edition was curated by Irish architects Yvonne Farrell and Shelly McNamara (Grafton Architects) on the nebulous, and not easily definable, theme of ‘FREESPACE’. The water-city of Venice offers one of the world’s most splendid architectural panoramas, with superb edifices such as Santa Maria della Salute, San Giorgio Maggiore, St Mark and its splendid ‘drawing room of Europe’ square, the Doge’s Palace, the Ca’ d’Oro, and the endless array of water-fronted palazzi. In this city of mirages and aqueous dreams, it is a hard act for contemporary architecture to hold its own. Yet despite the complexity of adhering to the chosen theme, there are examples in the various pavilions – if perhaps not many – which, bearing in mind that architecture these days tends to be more alienating rather than friendly,

still demonstrate that architecture can, in some instances, measure positively against historical masterpieces. An arduous five-day tour of the Biennale venues, in sweltering heat, in overcrowded vaporetti, constantly accosted by swarming iPhone-hooked tourists, did yield some soul-lifting architectural experiences. In the Giardini, the outstanding exhibit was the interior of the Swiss Pavilion (Bosshard, Tavor, Van der Ploeg and Vihervaara) providing a superb, interactive haptic joy-ride. One has to stretch, squeeze and contort oneself in a false-scale, Alice-in-Wonderland, surreal, mind-boggling labyrinth as if to prove once again how mood-manipulative architectural space can be. This ubiquitous warren-like structure was justly awarded the Golden Lion for the best Biennale pavilion. In the central pavilion of the Giardini, the outstanding exhibit was undoubtedly that of master architect Peter Zumthor: a workshop presentation, with an array

of superbly crafted models revealing the process of making in the hands of a true master. Especially stunning are the styrofoam, charcoal and clay model of the architect’s Zinc-Mine museum in Norway and the delicate sand and wax model of his Tea Chapel project in South Korea: it is fascinating to see real architecture in the making in contrast to the Biennale’s perhaps too many ephemeral installations and video projections.

The Indonesian intervention entitled ‘The Poetics of Emptiness’ by architect Ary Indrayanto, with its cascading undulating synthetic fibre sails, is a strong manifestation attempting to prove that “emptiness is also something”, is also a fascinating and interactive exhibit. Equally impressive is Eliza Hoxha’s Kosovo pavilion, despite its strong ethnic political overtones. The space, surrounded by mirrors, creates the effect of endlessness, perhaps as a metaphor

In the Arsenale I was particularly struck by the Argentinean pavilion which, of all the exhibits, perhaps best managed to reflect the Biennale’s theme. A vast planted earth-platform carried by mirrors into infinity evokes the endless pampas of the country. The exhibit is surrounded by a vast collection of freehand sketches as if to emphasise that, despite advanced information technology, the bridge between mind and paper is still best crossed by the hand. The exhibit is a timely reminder to ensure that the mouse does not kill the pencil.

for Kosovo’s now attained political and psychological freedom. In the Corderie-Artiglierie, African architect Paul Rich’s drawings are a must visit for all architectural students, to remind them of the beauty, fluidity and importance of freehand drawing. Niall Mc Laughlin’s mechanical installation, a timber hand-operated sundial, almost reads as a contemporary Leonardo da Vinci machine. Also impressive are his featured beautiful architectural models. O’Donnell + Tuomey’s ‘Folding Landscape’ provides a wonderful interContinued >>

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Art News /New Book

Highlights

Sept – Oct ‘18

EXHIBITION

Norman Foster Chapel

Suoto De Moura Chapel

Kosovo Pavillion

“Living earth is facing a fragile and precarious future” actional walk-through with two excellent and exquisitely rendered projects. Matharoo’s steel-house stands out, as does Weiss & Manfredi’s curvilinear pavilion with models of both the firm’s work and a selection of iconic 20th-century buildings. At Palazzo Mora, in a vast array of exhibits by architects invited by the European Cultural Centre, including my own exhibit sponsored by the Arts Council Malta and that of Chris Briffa, what stands out are the super models of a number of SOM towers, beautifully crafted: perhaps even better than the completed buildings. Also of interest (opposite my own exhibit) is the Argos Hotel in Cappadocia: a valid lesson in the sensitive restoration and re-use of old buildings. However, the outstanding exhibit of the whole Biennale is surely the one presented by the Holy See, consisting of 10 chapels located in the gardens of the Isola di San Giorgio. This is the first time that the Church, as history’s

most powerful patron, has participated in the Biennale and, as Norman Foster has commented, “it is exactly what architecture needs”. Nestled between the trees behind Palladio’s superb Basilica, curator Francesco Dal Co commissioned 10 architects to tackle the task of bringing edifices of sacrality into the 21st century, not all well-known and, in reality, a strange choice in view of the fact that few, if any, of the architects chosen have actually designed any sacred space. Why, for example, not Botta, Ando, Moneo or Meier? Tackling sacral spaces in today’s de-spoiled, materialistic, mammon-focused world is not an easy task; as still, this typology faces the arduous task of measuring against the immeasurable. Two projects stand out above the others. Norman Foster’s geometric skeletal chapel, with its three consecutive crosses looking out onto the lagoon, uses steel and timber to provide an impressive and meditative arena. In contrast to the cables and masts of Foster’s

elegant scheme is Eduardo Souto de Moura’s sturdy, heavy megalithic stone shrine, a timeless sanctuary of the soul with a serene, if rather tomb-like (despite the architect’s denial) interior; a locus in which to be still and unspoken to and perhaps contemplate on one’s afterlife. Also impressive are Terunobo Fujimori’s charcoaled, freckled interior and certainly worth visiting is Francesco Magnani and Traudy Pelzel’s Asplund pavilion, for its architecture and, more so, for its interior with beautiful reproductions of Asplund’s original drawings of his 1920 woodland Stockholm cemetery chapel. However, the 10 works in their lush wooded location hardly manifest the words of Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi as “retreats where one can rediscover beauty, silence and hear interior transcendent voices”, as nearly all the works lack the essential quality of spirituality. The combination of architecture and nature does, however, provide needed havens and antidotes to the ‘notopia’ of contemporary urbanity.

I also attended the unveiling of maverick architect Daniel Libeskind’s 12-metre high pillar ‘Facing Gaia’ at the Giardini Marinaressa. The monolith stands as an apt reminder that living earth is facing a fragile and precarious future. In today’s greedy and money-oriented world, Libeskind’s excellently designed monument is a timely reminder that when the last river runs dry and the last patch of soil becomes barren, we will not be able to eat our money. The experience of the 2018 Biennale, its festivities, exhibits and personalities, serves to prove that architecture still matters and that architectural space has a paramount influence on our lives. It also serves to remind architects of the onus that we carry – more so in today’s current turbulent and volatile ambiance – and that our job remains that of creating spaces which provide psychological well-being whilst also enhancing human life.

New book on Valletta pays homage to a unique city. A new book Encounters with Valletta: A Baroque City Through the Ages has just been published by the International Institute for Baroque Studies at the University of Malta. It is edited by Giovanni Bonello, Petra Caruana Dingli and Denis De Lucca, director of the Institute, and endeavours to pay homage to a unique city. This fully-illustrated volume combines the well-known and popular history of Valletta with fresh discoveries and ideas about our beloved capital city.

over the life of Valletta from its foundation in the late sixteenth century until the present day.

The book presents and explores the city’s buildings and monuments, its architects, artists, rulers and citizens, its transformations over the years, and the perceptions of visitors who have experienced its beauty. It ranges

The project is sponsored by Dragonara Gaming Ltd, and all proceeds from sales of the book will go towards the President’s Trust and the President’s Foundation for the Wellbeing of Society. The volume is available in all leading bookshops.

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The precursor of this volume was Encounters with Malta, edited by Petra Bianchi and the late Peter Serracino Inglott. The first ‘Encounters’ book was published in 2000 to commemorate the new millennium. This second book is now timed to celebrate Valletta as the European Capital of Culture 2018.

Design News / Vitra / Alexander Girard Sept – Oct ‘18

DESIGN

Folk art becomes design – and vice versa Interview with Kori + Aleishall Girard

Alexander Girard collected folk art from all over the world and over the years he built up a large private archive in Santa Fe, New Mexico, which is now owned by Santa Fe’s Museum of International Folk Art. But what is actually meant by the term ‘folk art’ and why was Alexander Girard so fascinated by it? In an interview, his grandchildren – Kori and Aleishall Girard – answer this and other questions.“Folk Art is an ancient global tradition which facilitates the preservation of cultural traditions through artwork made for

the people, not for mass production. As a young child in the early part of the 20th century, many of the toys Alexander Girard was given were considered folk art in and of themselves and so his exposure to this tradition began as part of his childhood. “One of his earliest toys was a handmade wooden Pinocchio doll, which is now part of the collection he donated to the International Museum of Folk Art in Santa Fe. Both his father and grandfather were in the business of buying and selling antiques and so Alexander was introduced to the concept of collecting as an integrated part of life. Visiting markets and curio shops was as much a family tradition as celebrating Christmas. While most of what he may have seen as a child was in the European tradition, there is evidence of his more global interests in the earliest interiors he designed for his own apartment as a teenager in Florence, including small African sculptures and textiles from India.” How did this interest translate into his work with design and architecture? “Alexander took inspiration from absolutely everywhere, whether it was a walk in the countryside, a market or his extensive world travels. Folk art became a big part of his design process in that, no matter where he was, he was constantly adding to his collection and often incorporating pieces into specific projects. As far as a specific influence on his own design and architecture is concerned, the clearest line we can draw is through the details of pattern and colour and a wide range of materials.” The Wooden Dolls are part of Alexander Girard’s most important and best-known works influenced by folk art. What is their story?

