Q&A with Francesca Balzan for her sculpture exhibition, Impossible Conversations

Interview /Exhibition / Malta

November - December 2021

MALTA

IMPOSSIBLE CONVERSATIONS

Impossible Conversations, a first solo exhibition of terracotta sculptures by Francesca Balzan, will run at Studio 87, Ta’ Liesse Hill, Valletta from 26 November to 11 December 2021.

CURATED BY JUSTINE BALZAN DEMAJO

Fran Balzan with some of her terracotta works

You’re best known as an art historian and curator. When did you start working in sculpture?

I’ve been working away quietly on my sculpture for many, many years, mainly in the clay medium, while I developed a more public profile with my museum and research work. In recent years, I’ve tentatively started showing my sculpture on Instagram and in a few collective exhibitions, until I took the decision to dedicate myself entirely to my art and to work on a solo exhibition. I’m not getting any younger and some things cannot be put off forever, despite how difficult it is to expose to the public what you truly, deeply care most about.

What is this new body of work about?

When Justine Balzan Demajo, of Studio 87, floated the idea of an exhibition in her gallery I thought it would be fun to do something site specific. As I’m fascinated by faces, I wanted to create portraits and character studies of people who worked, lived, and passed through the Ta’ Liesse area just outside the gallery itself. This entailed a lot of research devoted to finding historic figures, people from the past who really did have this connection with Ta’ Liesse, and to recreate them in clay and imbue them with animated conversation. Unlike previous work of mine that concentrated only on the face and relied on facial expressions to animate the sculpture, for this collection I wanted to go larger and create busts in painted clay which was then fired to terracotta. This meant that I could include clothing and accessories which gives the viewer a reference to a time period. The sculptures are coloured, again a new innovation, as my previous work tended to be monochrome.

What are your sources? Who are you depicting?

I researched extensively in that fascinating (and huge) collection of early 20th century passport applications at the National Archives of Malta (Santo Spirito Branch). I went through several box files and hundreds of applications

spanning the early decades of the 20th century to find individuals who lived in or around or passed through the Ta’ Liesse area, imagining that the real flesh and blood people would have known the area outside the gallery like the back of their hands. In many cases, the photographs in these passport applications would be the only existing tangible memory of these long-departed people. I wanted to recreate them in this exhibition and bring people from different decades in conversation with each other, even if that would have been impossible in real life. Hence the title Impossible Conversations.

By recreating the figures from different time periods, different walks of life, and juxtaposing them together in arrangements that I determine, I am creating imagined conversations, impossible and yet plausible. Who knows what they’d have said to each other had it been possible to meet? Other sources I used were photographs that Justine helped recover from present residents in the

Fran Balzan, ‘Il Marilyn ta’ Malta’, terracotta, 35cm (h). Photo by Lisa Attard Fran Balzan, ‘Isn’t it ironic?’ terracotta, 32cm (h). Photo by Lisa Attard

area, and we’ve even included the Madonna ta’ Liesse in this cast of ‘Liessian’ characters – after all she gives the name to the entire area. As well as using photographs, I actually create stories based on the information that has come down to us about these people. These stories become part and parcel of the artwork, such that viewers at the exhibition can experience and listen to these imagined narratives that blur the line between fact and fiction.

Are there any particular themes running through the exhibition?

The most obvious linking factor is of course people who were somehow connected with the mercantile and maritime area of Ta’ Liesse, and the idea of imagined conversations between them. A less obvious theme, which is extremely important to me, is female empowerment. My sculpture has so far mostly focused on men, but in this exhibition I introduce women and imbue them with self-determination. They have agency. They have power over their lives and proceed to do as they please. Stereotypes are gently shaken. Even the perfect Madonna has a bit of a grumble about the many sailors who come to ask favours and dump their concerns on her, and then leave relieved and unburdened and proceed to do what they shouldn’t. The linking factor remains the stories, which have deeper strands of pathos even if the sculptures and anecdotes appear to be coated with humour. Listen deeper, look longer and you’ll discover there is far more than meets the eye. Perhaps, in looking, you’ll find a bit of yourself in these imagined conversations.

#franbalzansculpture and #studio87_ malta for more information. Opening hours: Monday to Friday from 13.00 - 19.00, Saturday from 11.00 - 13.00. Mornings by Appointment.