“Discovering new tools and all their capabilities was an ongoing experience for Girard. The Wooden Dolls were born through his exploration of a new bandsaw he had purchased for his studio. While much of what he made was for specific jobs and clients, he also made many things for his own home and these particular objects never left his own personal collection. Our grandparents consistently used their homes – and everything in them – as places of experimentation and risk-taking and certain things that he made or did would end up becoming permanent fixtures.” If you were to characterise the Wooden Dolls – like small-scale personalities – how would you describe them? “There is an obvious influence of folk art from all over the world when you look at the dolls. Kachinas from northern New Mexico, where he lived when he made them, African ceremonial figures, puppets from India, his younger brother’s Italian ceramics, his own first Pinocchio doll – the list could go on and on. The dolls appeal to such a wide audience because they are universally relatable. In their collective faces you can see the whole spectrum of human emotion and this was something that deeply interested our grandfather. We struggle to choose a particular doll to which we relate because our emotions and moods change daily – if not more frequently. Girard was always interested in building bridges across divides – whether these were cultural, economic or lingual – through design. The dolls hold with them the essence of universal humanity.” Kori Girard and Aleishall Girard Maxon are the grandchildren of Alexander Girard and co-direct Girard Studio, the entity charged with preserving, protecting and sharing the vast legacy of Alexander Girard. Both artists and designers in their own rights, the siblings work from their homes in Berkeley, California. The Swiss fashion house Akris found inspiration for their Spring/summer collection in the work and motifs of Alexander Girard. The label presented the collection in the Vitra Campus Fire Station on 13 July 2018.

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Opinion / Education

Highlights

Sept – Oct ‘18

ART + DESIGN

Home-grown. J O A N N A D E L I A T H E E D U C AT I O N O F T H E M A LT E S E A R T I S T

t is widely accepted that a successful fine artist needs, among other things, the following attributes: an outstanding artistic skills across a range of media, a critical understanding of the creative process and knowledge of formal visual elements. For the last 500 years and more, institutions have been trying their best to somehow knock the above into the heads of their students, with hugely varying degrees of success – but can true art really be taught? And can an institute or faculty of fine arts produce good – and proud – alumni, especially in its infancy? I am immensely proud of our homegrown stars and I couldn’t help but try to figure out how they all developed as artists. After all, we have had some fine and notable examples of locally grown art-world shakers throughout the ages. In 1658, at the age of 22, the young Maltese Melchior Cafa – hailed as one of the Baroque era’s most talented sculptors – moved to Rome. According to Wikipedia, Cafa was already an accomplished sculptor when he arrived in Rome, and it is unclear whether or not he had had any formal education at all. In Rome, he entered the workshop of Ercole Ferrata who, it is believed, became more of a colleague who helped him refine his technique. Giuseppe Cali was born in Valletta in 1846 and was educated at the Accademia delle Belle Arti in Naples. He painted prolifically for almost every church in Malta and his name evokes serious pride whenever it is mentioned. In the early 20th century – during his lifetime – the Malta School of Art opened its doors and for a while provided the formal visual artistic education of some of Malta’s most prominent and successful artists, including Antoine Camilleri, Victor Diacono, Willie Apap

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and Esprit Barthet. The Malta School of Art is currently undergoing a transformation of sorts under its new director, Robert Zahra, and it will be exciting to see what happens. The University of Malta as we know it had already opened its doors in 1769 – although a Jesuit institution and a medical school had been set up way before that – but unfortunately it is only very recently that it has established a formal course leading to a degree in fine arts. MCAST I well remember the excitement when The Malta College for Arts, Science and Technology announced that it would begin offering a Higher National Diploma (HND) in Fine Arts in 2008. Up until then, it had been considered obvious that a student adamant about pursuing a formal education in fine arts had no option but to go abroad as an undergraduate. In 2010, a Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree in Fine Arts was on offer and although much has been said about the overall value of an institute in its infancy claiming to be capable of producing artists who then have to face the real world, and hold their own next to graduates from schools with centuries’ worth of tradition, I believe some of the products of this degree coursed are not only promising but verging on phenomenal. To date, seven groups of students – approximately 70 – have graduated and there have been changes to the structure and content of the course during this time. This year will be the first when a group of graduates will emerge from the ‘home-grown’ degree course – designed by MCAST. Up until now, the course followed BTEC (for the Level 5 HND) and Fraunhofer Gesellschaft University in Germany (for the Level 6 degree). Also, currently, the first year of the degree course is paired with Visual Game Design – students can choose after their first year whether to follow a BA in Fine Arts or a BA in Visual Game Design (also being offered at the ICA - In-

stitute for the Creative Arts). The current structure of the course is as follows: The first year focuses on introducing students to a range of Fine Art disciplines, with a strong focus on drawing, as well as painting, sculpture, digital art and photography. They also receive a grounding in art history and contextual studies and have opportunities to work on live projects in the community. The second year continues the students’ exploration of Fine Art media, and a more experimental, self-directed approach is encouraged, as the students begin to develop their own visual language and discover their personal areas of interest. The students are given opportunities to try out a range of media, ranging from the traditional techniques of portrait and figure painting to print-making, multi-media and site-specific installations. This year also prepares them for their final year, with subjects such as Research Methods and Critical Thinking. The third and final year places as much emphasis on theory as it does on practice. The students are challenged to engage with the broader context in which their artistic practice exists, with units such as Developing an Artistic Identity and Art and Politics. They are expected to develop projects independently, in particular their dissertation – a major project that includes both academic and practical components. There is also a strong focus on professional skills at this point, preparing students to launch themselves into the industry – with subjects such as Entrepreneurship, Personal Style and Self-promotion, and even Law and Ethics. The idea is that the students will eventually graduate with a broad skill-set, both in terms of specific vocational skills and essential transferable skills, preparing them for further study or to take up a variety of roles in the industry. A good number of previous students have gone on to study for a

Master’s degree, mainly here (an MFA in Digital Arts being the most popular) but a few overseas (mainly in the UK). Others have taken up varying careers in teaching, art therapy, tattooing, makeup (stage and film), restoration, curation, gallery work or graphic design – to name a few. Some have begun to really establish themselves on the Maltese art scene, and even internationally. A few have moved overseas. However – and unfortunately – many have gone off the radar and, sadly, although every year a clear majority of the graduates are girls – which is, in fact, the case with other fields of study – it is a lot of the girls who tend to disappear from the spotlight, which is something worth investigating. Let’s look at some of the alumni of the Fine Arts BA degree course at MCAST and see what they have to say about their time there, and afterwards. The Class of 2011 Ryan Falzon: “I graduated from MCAST Art and Design in 2O11, one of the first group to successfully finish a BA (Hons) in Fine Arts. Opting for MCAST after obtaining my ‘A’ levels and wanting a change in direction, I was accepted at MCAST in 2007. The first two years were very basic, with a chaotic mix of fine arts, crafts and design lessons all put together. My MCAST experience changed overnight as soon as I joined the new Fine Arts course – thanks to tutors such as Mr Gilbert Calleja and Mrs Sinead Rice. The three-year course turned out to be a very positive and fruitful experience that led to a high standard of education. My degree year at MCAST was also positive, thanks to a then collaboration between MCAST and Franhuafer Gesellschaft University. Each assignment in the degree course was led by visiting lecturers from major German universities such as Dusseldorf, Berlin and Mannheim.”

Dr Joanna Delia is a medical doctor who specialises in cosmetic medicine. She is also a cultural consumer and art collector who tirelessly supports local contemporary art and culture.

Opinion / Education Sept – Oct ‘18

TakeYour Pills - Lon Kircop

A Good Converstion Piece - Aaron Bezzina

Isaac Azzopardi - Untitled

Matyou Galea - Crosstalk

Nico Conti

“If the community in which it is produced is not interested in viewing it, they are not allowing it to become the art which it is destined to be.” The Class of 2012 Sarah-Maria Scicluna: “I really value my experience as a student at MCAST, as it gave me the tools to pursue further skills and education in art. This led to an MA in Digital Fine Arts from UAL, Camberwell, UK, as well as various art residencies and exhibitions. I graduated from MCAST seven years ago, and since then many things – including the courses – have changed. Now, however, I am experiencing this college as a lecturer. I have spent the past year setting up a studio – mostly for silk screen printing – which I finally finished a few weeks ago. I obviously under-estimated the time needed for this, as at the moment I’m running behind on my schedule for printing my work. I also made sure to use that time to further develop my work, as I don’t like the idea of making work for the sake of it, without constant development and trying to improve it. During the setting up of the

studio, I was working on many designs which, hopefully, I will be printing in the coming months. At the moment, I am working on a couple of series of silk screen prints for exhibitions in the coming years, and am playing around with silk screen printing techniques and surfaces to print on.” The Class of 2013 Matyou Galea: “My time at the UOM has been a great experience. I joined the MFA programme in Digital Arts in 2013 and – perhaps like every other Bachelor’s graduate – thought I knew everything. I was wrong. Luckily, I was mentored by Professor Briffa, who has helped me develop as both a practitioner and a researcher and I continued to read for a PhD in Digital Arts that I am currently finalising. The great thing about the UOM is that there is the constant potential to meet a lot of different individuals, from myriad fields, and collaborate on new and exciting projects. At the Department of Digital

Arts I was encouraged to explore media from unconventional and unorthodox angles which I believe is heavily reflected in my practice across media. I am currently working on a couple of new projects that are still at very initial stages. My next engagements this year is at the DRHA 18 Conference at Spazju Kreattiv in September.”

ing concepts and critical thinking. In a way, I enrolled at UoM to sort of make up for this, to learn new things around art and broaden my horizons intellectually. The B.Hums course is similar to Liberal Arts, a DIY course that allows you to learn disparate yet connected knowledge, enabling you to select classes from all the Faculty of Arts, and a percentage from other faculties.”

Isaac Azzopardi: “I studied at MCAST from 2008 when I was 16 for about five years. I interned at the Peggy Guggenheim Museum in Venice in 213, when I was 21, and went back to MCAST to finish my HND in Fine Art and did my A levels that same year. In 2014, I enrolled in the BA in Humanities course at UoM and was one of the first three or four students to graduate in this course in 2017. Both courses were beneficial, although I didn’t enjoy my MCAST experience as such, from an educational point of view – I didn’t feel there was a lot of focus on challeng-

The Class of 2014 Aaron Bezzina: “My studies in art started at MCAST, where I completed a BA (Hons) degree in Fine Art in 2014, after which I immediately enrolled at the University of Malta to read for an MFA in Digital Arts. Both institutions have provided a basis for my work in varying degrees. Now that I have managed to continue my practice beyond the classroom, I can make some links with how things work outside it. For instance, just as an assignment presents itself with limitations of theme, space, budget and time-frame the projects that I Continued >>

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Opinion / Education Sept – Oct ‘18

ART + DESIGN

now pursue still share some of these factors, if not all. And just as an assignment, I can decide whether or not to do it. I was fortunate enough to have a few tutors, both at MCAST and at University, who shared their knowledge on how the contemporary art scene ‘operates’ – both locally and on an international level.

search and practical work that I developed for my final project at MCAST led me to continue my studies at the UOM. These academic experiences pushed me to develop innovative work, including concepts that are related to various subjects such as geometry, cartography, colour perception, abstraction and landscape painting.

That being said, the most effective means of learning how an artist continues with his/her practice was to do it myself during and beyond my official academic training. I am currently producing a body of work for projects/ exhibitions that will take place in October and November this year in Malta, Belgium and Italy.”

After completing my degree in 2017, I continued my research and practice by producing a body of work that includes a series of 2D/3D images and video projections derived from the surfaces of 3D printed land terrain models. This body of work will be included in my first solo exhibition, which will be taking place at the INIALA5 gallery space in Valletta from 5 to 20 October.”

Class of 2015 J.P. Migneco: “I feel that my work has reached a higher standard as a result of what I learned after completing a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) in Fine Arts degree at MCAST, and a Master of Fine Arts (MFA) degree in Digital Arts at the UOM. During my time at MCAST I learned how to apply a conceptual process to my work, which incorporates subjects that I find interesting. The re-

Xaqqa Valley reinterpretation 4 - JP Migneco

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Chiara Cassar: “The fine art course at MCAST is very demanding, with many deadlines to meet, which requires you to learn how to manage your time very efficiently. MCAST really helped me academically and technically to prepare for my studies for an MA in fine art at Chelsea College of Art in London. There are great tutors at MCAST who are dedicated to helping students excel in their art practice. The only negative aspect of the course is that it lacks studio space, so there was never the experience of ‘studio-life’’ which, in my opinion, is a crucial aspect of the artschool experience.” Class of 2016 Nico Conti: “My experience at MCAST Institute for the Creative Arts has greatly influenced the artist I am today: it has shaped the way I think and look at things. A common misconception

Around The Block 1 – Sarah Maria Scicluna

Skin Of Milk – Javier Joseph Formosa

Salt Has No Borders - Sarah Maria Scicluna. Photo by Julie Marie Duro

is that in a Fine Art course one only learns how to draw, paint or sculpt and while these are vital – and are indeed covered – the most essential element of the programme is the discovery and build-up of an identity – an identity which, fortuitously, links current themes with societies and countries around the world, serving as a bridge between the two. MCAST has taught me to better communicate my ideas through constant support of both technical skill and concepts. Being surrounded by like-minded individuals, whose style and ideas are so different, highlights the fluid nature of the course, catering to different approaches and helping artists realise their true potential to leave a mark or – more importantly – their mark, something that makes them wholly unique. This preparation has set me up to apply for a Master’s course, giving me the

confidence I need. After a gap year, I applied for the Ceramics and Glass programme at the Royal College of Art and was offered a position. Having just finished my first year, I was able to build on the solid foundation cemented from my Fine Art course and focus on strengthening my understanding of materials. With current and universally strong concepts that revolve around politics, gender, identity and time one often neglects the craft within the art. Therefore, by focusing on a programme that is fundamentally dedicated to understanding material, I am now able to meld both concept and technical ability to create work that is constructed to the high standards to which I aspire, while simultaneously serving as a visual vocabulary that addresses my ideas.” Javier Formosa exhibits regularly in Malta and has a group show in Milan this autumn. He was on another continent at the time of writing this article, Continued Pg. 24 >>

Art News / Sicily / Manifesta Sept – Oct ‘18

Margerita Pulè is an artist and writer with a Masters degree in Fine Art. Her practice and research is concerned with the contradictions of politics and social realities.

EXHIBITION

Across The Border - Filippo Minelli

Scenes of Exchange - Toyin Ojih Odutola

MARGERITA PULÈ

Manifesta E

agerly anticipated every two years, it has been hosted in cities such as Rotterdam, Ljubljana and Murcia, as well as more recently in St Petersburg in 2014 and Zurich in 2016.The project was conceived almost three decades ago, and has kept its cerebral edge as it has moved around the European continent.

nean metropolis where new models of citizenship, diversity, cross-breeding, and co-existence are tested”. From a Northern European perspective, Palermo may seem chaotic and anarchic in its vibrancy, but whatever problems the city may have, they are for its inhabitants to resolve and not for a travelling art project to use as an urban-development laboratory. But Manifesta 12’s concept is liberated and lifted by the edition’s inspiration in Gilles Clément’s concept of the world as a “planetary garden” and as a site “where agents of diverse species recognise the interdependency and share responsibility”. This new perspective saves the curatorial message from being trite, and gives it a freshness and lyricism that it would not otherwise have. The imagery inspired by the language of the garden, invoking a nurturing cross-fertilisation and a caring and thoughtful developmental process, is reflected in the wandering path of the biennale itself; from small gardens to inner-city palazzo, and from lonely convent to city theatre. And if parts of the curatorial statement risk making the city sound exotic, the work that was commissioned does not. Most of the work is sensitive, intensely political and simultaneously lyrical and ironic.

At first glance, Manifesta 12 seems to follow a familiar path: it ‘explores coexistence in a world moved by invisible networks, transnational private interests, algorithmic intelligence, environmental crisis and ever-increasing inequalities’ – in other words, it hits those contemporary art concern-buzzwords that have become synonymous with large art projects around the world. The biennial’s creative mediators describe Palermo as ‘a laboratory of diversity and cross-pollination’ – again, the description verges on standard cultural project-speak (substitute Valletta, Nicosia, Athens, Barcelona or Granada here, and you get more or less the same result). Even the urban study of the city, which was commissioned to indicate a base for its curatorial programme (the Palermo Atlas) seems to be more an intellectual pursuit than a hands-on exercise in city curation.

Manifesta 12 proposes a journey through the city, with artworks speaking to each other across the urban landscape. Its three themes: ‘Garden of Flows’, ‘Out of Control Room’ and ‘City on Stage’ – lend a loose structure and meaning to the parkour. And, curatorial noble intentions aside, it’s impossible to ignore the beauty of Palermo and of the venues chosen by Manifesta 12. The Orto Botanico is wild and noble, while the palazzi are dignified in their abandon, with layers of history and different cultures evident in their architecture and decoration. The city plays a vital part in the project: if there is an opposite to a ‘white-cube-space’, this surely is it. Over 40 artists worked with Palermitani, activists and grassroots organisations in Palermo to create a huge variety of commissioned work.

Even more dubious is part of the statement made by Hedwig Fijen, Director of Manifesta, introducing this edition. She says hopes for a post-Manifesta legacy “that supports Palermo’s necessary transformation from a city under unlawful control where transnational and geo-political issues converge to produce a Mediterra-

Several chose to engage with procession and ritual: Jelili Atiku (Festino della Terra (Alaraagbo XIII)), Matilde Cassani (Tutto), and Marinella Senatore (Palermo Procession) all engage with the procession and ritual related to the celebrations for Sicily’s patron saint, Santa Rosalia. A very different aspect of ritual was evident in Continued >>

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Art News / Sicily / Manifesta Sept – Oct ‘18

EXHIBITION

Relocation Among Other Things - Khalil Rabah

Article 11 - Tania Bruguera

Teatro Garibaldi, - A temporary embassy of Manifesta 12

both The Soul of Salt by Patricia Kaersenhout and Yuri Ancanari’s Whipping Zombie: colonisation and the trauma of slavery are made physical in both their highly visual and symbolic work.

Pteridophphilia - Zheng Bo

ship between natural and urban environments, the Orto Botanico houses Alberto Baraya’s New Herbs from Palermo and Surroundings – a Sicilian Expedition, a beautifully simply botanic classification of the plastic flowers found during walks around the city.

Control of territories, privatisation of public land and ownership of information is also very much under the microscope here; through article 11, Tania Bruguera documents a campaign against the implementation of a United States Navy global communication system. Also, in the wonderfully named Palazzo Ajutamicristo, James Bridle’s Citizen Ex documents digital control and rights to online information. Documentation, bearing witness, listing and bringing information is a strong preoccupation here.

Through the city heat and bustle, a hazy form emerges from Manifesta 12. It is an idea of a world that we, as planetary gardeners, would do well to nurture. It brings the urban and horticultural into focus, and frames global concerns as cultivation challenges: how gentle and thoughtful acts can result in positive social growth and cross-fertilisation.

Several artists use documentation to visualise the dehumanisation of migrants attempting to come to Europe. Forensic Oceanography’s disturbing Liquid Violence at the Palazzo Forcella de Seta documents how the Mediterranean has been turned into a militarised border zone, leading to the abandonment and death of large numbers of migrants.

References to human suffering, inequalities and daily struggles are present, of course, but the overall tone of the project is hopeful, with a message that perhaps something can grow from the seeds of research and ideas that have been sown in the Sicilian capital. Like all good gardens, Manifesta 12’s legacy will take some years to grow and time will tell if the feel-good moment brought to Palermo by Manifesta will avoid a slide into a post-festival gentrification, and will instead translate into a long-term serenity.

The city’s warmth and community ties are evident in many of the commissioned works on show. In New Palermo Felicissima at the Istituto Padre Messina, Jordi Colomer has created a touching narrative of common strength and pride in the city’s coastal communities. Similarly, the mobile video-making studio created by MASBEDO (Videomobile), now housed at the Palazzo Costantino, acts as an interactive video and interview installation. Of course, environmental conversations are here as well. In the beautiful Palazzo Butera, Fallen Fruit’s Theatre of the Sun maps edible fruit trees in public spaces around the city, and offers a lush riot of plants and fruit on the walls of an empty room. Renato Leotta’s Giardino takes the form of a huge floor of clay tiles recording the dropping of lemons from the trees in an orchard. It is simple and sensual: you can almost hear the lemons fall to the floor below. With similar concerns of human flows, botanic homogenisation and the relation-

Don’t miss: Alberto Baraya’s New Herbs from Palermo and Surroundings. A Sicilian Expedition, (2018), at the Orto Botanico to see a beautiful botanic classification of the plastic flowers found in Palermo Jordi Colomer’s New Palermo Felicissima (2018), at the Istituto Padre Messina, to see a genuinely moving re-interpretation of a changing coastline through the eyes of its communities Peng Collective’s Call a Spy, (2016 – ongoing), on the ground floor of the Palazzo Forcella De Seta, for the opportunity to anonymously call a spy from a database of 5,000 employees of secret service agencies like the FBI. Cooking Sections’ What is Above is What is Below, (2018), in the beautiful Chiesa di Santa Maria dello Spasimo to consider an alternative way of conserving water and gardening when water is scarce. Zheng Bo’s Pteridophilia (2016 – ongoing), at the Orto Botanico, simply for the opportunity to watch a video of young men attempting to fornicate with ferns. Any of the collateral events that have been selected through an open call and rigorous selection process and are dotted around the city.

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Opinion / Education Sept – Oct ‘18 Continued from pg 20

ART + DESIGN

so he did not manage to send a comment but his powerful works are shown here. Class of 2017 Joanna Portelli: The good thing about the fast-paced, demanding curriculum was that it forced many of us to take our studies seriously. On the flip-side, it limited the free development of ideas and extensive exploration of technique. Of course, each brief is accompanied by research and practical requirements which encourage students to support their practice with contemporary debates or acquired curiosities, but the very concept of placing rules and criteria on art students is always going to be problematic to an extent. Each student’s practice must be tailored to the skill, habits and intentions of the developing artist, yet the criteria by which it is corrected remains invariable and therefore, can easily translate into a rigid expectation of course and practical work from different students. Luckily, there are some good teachers in the Fine Arts sector, who know how to guide students very well through this structure and I feel lucky to have matured under their guidance. Perhaps the most exciting afterthought about my experience is that I expected to surface as a certain kind of artist and yet have emerged as another.” Joanna Portelli was recently selected to appear on Artivisti (a new programme to inspire and support the development of young artists) and works for Valletta Contemporary. She will be exhibiting this November with artist Keith Bonnici – details will be announced soon. www. joanna-portelli.com Lonkirkop, (Marlon Chircop) who – together with Hannah Galea and Sarah Stringer – forms an artist collective called The Peculiars, exhibiting regularly, mainly printing and sculpture. “After passing my ‘O’ Levels when I was 17, I decided to find a job instead of continuing my studies. In the following two years I did very little art and at some point I decided not to continue. By the time I was 20, I was really starting to miss it, so I decided to pursue a career in art. Overall, my education at MCAST was an interesting journey during which I learned a lot but, most importantly, I began to believe in my work and in the idea that someday I could make it as an artist. The moment that changed everything

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EXHIBITION

for me was when I was introduced to printmaking in my first year of my degree. I fell in love with it and I knew immediately that I wanted to become a printmaker. I love to experiment with different techniques, but I mostly work with woodcut. I cannot explain the love and passion I have for woodcut but it might be the fact that my father is a carpenter: it must be in our blood. Even though I love making prints, I work with different media and I really enjoy using materials that are not usually used for art. During my time at MCAST I met Sarah Stringer and Hannah Galea and together we are ‘The Peculiars’. During the last year of our degree, we decided to join forces and exhibit our work together. The Peculiars are working on their third exhibition together – which will be mounted in a few months, with the theme of Food, and are brainstorming on their fourth. Class of 2018 Their end of year show opened in Valletta, at the local council and the Biblioteca on 30 June and the ICA show theme this year was ROTOT (routes). The success of these fresh out of school artists remains to be seen, especially in view of the fact that the course underwriting has changed and that it seems that as the years go by the institute seems to be maturing year by year, but the hopes are high. “Art becomes art when it is afforded the right of reception”, said Dr Mark Gisbourne, talking at the opening of Eberhard Bosslet’s show Import/Export at Valletta Contemporary this July. Art is self-revealing; it must be revealed – it must have an audience. If the community in which it is produced is not interested in viewing it, they are not allowing it to become the art which it is destined to be. Art can only exist if the world allows it to exist. Perhaps the inhabitants of this island need to be exposed to some more home-grown contemporary art. Perhaps once they feel they can better relate to it on a basic level, they will appreciate and desire it more. It is common for an artist to be received better outside his birthplace, but I believe these exceptional emerging artists and their work deserve to be afforded a right of review here – for their work to be viewed and their careers supported.

Design as Life Chinese Cultural and Creative Products Exhibition Week

With the accelerated development of the Chinese economy and the constant modernisation of its industry, design is playing a very important role. In recent years, a large number of Chinese design companies and manufacturing industries have excelled in the field of design, launching themselves on the global stage and changing the ‘made in China’ paradigm to ‘created in China’. An exhibition at the China Cultural Centre in Malta in June brought together professionals from the Chinese Mainland and Taiwan, who are seeking to maximise China’s potential and role, brand and technology in this creative area. The exhibition presented about 20 works by Chinese design professionals and companies, based on the concepts of The East and Life, Vegetation and World and Artistic Technique and Nature, as reflected in everyday products ranging from furniture to electronic devices. The exhibition was organised by The China Cultural Centre in Malta and the Chinese Culture Friendship Association, in collaboration with Beijing Zhongdan Danqing Exhibition Co. Ltd, and was sponsored by Xiamen Culture and Communication Group

Bellavista Street San Gwann T: 21385584 · E: art@vgb.com.mt Shop Online www.vgbart.com.mt

Spotlight / Exhibition / New York Sept – Oct ‘18

IZ COLLINS

Winged Migration The Paris-based Maltese painter Goxwa, takes a well-needed break after exhibiting at the Art Paris Art Fair and months of preparing for her exhibition at Hugo Galerie in New York

I love how Goxwa paints women: each one is unique, and each conveys a purpose: she starts with the face and the rest follows. The Girl Behind the Last Door, Ready for the Festa and La Parfumeuse are examples of the study of the feminine nature.

met with the artist and her muse, Pipo the peppy Boston Terrier, on a hot windy afternoon in Sliema and, after a bit of banter about heat, dogs and coffee, we embark on our conversation about her new art pieces in transit to New York where they will be exhibited.

The Girl Behind the Last Door holds such a beautiful expression in her face which keeps the viewer staring at it before appreciating the full picture. I ask Goxwa about this girl: “She is in love”, she says, “a first love that will not last of course, that’s why there is the whimsical dress, fading into nothingness.” Ready for the Festa is an image from the past, it is a cultural reference to the girls in the villages in Malta all dressed up for their village feast, but this little girl has Pipo with her, bringing her into the present.

The wax-and-oil-based medium Goxwa uses requires a lot of energy and physical strength. She tells me how she works on extremely taut and stretched canvas placed against a wall, like the fresco masters of the past, and that her starting point is always a black background. She talks about her studio in Paris with great affection – a working space that comes to life when she invites her model to join her – it becomes a space for memories, imagination and inspiration to merge into her creations. The model and the artist have an exclusive bond stemming from their silent relationship. The girl, who was a mere nine years old when they met, is Goxwa’s only model. The new exhibition pieces are a mixture of girls, women, children, landscapes, flowers, walls, birds and a bit of canine. Those who follow Goxwa’s work will not be disappointed: the styles and depth of colour taken from nature – reminiscent of Pompeii frescos – appear to emerge from the decaying backdrops. Pipo lies asleep in a graceful bundle on the mat behind us and Goxwa divulges: “I am not a painter of dogs, but now I have a dog of course I paint him. Dogs have a very human-like nature and here I make Pipo’s eyes as human as I see them.” She does not disagree with me when I say that I see a resemblance in the eyes in

Variation of Flowers, 100x100, oil and wax on canvas

Goxwa explains that gold has been prevailing in her recent work and that the flyaway strands of golden hair seen in La Parfumeuse represents how the girl, who gathers flowers for perfume, beholds and belongs to nature.

Portrait of Pipo to those in Marilyn in the Studio. This is the newest of a series of the fable of Marilyn Monroe. I ask the artist why she depicts Marilyn in this particular pose, which strikes such a sad chord in me? Goxwa replies: “This painting of Marilyn is all about how the light inside the woman persists and shines, how the little girl in her cannot be diminished, even though she holds her pain in a protective self-embrace.”

Wet Sand, 146x89cm, oil and wax on canvas

Children and their innocence are the subjects of Wet Sand: the young boy and girl playing in the sand and water create their intimate world of shimmering colours, and the viewer observes how the fluidity between youth and transience are both present in harmony. Goxwa’s work shows great depth in her simple approach. There is no spectacle here, but her art – which evokes a sense of familiarity – permits us to see the insightful and intuitive nature of the artist. Goxwa is represented in Malta by Lily Agius Gallery, (+356) 99292488, www.lilyagiusgallery.com

Portrait of Pipo, 116x89cm oil & wax on canvas

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Research for this article was undertaken as part of Naomi Bajada Young’s undergraduate dissertation submitted to the Department of History of Art, under the supervision of Professor Conrad Thake.

Cinema / Architecture / Malta Sept – Oct ‘18

ARCHITECTURE << Continued from cover

This uglification reflects our civilisation, a civilisation of ‘culture’, ‘progress’ and other ‘advancements’, a society that has become desensitised, that seeks instant gratification and values economic wealth over cultural prosperity. Twentieth-century architecture in the Maltese Islands was considerably different to the predominant Baroque style which was, and still is, very much associated with the Church. The introduction of the Art Nouveau, Art Moderne and Art Deco styles, combined with modernist tendencies, was a refreshing change and offered new architectural possibilities. These styles were adapted by Maltese architects who were exposed to both British and Italian influences. After World War II, Malta had access to new construction materials such as reinforced concrete. Cinema theatres were typically constructed from globigerina limestone and incorporated reinforced concrete. A particular feature for most cinemas was the trussed roofing system and, in some cases, a skylight, which can be seen from an aerial. Maltese artists such as Giuseppe Calì, Emvin Cremona, Frank Portelli and Rafael Bonnici Calì were involved with the decoration of cinemas and theatres and the notable architects who designed cinemas are Edwin England Sant Fournier, Harold Borg, George J. Galea, Joseph Naudi, W. F Micallef and Richard England. The first film projections were created by the Lumière Brothers in Paris in 1895. It was only a few months later, in 1896, that the first cinematograph exhibition was held at the Grand Master’s Palace in Valletta. When the Royal Opera House was bombed, operatic productions ceased. Theatre was associated with the upper classes whereas cinemas served to entertain people from all levels of society. With this new form of mass entertainment, cinema had everyone queuing at the ticket booths.

Orpheum - Gzira

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NAOMI BAJADA YOUNG

Heritage;

Cinema Architecture in Malta

The first places used as cinemas were dance halls, band clubs, church halls, cafés and theatres. Going to the cinema was very much like going to the theatre: it was a rendez-vous, a place for social gathering. The early films were shown at the Royal Opera House and the Manoel Theatre in Valletta, the Orpheum in Gzira and the Radio City Opera House in Hamrun. The main screening venues were in Valletta, along Strada Reale, then spread to Sliema and eventually, other areas began to run their own cinema theatres. The first cinema to open in Malta was Harding’s Cinematograph in Valletta, which was opened by the cinema pioneer Mr Harding in 1897. Other cinemas included the Cinema del Commercio which was decorated by Giuseppe Calì (Café Cordina), the Café Anglo-Maltese and the Salinos (Casino Maltese).

In Sliema, Mr Harding was the owner of the Victoria Theatre and the Harding Cinematograph, which later became the Majestic Theatre. Other cinemas included the Gaiety Theatre, the Plaza, an open-air cinema in Villa Bonnici and the Alhambra/Axisa. The most well-known cinemas in Malta were the Roxy, the Rialto, the Lyric, the Lido, the Palladium, the Mikado and the Warner – but there were many others. In Gozo, there was the Citadel, the Don Bosco Oratory, the Astra, the Aurora and the Odeon. The Armed Forces also had their own venues, with multi-purpose halls that could be used for screening films. The RAF cinemas included the Australia Hall, the Astra, the Mtarfa Barracks, the Garrison Chapel and the Brittania Circus – the latter being designed by architect Herbert Galizia. The Navy used to have film

Envin Cremona - Lyric Cinema, Msida

screenings on board their ships and at the Lazaritz, a cinema at Fort St Angelo, and the Royal Navy Canteen. When going to the cinema was the main source of entertainment, there were nearly 200 screening venues on the island, but with the arrival of discotheques and television in the 1960s, cinema saw a decline in popularity and maintaining them became a struggle. This decline prompted ‘multiplexes’ and, in time, cinema architecture became less decorative. Currently, cinemas are facing a threat, with online streaming continuing to contribute to their decline in popularity. Cinema architecture offered a new public space for social interaction and the screen was an open window to different countries. An ideal solution for the preservation of these cinemas would be to adapt them for a different use, instead of demolishing them. Another way of preserving their memory would be to establish a National Museum for Cinema and Theatre. Plans are in place to restore cinemas such as the Blue Arena in Zabbar, the Circolo Santa Caterina in Zejtun and the Salesian Theatre in Sliema, while others like the Rialto in Cospicua and the Orpheum in Gzira are interested in preserving the buildings as cinemas. The Pandora in Zejtun and the City Lights in Valletta are exemplary models that still retain their original structure and are still being used. Cinema theatres have a glorious history. Some of them still sit in time, whilst others await their tragic death by the signing of a permit. The loss of cinema theatres leaves a yawning gap in our cultural heritage and in many instances, the unfulfilled promises of their restoration or conservation remain a bittersweet dream.

Envin Cremona - Lyric Cinema, Msida

Spotlight / Events / Malta Sept – Oct ‘18

VISUAL ART EVENTS

A list of curated events in Malta

06 – 09.18 Events until Oct

08.06. 18 Until 21 Sept

F R O M A FA R From Afar presents the work of five artists and film-makers whose use of narrative, story-telling and interrogation evokes powerful and profound connections between narration and the image. Presented individually as multiple, synched, facsimiled projections and screenings, the work of each artist individually appropriates MCA’s gallery spaces for the duration of the film. Thinking about visual and spatial orientation and contrast, specifically in the context of the cinematic experience and its relationship to film, From Afar renegotiates the presentation of each film through multiplicity and repetition. Articulating ideas of appearance and disappearance, detachment and physical and philosophical distance, the five selected films address themes of cartography, astronomy and technology and ideas of political, social and cultural divergence. Where: Malta Contemporary Art

24. 08. 1 8

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Until 5 Sept

Until 7 Sept

GABRIEL CARUANA: A C O NT E MP O R A RY IN THE MODERN

C UR ATO R I A L SCHOOL The Curatorial School is a one-week intensive programme featuring leading curators and experts from major international arts and academic institutions. The course includes daily lectures for the whole group and workshops for smaller numbers of students. The theme for this year’s School is Social practices in contemporary art and curating, which will focus on artistic and curatorial practices that engage directly with audiences or specific groups of people. Social practice art is typically collaborative, performative and interdisciplinary and brings together various fields such as ethnography, community arts, activism and experimental forms of curating.

This is a tribute exhibition after Gabriel Caruana’s passing in collaboration with the Gabriel Caruana Foundation. Caruana’s pioneering use of sculpture with metal, concrete and unusual ceramics is what made Caruana unique in the artistic landscape and a transitional artist as one of the last modernists entering the contemporary era. The show aims to present Caruana’s contemporary tendencies with unique artworks sourced from various collectors. The selected works will highlight new perspectives onto work that he is not traditionally recognised for. Where: Valletta Contemporary

Image via: valletta2018.org Where: Valletta Campus, University of Malta

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07.09.18

08.09.18

Until 28 Sept

Until 14 Oct

BLITZ RESIDENCY

ELECTROMORPHOLOGIES

TRANSFORMER

Borbála Soós is a curator. She was born in Budapest, Hungary, and is now based in London where she is the director and curator of Tenderpixel, a contemporary art gallery in central London, and Visiting Lecturer at the Royal College of Art and Goldsmiths College. Her recent research focuses on the development of structures found in plants and fungi, as well as certain sea creatures, and she explores these as metaphors for social organisation. Borbála’s residency will be an extension of this research and the accumulation of knowledge will be collaborative, including field trips inviting local artists, curators, writers and thinkers to participate and talk about their relationship with the island and the sea and its non-human inhabitants. These experiences will unfold in a series of events.

The artists who explored video as an art form in its formative years were highly influenced by movements and concepts, including Fluxism, Performance Art, Body Art, Arte Povera, Pop Art, Minimalist Sculpture, Conceptual Art, Avant-garde Music, Experimental Film, Contemporary Dance and Theatre and a diverse range of other-cross-disciplinary cultural activities and theoretical discourses. The exhibition entitled Electromorphologies will bring together some of video art’s key exponents and highlights some of the conceptual directions of this multifarious art form, including projections and monitor work by Vito Acconci, Peter Campus, Gary Hill, Joan Jonas, Bruce Nauman, Steina and Woody Vasulka and Bill Viola.

Until 30 Sept

Transformer is a two-year project produced by Blitz, Valletta and Central St Martins, London. Following a series of border-crossing curatorial and artistic exchanges – including curatorial research, artist residencies, public talks, workshops, and an online platform – the project concludes in September with a multi-site exhibition in spaces across Malta. These locations for transformation include Villa Bologna, various sites in the town of Hamrun, Valletta Design Cluster and Blitz. Visit Transformer online at transformermalta.com Where: Blitz

Where: Valletta Contemporary

Programme - Borbála Soós, Hungary & UK Where: Blitz

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Simple, yet quite stunning. Highlights

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Spotlight / Events / Global Sept – Oct ‘18

ART + DESIGN

09 / 10.18

A Pick of international art fairs until October

Events until July

04.09. 18

26. 09. 1 8

2 7 .0 9 .1 8

26.10.18

29.09.18

Until 23 Sept

Until 30 Sept

Until 29 Oct

Until 2 Oct

LONDON DESIGN B I E NN A L E

BERLIN ART WEEK

EXPO CHICAGO

V I E NN A C O NT E MP O R A RY

ART TORONTO

FINE ART ASIA

This is a unique exhibition presenting the best design in the world from established and emerging designers, architects, scientists, writers and artists. This year’s Biennale is devoted to the theme Emotional States, and will explore big questions and ideas about sustainability, migration, pollution, energy, cities, and social equality. Visitors will enjoy engaging and interactive installations, innovations, artworks and proposed design solutions - all in an immersive, inspiring and entertaining tour of the world

Berlin Art Week is a highlight on the contemporary art calendar in the German capital. The rich variety of the programme is made possible by the collaboration of institutions, galleries, artists, private collectors, and project spaces and draws international attention. The Berlin art scene is hosting art fairs, exhibition openings, award ceremonies, artist films, and numerous special events. Visitors can expect large-scale exhibitions on established artists as well as countless presentations in a wide range of genres by artists yet to be discovered.

Founded in 2000, Art Toronto is Canada’s international contemporary and modern art fair providing unique access to the Canadian art market and one of the leading annual art events in Canada. Now in its 19th year, Art Toronto presents important artwork from leading Canadian and international galleries combined with PLATFORM, its engaging series of lectures and panel discussions from prominent art world figures, curated projects, an extensive VIP programme and top-tier cultural offerings throughout the city.

Fine Art Asia will host some of the world’s most renowned galleries. It will showcase Asian and Western antiques, jewellery, antique silver and timepieces; Impressionist, modern and contemporary art and design and photography. Fine Art Asia is staged during the peak art season in Hong Kong. It coincides with major fine art auctions held at the same venue and attracts a high-profile, sophisticated audience of leading dealers, collectors, curators, connoisseurs and art lovers from all over the world.

Where: Somerset House, London Image: India 2016. Photo Ed Reave

Where: The former Tempelhof Airport Image via: berlinartweek.de

Expo Chicago, the International Exposition of Contemporary & Modern Art, has established the city of Chicago as a preeminent art fair destination. Dedicated to rigorous and challenging programming, Expo Chicago initiates strategic international partnerships, built alongside strong institutional relationships with major local museums and organisations, to open parallel exhibitions and events. The 2018 edition of Expo Chicago will align with Art Design Chicago, an initiative of the Terra Foundation for American Art, to present various programmes and events throughout Expo Art Week, including panel discussions, performances and activations across the city.

Vienna Contemporary will once again gather more than 100 galleries and institutions from 23 countries under the roof of the iconic Marx Halle. The only art fair to unite East and West Germany in carefully curated exhibitions, Vienna Contemporary stands out in the crowded art calendar as a place for exciting discoveries. Ranging from Austria’s most significant galleries to international top players and up-andcoming galleries, the fair’s exhibitors represent some of the world’s most exciting artists, from the emerging to the iconic. Where: Marx Halle, KarlFarkas-Gasse 19

Where: Metro Toronto Convention Centre

Where: Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre

Image via: arttoronto.ca

Image via: hkcec.com

Image via: viennacontemporary.com

Where: Navy Pier Image via: expochicago.com

LONDON

The EY Exhibition: Picasso 1932 – Love, Fame, Tragedy 45 years after the artist’s death, Tate Modern stages its first ever solo exhibition of Pablo Picasso’s work, one of the most ambitious shows in the museum’s history until 9 September. The exhibition takes visitors on a month-by-month journey through 1932, a time so pivotal in Picasso’s life and work that it has been called his ‘year of wonders’. More than 100 outstanding paintings, sculptures and works on paper demonstrate his prolific and restlessly inventive character, stripping away common for myths to reveal the man and the artist in his full complexity and richness. 1932 was an extraordinary year for Picasso, even by his own standards. His paintings reached a new level of sensuality and he cemented his celebrity status as one of the most influential artists of the 20th century. Over the course of this year he created some of his best loved works, including Nude Woman in a Red Arm-

chair, an anchor point of Tate’s collection, confident colour-saturated portraits and Surrealist experiments, including 13 seminal ink drawings of the Crucifixion. His virtuoso paintings also riffed on the voluptuous sculptures he had produced some months before at his new country estate. In his personal life, throughout 1932 Picasso kept a delicate balance between tending to his wife Olga Picasso (nee Khokhlova) and their 11-year-old son Paulo, and his passionate relationship with Marie-Thérèse Walter. The exhibition brings these complex artistic and personal dynamics to life with an unprecedented range of loans from collections around the world, including the Musée national Picasso-Paris and major international museums, as well as many works held in private hands. Highlights include Girl before a Mirror, a signature painting that rarely leaves The Museum of Continued Pg. 36 >>

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Spotlight / Exhibitions / Vienna + St.Ives Sept – Oct ‘18

Highlights

ST IVES

Patrick Heron Celebrate one of Britain’s most acclaimed artists in this major retrospective of his work at Tate St. Ives (museum of the year) Running until the 30th of September, the exhibition will stretch from Heron’s early work in the 1940s to his death at the very end of the 20th century, showing the full evolution of his vibrant abstract paintings. Making use of the gallery’s new building, the show will include a number of large-scale paintings offering visitors a unique opportunity to explore this modern master’s sense of scale, colour and composition. Image: Patrick Heron - Red Garden Painting

Patrick Heron is organised in association with Turner Contemporary. The exhibition will tour to Turner Contemporary, Margate from 19 Oct ‘18 - 6 Jan ‘19.

VIENNA

Gustav Klimt Artist of the Century

The Leopold Museum in Vienna is dedicating a comprehensive exhibition to the ‘artist of the century’ Gustav Klimt (1862-1918), during this commemorative year of Viennese Modernism, which will run up to 4 November. On the occasion of the 100th anniversary of Klimt’s death, the presentation impressively retraces his artistic transformation from a painter espousing late historicism to the most eminent exponent of the Vienna Secession. Two decades before Gustav Klimt emerged as a battling campaigner against the Gründerzeit style and art of historicism with the founding of the Vienna Secession in 1897, he himself had been part of this cultural era, informed by academic traditions. An artistic paradigm shift and the development of an individual style became apparent in the mid-1890s, when Klimt created the first drafts for the scandalous Faculty Paintings for the ceremonial hall of Vienna University. The Secessionists, who broke with conservative tendencies and paved the way for Jugendstil, made Klimt their first president. With his ornamental-decorative style, Klimt became their most important representative, as well as a sought-after portraitist of the ladies of the Viennese bourgeoisie. At the same time, he created highly erotic, symbolically charged female depictions indebted to ecstasy and sensuality. The presentation, curated by Hans-Peter Wipplinger in collaboration with Sandra Tretter, features works from the collections of the Leopold Museum and the Leopold Private Collection, exhibits from the Klimt Foundation and new works given to the Leopold Museum on permanent loan by a Klimt descendant as well as select loans from Austrian and international collections.

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Spotlight / Exhibition / London Sept – Oct ‘18

LONDON

This exhibition presents an extraordinary collection of personal artefacts and clothing belonging to the iconic Mexican artist Frida Kahlo. Locked away for 50 years following her death in 1954, this collection has never before been exhibited outside Mexico. Frida Kahlo’s possessions were stored under lock and key in the Casa Azul in Mexico City, her lifelong home. Half a century later, her collection of clothing, jewellery, cosmetics and other personal items was rediscovered. Frida Kahlo: Making Her Self Up offers a fresh perspective on the story of this extraordinary artist, whose charisma and entirely individual way of dressing made her one of the most photographed women of her time. Specially-commissioned photographs show her distinctive Mexican outfits alongside her self-portraits, an unprecedented pairing that is enriched by iconic images taken during her lifetime.

Frida Kahlo on a bench, carbon print, 1938. Photo by Nickolas Muray © The Jacques & Natasha Gelman Collection of 20th Century Mexican Art and The Verge

Until 4 November – Victoria and Albert Museum, Cromwell Road, London, SW7 2RL. Open daily from 10 am to 5.45 pm and on Fridays from 10 am to 10 pm

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Review / Photography / Helmut Newton Sept – Oct ‘18

GABRIELE SPILLER

In Alphabetical Order

etween Art & Fashion. The Helmut Newton Foundation Berlin presents pictures from the multifaceted collection of Carla Sozzani. It is an excellent occasion to experience the work of the best photographers ever.

When you enter the impressive neoclassical building, a former officers’ casino under Kaiser Wilhelm II, the flights of stairs lead towards five famous nudes: blondes and brunettes with no name, but immortalised by the photographs of Helmut Newton. They are as naked as the day they were born, but the women look neither vulnerable nor weak. It is a tribute to ‘girl power’ by a man who worshipped female beauty – often with an ironic twist.

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His tongue-in-cheek humour is also perceptible in the permanent collection Private Property. Not only are Newton’s cameras on show, but also a tastefully arranged outfit with flashy yellow socks and his custom-made jeep, the famous Newton-mobile with a huge steering-wheel bearing his initials. Newton himself endowed the Foundation in 2003, shortly before his death. He was particularly pleased that his trust is presented in cooperation with the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation – in the last building he saw from the train when he emigrated from Berlin. Many young visitors, who have not experienced the artist’s worldwide success in their own lifetime, visit the museum. “They are fascinated by the timeless elegance of his photos”, says Helmut Newton Foundation curator Dr Matthias Harder. Since the presentation

opened in 2004, the number of annual visitors each year flow has plateaued at around 100,000 entries. “Looking at Helmut Newton’s work, you don’t realise in which year the photos were taken”, Dr Harder adds. And the same goes for many pictures in the current exhibition: Photographs from the collection of Carla Sozzani. The former editor-in-chief of the Italian Elle and Vogue magazines is an enthusiastic collector of photographs. A snapshot of her 100 square-metre office reveals a salon hang, featuring Annie Leibovitz, David LaChapelle, David Bailey and Peter Lindbergh. Of the almost one thousand works she treasures, 230 were selected for Between Art & Fashion in Berlin, an exhibition originally initiated by fashion designer Azzedine Alaïa, who died last November. “Alaïa is the central

Gabriele Spiller is a Swiss-German author and journalist who lives between Berlin and Gozo. She looks forward to playing a part in promoting Malta’s emerging art scene.

Review / Photography / Helmut Newton Sept – Oct ‘18

figure in the exhibition”, says Harder, which is why Sarah Moon (1941) and Paolo Roversi (1947) receive a special dedication. Moon found a soft-focused poetical atmosphere in which to present the designer’s creations, while Roversi sought the feminine curve – an all-time classic. But the works of 96 other photographers are also on display, so the exhibition extends from pioneers such as Alfred Stieglitz (Venetian boy, 1887), to Xanti Schawinsky (Spectodrome, 1936) up to today. “This presentation is an experiment”, says Dr Harder, as he decided to hang the works in alphabetical order. That way, Man Ray is placed next to Leni Riefenstahl and Herb Ritts. Carla Sozzani launched her gallery 10 Corso Como in Milan in 1991 and showcased the work of her close friend, Helmut Newton, four times. Now the Foundation is proud to present another Newton-nude for the first time, La Hollandaise (1994). “Helmut Newton changed his models frequently”, explains the curator, “but he often chose women who resembled his wife, June: he even let them wear wigs to make them look more like her.” The legacy of June Newton – aka Alice Springs – is honoured in ‘June’s Room’ in the same building. On the occasion of her 95th birthday, the Helmut Newton Foundation shows 22 of her portraits

of designers (such as Yves Saint-Laurent and Karl Lagerfeld) and other celebrities. On view until 18th November 2018. www. helmut-newton.com Helmut Newton (1920 – 2004), or Neustädter as he was born, was a German photographer. His black and white pictures for lifestyle magazines, especially of nude, long-legged girls, remain a dominant impression of his work. But he did not always live in Monaco and Los Angeles, among the rich and the famous. Being the son of a Jewish button manufacturer in Berlin, he quit school and started work as a young apprentice in a fashion photo studio. In 1938 the Jewish owner, Yva, was forced to close her studio, so the 18-year-old also fled from the Nazis. After a brief interlude at The Straits Times in Singapore, where he was dismissed because of ‘incapability’, he moved on to Australia. During World War II he worked in railway construction and as a truck driver for the army, before he opened his own photography studio in Melbourne. This is where the love of his live – the actress June Browne – enters the scene and the two marry. Newton has become an Australian citizen and begins working

for Vogue magazine. He gets the attention of the European and American editions of the fashion monthly, so the Newtons move to London and Paris. Luxury brands hire him for their advertising campaigns and from the 1970s onwards he is one of the most famous and expensive photographers in the world. His first illustrated book, White Women, appears when he is already 56. Meanwhile, his wife has built up her own career under the pseudonym ‘Alice Springs’. She was thrown into the business when Newton could not keep an appointment because of illness. Later, she concentrates on portrait photography. Their close and inspiring relationship comes to a harsh end when Helmut suffers a cardiac arrest as he drives away from the Marmont Hotel in Los Angeles in his Cadillac – in 2004. On his deathbed, June takes the last and most heart-breaking pictures of them. In accordance with his wishes, Newton’s final resting-place is in a cemetery in the city of his birth, Berlin, where – at the behest of the Mayor of the city – he was buried in an honorary grave, a few yards away from Marlene Dietrich.

Lobby of Helmut Newton Foundation Berlin. Photo by Stefan Muller

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George Micallef Eynaud studied Fine Art at the Camberwell College of Arts and is currently based in London

Spotlight / Portugal

Highlights

Sept – Oct ‘18

PORTO

GEORGE EYNAUD

Anish Kapoor:

Works,Thoughts and Experiments up to 6 January 2019 In a now legendary photomontage from 1960 entitled ‘Leap into the Void’, the French artist Yves Klein depicted himself in an act of gravity-defying will. He is seen to be leaping off the ledge of a building only to, we may assume, plummet down to the Parisian street three stories below. But the image is only an illusion. By capturing the artist in suspended motion, the photograph presents itself as a singular moment frozen in time. In fact, Klein furtively manipulated the viewer’s credulity by compositing an existing photograph of the artist merely falling into a waiting safety-net on top of another image depicting the empty street below, thereby only making it seem as if he had taken this defining plunge into the void. In the work of Anish Kapoor (b. Mumbai, 1954), however, we are often faced with the very real proposition of sinking into some bottomless pit or being made to contemplate the incomprehensible notion of the infinite. As a sort of mental exercise, try to truly picture infinity – to really imagine the boundless expanse of endlessness. If you dwell on it long enough, your palms start to sweat and your heart races. It is almost unnatural – or even impossible – for a mere man to try and envision such things. Yves Klein once proclaimed: ‘I believe that fires burn in the heart of the void as well as in the heart of man.” Kapoor believes in this too, only in his work this burning void is calibrated at a different level of intensity. Kapoor’s vast and profound body of sculptural work has been conceived for – and on the scale of – bodies, cities and the landscape, and the myriad contexts in which they are located, from the urban scale of metropolitan centres such as London, Naples, New York and Chicago to the rolling hillsides of England and New Zealand. In recent years, he has also been invited to present his work in some of the world’s most beautiful formal gardens, including London’s Kensington Gardens and the Palace of Versailles in France. This year, the beautiful gardens and museum of the Serralves Foundation in Portugal will play host to this seminal artist, offering viewers a platform of a different historical and spatial dimensions from which they will

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be able to see his work in new and surprising ways. The Serralves Museum, situated in the historic surroundings of Porto town, is a true cultural gem. Its art deco villa, designed by architects Charles Siclis and José, Marques da Silva, is set against the formal gardens designed by

The accompanying presentation of 56 models of realised and unrealised projects conceived over the past 40 years in the central exhibition space of the Serralves Museum returns us to the intimate scale of the artist’s studio as a space of thinking and experimentation There are few living artists of our time who have achieved the recognition and

dia, the country of Kapoor’s youth and heritage and that influenced so much of his own upbringing and helped inform his later cultural identity as an immigrant to the U.K. While his later work would tend to be more immediately visceral, capturing the viewers’ attention through the sheer visual impact and sensational manipulation of scale and form, his early work retains an almost deferential nature, in spite of its attention-grabbing use of colour derived from the spices and pigments often sold from large mounds on Indian street stalls. It seems to speak to the elemental nature of sculpture itself, propositioning the use of ephemeral substances such as powder in place of the imposing, purposefully permanent materials of Western art history like marble and steel. If Klein’s art was informed by the occult Rosicrucian belief in space as ‘Spirit in its attenuated form’, rather than an empty void, Kapoor aligns his own practice to the divergent Buddhist philosophy that the void is a plenum rather than a vacancy – a space engulfed by matter and the potential for transformations, changes, ends and beginnings.

the renowned French landscape architect Jacques Gréber, as well as romantic gardens, fields and a farm. And a contemporary museum building, library and auditorium, designed by Álvaro Siza Vieira, is considered one of the foremost integrations of contemporary and historic architecture and landscape in Europe. In this unique setting, the exhibition presents a selection of outdoor works that are representative of Kapoor’s sculptural language in which materiality, scale, architecture, the landscape and the viewer are all integrated through a cohesive and wildly ambitious creative vision. The choice and location of sculptures in the Park of Serralves have been carefully considered by the artist to create an itinerary through time, space, perception and meaning.

the renown that Kapoor has attained during his career. A relatively meteoric rise to prominence as part of a generation of young British artists in the 1990s helped cement his reputation as one of the forerunners of an associated group of practitioners active on the London art scene. However, his work has always stood somewhat apart from his contemporaries, not only for its characteristic earnestness and lack of irony (most unusual in these jaded, cynical times) but also for its deeply embedded roots in rituals, aesthetics and points of reference that are far removed from the historicised idioms at play in much of the sculpture of the time. Instead, Kapoor’s early works (mounds of vividly coloured pigments and deeply saturated esoteric forms) transport us to the market-places and temples of In-

In relation to this concept of the void, Kapoor observes: ‘You cannot enter the void, but viewing gives prospect to the wholeness it contains.’ Therefore, the act of viewing becomes a creative act in itself: the energy of this void, which Buddhists describe as ‘shunyata’, can only be approached through the abstracted directions and propositions provided by poetics, examples of which include the paradoxical songs of the Siddha adepts and the riddling koans of the Zen masters. In the same spirit, the large-scale sculptures on show at the Serralves Foundation do not provide a range of spectacle-endowed objects so much as a variety of propositions, staging complex reconfigurations of space and perception. Kapoor draws inspiration from a deep well of mythological sources and his work, for all its technical virtuosity and contemporary resonance, recalls the ancient Greek idea that the artist who seeks a sense of perfect understanding of nature risks posing a challenge to the gods, who regard creation as their pre-

Maren Richter was the curator of the main visual arts exhibition in the Valletta 2018 Cultural Programme

Interview / V18 / Malta Sept – Oct ‘18

PORTO

rogative alone, with the jealous Goddess Athena turning the weaver Arachne into a spider and Apollo having the flute-playing satyr Marsyas flayed alive as punishments for their impertinence. Kapoor’s own reverential approach to the elemental forces of space and time, however, seem to seek a harmonious reconciliation with nature rather than seek to provide an imitation or recre-

ation of it. It would not be fair to judge Kapoor’s work on such a basis alone. After all, artists are not defined by the mythologies they inherit; rather, they serve to revitalise and extend existing mythologies through acts of choice and making. As Kapoor himself observes: “Artists don’t make objects, artists make mythologies, and it’s through the mythologies that we read the object.”

One contemporary mythology that still holds much currency in today’s ever more interconnected world is the nationalistic concept of cultural identity. In contrast to many of the localised sculptural practices that preceded him, Kapoor takes a dynamic and fundamentally trans-cultural approach which aims to establish some sort of affinity between the practices of different sets of people, belief systems and cultures. In

doing so, he suggests that a trans-cultural, or global, approach does not necessitate the loss of personal identity but rather the enrichment of identity through – and interaction and engagement with – the cultures of others, indicating opportunity for growth within an increasingly globalised, yet ever more personalised, future. Photos: Filipe Braga, © Fundação de Serralves, Porto

MALTA

Q + A; – Maren Richter As the curator of the main visual arts exhibition in the Valletta 2018 Cultural Programme, Maren Richter brought together 22 artists and art collectives – from both Malta and abroad – to present something totally new for Malta. Dal-Bahar Madwarha – The Island is What the Sea Surrounds – opened up spaces to exhibit art to the public such as the St Elmo examination centre and the cisterns under the law courts with award-winning Scottish sound artist Susan Philipsz OBE, and the Old Fish Market with the internationally acclaimed Ghanaian installation artist Ibrahim Mahama. We catch up with her while she is catching her breath after organising this long, but interesting, assignment.

reaucracy that we had to go through. It cost us a lot of time – and even money – to follow all the regulations and processes. We had to face the fact that we were not allowed to do this or that, and with such a huge project it was almost impossible to deal with. From a rational point of view we would have needed to say: under these conditions this is not do-able. But I had a very small team of four strong women and we managed and I am very proud of them. Another challenge, by which we were affected, is the politics of space in Malta – be it in terms of finding space for a non-commercial purpose that we could transform into an exhibition space, or how people related to projects in a so-called ‘public space’. Space here in Malta is highly privatised, ‘commodified’ and contested.

How did your exhibitions in Malta compare to others you have organised elsewhere?

Were you happy with the result, and reactions from those who visited?

This type of exhibition has to be organised from scratch: there was no existing institution, space or team. I’ve experienced this before in Venice at the Biennial for the Maldives Pavilion which I co-curated, and the nomadic biennial for contemporary Art Regionale in Austria, for which I was the director. It is quite a challenge! From the start, all you have is an idea for the exhibition, for which you bring your conceptual suitcase, without knowing where it is going. So there are a lot of factors of risk and uncertainties – especially with such a large-scale project. But, I was lucky enough to find an amazing partner, Sandra Zaffarese, who was responsible for production. Something that was new to me – and very different for sure – was the bu-

You always think this or that could have been done better or differently. Since we had faced some new situations with the Valletta 2018 Foundation last year, we had to adjust and revise certain ideas in order to guarantee their realisation. I am, however, very happy with the results. One main conceptual pillar of the exhibition was to use venues which were either in a transitional stage and/or connoted with ‘memory’ for a lot of people in Malta: places such as the St Elmo Examination Centre – a former orphanage from the beginning of the 20th century. This is a building in which many people sat for their exams. Our intention was to interest people who may not have had much experience of contemporary art to visit the exhibition and experience the dialogue between the spaces, their own memories and the art works.

We invited them to share their stories with us and it was quite wonderful to see that it worked. Young and old came and shared their stories and the young people told us that they enjoyed seeing the different perspectives on Malta through the medium of art and many people acknowledged the large scale of the show as something unique in Malta. Some even compared it to a biennial. Of course, not everyone liked the exhibition, but, then, the aim of art is not to create a consensual event and mobilise the masses. Contemporary art is not pop culture, but neither is it exclusive; it welcomes everybody. Some people, we realised, expected something different. For example, we opened a very particular part of the space underneath Valletta – the cathedral-like cistern – for a very particular project of Susan Philipsz. It was not about making what lay beneath the streets accessible – as some people thought. It was about the dialogue, which I mentioned before. So, it is essential to communicate the intentions well – more than with just music, for example, which is something everybody grows up with. I think – and hope – that the artists were pleased to be part of Dal-Bahar Madwarha, although the realisations of their works were not necessarily always smooth. But all of them, even the so-called ‘big names’, realised that we compensated this with passion and the belief in its relevance. Every single artist really did everything to contribute to the exhibition with wonderful works – even to hand back their fees to make it happen, if necessary. And I am very, very grateful for this willingness, dedication and trust in us.

For more than 18 months, I travelled back and forth and for half of those 18 months, I was in Malta – so I consider myself as having lived here. I had so many different experiences that I think I need a while to digest, contextualise and evaluate them – both professionally and on a personal level – so please ask me again at the end of the year! I do so hope that it will be evaluated by the Valletta 2018 Foundation, because the visual arts are still under-represented in Malta compared with other genres such as theatre, music or pop culture in general. Did you travel or do anything to ‘reboot’ after this huge show? I had a small vacation in Sicily. In my last weeks in Malta I tried to see places and do things that I never had time for during preparing for – and running – the show. But as a freelance curator, one has to work ahead to be ready for the next project. What is your next project? After such a huge exhibition I usually try to work on smaller projects. I am teaching in Lisbon, and I will be participating in a few conferences in the autumn, for example the one in Tunis, which is related to the Malta exhibition. And I am currently preparing an exhibition that will take place next year in an Open Centre for refugees in Vienna. This is part of my long-term collaborative research ‘Grammar of Urgencies’, which is an interdisciplinary approach that ends with either a performance or an exhibition.

How much time did you spend in Malta and what was the most rewarding experience while you were here?

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Spotlight / Exhibitions + Auction Sept – Oct ‘18

Sotheby’s is delighted to celebrate one of the most extraordinary art world collaborations of our time: that of Damien Hirst and his unstoppable business manager, mentor and ‘partner in crime’, Frank Dunphy. Yellow Ball: The Frank and Lorna Dunphy Collection - a two-part sale and exhibition of over 200 artworks that charts the iconoclastic 1990s art scene of which Frank and Lorna Dunphy were at the very heart. >>

Highlights

OXFORDSHIRE

SOTHEBY’S LONDON

Yves Klein Contemporary Art Exhibition

Yellow Ball: The Frank and Lorna Dunphy Collection: 20 SEPTEMBER 2018 | 1.00 PM SOTHEBY’S LONDON

Damien Hirst Smashing Yellow Ball At Peace Painting Est £100,000 – £150,000

Andy Warhol Dollar Sign Est £200,000 – £300,000

Lucio Fontana Concetto Spaziale, Attese Est. £600,000 – 800,000

Gavin Turk Land and Sky Est £3,000 – 4,000

Blenheim Art Foundation presents Yves Klein at Blenheim Palace in Oxfordshire with a solo exhibition by the visionary French artist until the 7th of October. Featuring over 50 artworks, this will be the most comprehensive exhibition of Yves Klein in the UK to date. Visitors will be able to explore Klein’s wide-ranging practice, including painting, sculpture and large-scale installation. One of the most influential artists of his generation, his pioneering artistic experiments anticipated and inspired movements in conceptual art, minimalism and performance art. Klein is best known for the development of his own vivid ultramarine pigment, International Klein Blue (IKB), which became a symbolic part of his practice, a key to reaching the ‘infinite’ and ‘sublime’ through pure colour.

LONDON Continued from pg 29

Modern Art, and the legendary The Dream, a colour-saturated rendering of Walter in dreamy abandon which has never been exhibited in the UK before. 1932 was a time of both reflection and rejuvenation. Having recently turned 50, in collaboration with Christian Zervos, Picasso embarked on the first volume of what remains the most ambitious catalogue of an artist’s work ever made, listing more than 16,000 paintings and drawings. Meanwhile, a group of Paris dealers beat international competition to stage the first ever retrospective of his work, a major show that featured new paintings alongside earlier works in a range of different styles. Realist portraits of Olga and Paulo Picasso from a decade earlier revealed the artist’s pride in and tender feelings for his family, while the first public showing of his most recent paintings inspired by Walter made public what had previously been a well-kept secret affair. The paintings from March including Nude, Green Leaves and Bust, Nude in a Black Armchair and The Mirror were immediately recognised as a pinnacle of Picasso’s artistic achievement of the inter-War period. This dazzling group is reunited at Tate Modern for the first time in 86 years. Picasso’s split existence between his homes and studios in Boisgeloup in Normandy and central Paris capture the contradictions of his life at this pivotal moment: divided between countryside retreat and urban bustle, established wife and recent lover, painting and sculpture, sensuality and darkness. The year ended traumatically when Walter fell seriously ill after swimming in the river Marne, losing most of her iconic blonde hair. In his final works of the year, Picasso transformed the event into scenes of rescue and rape, creating at the same time an analogy for the thunderclouds gathering over Europe: from the crisis of the Great Depression and mass unemployment, to the rise of Fascism including in his native Spain. The result is a dramatic finale to a year of love, fame and tragedy that pushed Picasso to the height of his creative powers.

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Christine Xuereb founded Christine X Art Gallery in 2004 after a university degree in Art History and Anthropology. She now lives in Ghana where she continues to explore African art and culture, after handing her gallery over to its new owner

Spotlight / Marrakesh Sept – Oct ‘18

MOROCCO

p until now, Marrakesh was not exactly a place you would visit for contemporary art. Yves Saint Laurent’s Museum paved the way for Marrakech’s cultural revival when it opened its doors towards the end of last year, but recent additional developments in February of this year have brought about what looks like a new art centre for the world of contemporary art.

CHRISTINE XUEREB

Morocco’s loud voice in the African contemporary art world

The founder of the1:54 Contemporary African Art Fair – Moroccan Touria El Glaoui, who was named one of the ‘Most Powerful Women’ by Forbes in 2015 – together with Othman Lazraq, the son of multi-millionaire property developer and art collector Alami Lazraq, have collaborated to show contemporary African art in the African continent itself, now that a new-found interest in African art has been created, following years of showcasing the best of African contemporary art at the 1:54 Contemporary African Art Fair in London and New York.

The exhibition Second Life by Ghizlane Sahli Sarnefors, founder of the Zbel Manifesto, is currently showing at the Macaal, until 5 February 2019, but if you are going to be in Milan or Marseille before mid-September, you can also catch a glimpse of her works exhibited at the Primo Marella Gallery and the Mucem Marseille, respectively. Najia Mehadji’s retrospective exhibition La trace et Le Souffle will continue to be exhibited at the Musee d’art Moderne de Ceret, in France, until November.

In February, hundreds of collectors witnessed a range of African art at the Museum of African Contemporary Art Al Maaden (Macaal) and in the lush grounds of La Mamounia, the five-star hotel where the 1:54 Contemporary African Art Fair took place, filling in the gap created by the cancellation of the seventh Marrakesh Biennale due to lack of funds. A change in Morocco’s contemporary art scene initially came about through the internet, the Arab uprisings in 2011 and the help of Moroccan curators in international museums to promote the work of their fellow citizens, as well as through the Mohammed VI Modern & Contemporary Art Museum in Rabat – the collection of King Mohammed VI, one of the very few art collectors amongst the Moroccan elite.

erences from the past, social justice and feminism run through much of the contemporary work of young Moroccan contemporary artists. Those who followed such themes in their works include Mustapha Akrim, Mohamed Arejdal, Mohammed el-Baz, Safaa Erruas, Mounir Fatmi, Abdellatif Ilkem, Yassine Khaled, Mohammed El Mahdaoui, Zakaria Rahmani, Younes Rahmoun, Batoul S’himi and Malika Squalli. Moroccan contemporary artists like Hassan Hajjaj, Yoriyas Yassine Alaoui, Yahya, Nouredin Amir and Najja Mehadji prefer to focus on the aesthetic appeal, whilst photographers Lami Naji and Andre Elbaz, as well as filmmaker Simohammed Fettaka and Soukaina Joual prefer a reaction to their philosophical and moral conceptual artworks.

Morocco’s booming economy, which resulted in an increase in the number and wealth of the Moroccan middle class, has changed the trend regarding private collectors. This, and the influx of influential collectors and curators, provided a boost to the art industry, which receives no state funding. Smaller, independent creative centres in Casablanca, Marrakech, Rabat and Tangier were offering a more vibrant experience to that of the modern and

contemporary museum, exploring concepts rather than just displaying objects. These include L’Uzine and Atelier 21 in Casablanca, Kulte in Rabat, and the Marrakech Museum for Photography and Visual Arts (MMP+), the Gallery 127, the David Bloch Gallery and the Voice Gallery in Marrakech, amongst others. Themes of politics, immigration, globalisation, urbanisation, cultural ref-

Meanwhile, in Casablanca, L’Atelier 21 continues to display the works of a group of 20 Moroccan contemporary artists who reflect on the theme of football, in Art et Football, which runs until 6 August. Or how about a visit to the Abderahmane Slaoui Foundation in Casablanca, which currently exhibits Orient Fatasme, imaging a dialogue between colonial era posters from the collection of the Foundation’s museum and the contemporary creation of artists Hailed Ammar, Meriem Bouderbala, Yasmina Bouziane and Ialla Essaydi? This exhibition runs until 29 September.

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Books / The Mastaba Sept – Oct ‘18

ntil the 23rd of September, London’s Hyde Park is home to Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s newest installation: The Mastaba (Project for London, Hyde Park, Serpentine Lake). The temporary sculpture takes cues from mastabas of the first urban civilisations of Mesopotamia, which were mud benches with two vertical sides, two slanted sides, and a flat top. Towering at 20 meters high, its 600 metric tons anchored to the Serpentine Lake, this waterborne project gathers 7,506 painted oil barrels to create a floating mosaic of red, white, blue, and mauve. The most ambitious of Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s barrel works to date, The London Mastaba is a precursor to the duo’s work in progress The Mastaba

(Project for Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates). First conceived in 1977, The Mastaba for Abu Dhabi, if realised, would be Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s greatest achievement and only permanent largescale work. Situated in the desert and made of 410,000 multicoloured barrels, w Through drawings, collages, photographs, sculptures, and scale models, this book traces the 60-year trajectory of Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s interest in the form of the barrel and the mastaba. A coinciding exhibition at the Serpentine Galleries is curated by Hans Ulrich Obrist and Melissa Blanchflower with Joseph Constable, in close collaboration with Josy Kraft and Christo’s studio. This book, designed by Lorenza Giovanelli and Christo himself, spans Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s history of barrel artworks

from 1958 to 2018. It includes Christo’s earliest preparatory drawings and most recent works, gathering photographs by Wolfgang Volz, maps, technical data, and drawings, many published here for the first time. Christo and Jeanne-Claude, Barrels and The Mastaba 1958–2018 costs €40 plus €5 shipping to Malta. www. taschen.com

“ the 150-meter-high sculpture would be the largest in the world, rising higher than the Great Pyramid of Giza.”

Book: Christo & Jeanne-Claude, Barrels & The Mastaba 1958–2018

No.4__ artpaper / 39

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