Artpaper. #20

WAVES

DELIA

W Welcome / Team / Inside

t hasn’t been two months since the last issue of Artpaper was rolled off the printing press, and yet so many important and new things worth raving about are unfolding. On a local level, a new four-room gallery has opened in Sliema, spearheaded by Julien Vinet’s work. R Gallery is providing a space for contemporary art to continue to alchemize on the island and beyond. Meanwhile moving towards the centre of the island, Rosa Kwir has presented an exclusively LGBTQ+ show of international artists that is at once riveting, pressing and needed.

In this issue of Artpaper, we continue to celebrate art in its different manifestations with a bold exhibition of outsider art called GROUNDWATERS, curated by Gabriel Zammit at Valletta Contemporary, while Co Ma presents his moody, monochromatic drawings and otherworldly objects at Green Shutters Gallery in Floriana. Then, Kris Polidano speaks of the historic work of Magna Zmien, taking us back in time to Malta of the 1940s to 60s, through thousands of photographs of Joseph “Il-Gululu” Darmanin. In other disciplines, I speak to a young tour-de-force

filmmaker Chelsea Muscat, whose confessional, autobiographical work is an ode to herself, the people in her life and the island of Gozo where she was born. Gallerist Christine Xuereb Seidu, a regular contributor to Artpaper, speaks of the works of Master Maltese art photographer Wilfred Flores and gives us a unique insight into the world of contemporary art in Madagascar. Lastly, we muse the question of the role of art in public and private spaces, thanks to architect Erica Giusta and her interview with design figure Marco Sammicheli, and Dr. Joanna Delia, who takes us in the intimate spaces of Valletta’s homes, with an interview with the brains behind Altofest, bringing professional performances inside the capital’s homes.

I hope you enjoy this issue of Artpaper!

+ REVIEWS

MALTA

A LIBRARY AS A FORM OF EXPRESSION

Despite the increase in digital technologies that are changing the way we digest information, the global book market is expected to expand by 1.9% to $164.22bn by 2030 according to a report by Grand View Research Inc. Nothing compares to the feeling of a good book in your hands, and we want to showcase our favourite volumes in a space that’s comfortable, personal, and unique. While public and university libraries are often vast and full of splendour, home libraries are more intimate (but not any less gorgeous). The room can be formal and elegant or colourful and cosy, and stylish focal points like a fireplace, desk, or snug sitting area keep things just as interesting as the volumes on the shelves.

For most of us, books are a source of pleasure, telling great stories through words or images, but a well-curated library is more than just solving a storage problem, it is an expression of luxury, art, and culture.

The Edwards Lowell Book Store is the latest addition to their growing iniatives. Not only are they selling highend coffee table books, but they are also assisting with the curation of libraries for hotels, residences, private offices and more. With 97 years at the forefront of the luxury watch and fine jewellery business in Malta, representing brands like Rolex, Patek-Philippe and Cartier, Edwards Lowell have experience in quality, style, and attention to detail. This gives them a unique outlook when curating both personal and corporate libraries for their clients, addressing individual needs.

The idea behind curating a personalised library is to create the most beautiful and sophisticated space that will enable people to unplug and enjoy the moment and this is why every project is one-of-a-kind. The unique design seeks to include a variety of genres while adding decorations to the library space, such as rare statues and sculptures — objects that help take guests on a visual journey and add conceptual depth to the library.

Also available from the Elcol website, the Edwards Lowell Book Store offers a vast selection of perfectly bound, attractively presented books on art, fashion, photography, travel and lifestyle, books of the highest quality with distinctive graphic identity and editorial savoir-faire, including those from high quality publishers, Assouline and Taschen. These books are not simply words and pictures, but experiences which unfold as you turn the pages.

The Assouline publishing house is the gold standard for luxury fashion and lifestyle books, chronicling the history of everything from the house of Chanel to Coca-Cola to the Carlyle Hotel, with Alex Assouline introducing a service to design private libraries to the company.

The Assouline Collection lies side by side with another world-famous publisher – Taschen, a publisher that has become synonymous with accessible, eclectic publishing. From affordable Basic Art series to highly collectible limited editions, Taschen specialises in illustrated publications on a range of themes including art, architecture, design, film, photography, pop culture, and lifestyle.

A private library is more than just a way to organise your books; it’s an expression of character and a symbol of style. Adding what can be nothing less than art pieces by both Assouline and Taschen – hand-bound books using traditional techniques, with colour plates hand-tipped on art-quality paper, will lift your spaces from simple bookshelves to a library that expresses who you really are. The books at Edwards Lowell Book Store are ones you can judge by their cover!

50, Zachary Steet, Valletta; T: 2568 3070; E: info@elcol.com; W: www.elcol.com

Edwards Lowell’s latest edition, the Edwards Lowell Book Store, is building on a strength they have seen in their Portomaso Boutique, a twostorey, multi-functional shopping experience that includes an art gallery, champagne bar, high-end library and displays of the finest watches and jewellery on the market. With the launch of the shop on Zachary Street in Valletta, they are putting luxury books into the limelight.

FROM ILLUSTRATION TO BOOK: The exhibition at the Malta Book Festival 2022

The exhibition is the result of the collaboration between the National Book Council and Arts Council Malta, borne from the ambition of both cultural entities to strengthen professional networks and subsequently increase opportunities for the creative community. An agreement was recently signed between the entities to, among other things, enable the integration of opportunities for illustrators and graphic designers within the publishing industry.

From Illustration to Book bridges visual arts with literature and will pro vide a showcase for those illustrators and graphic designers working in and around the publishing industry, as part of the effort to provide more opportuni ties for professional and creative devel opment, more accessibility to books and publishing for varied audiences, and to attract the attention of foreign publish ers seeking new ideas.

The 360 square metres exhibition space provided curator Dr Nikki Petroni (Ed ucation and Development Executive at Arts Council Malta) with the freedom to create different spaces tailor-made for the presentation of five thematic sec tions. The main section of the exhibition will be dedicated to contemporary book illustrations and designs, chosen follow ing an open call for proposals. The work of fourteen artists will be showcased with their more recent work on book covers and illustrated books, such as children’s books.

A section within the exhibition will be dedicated to showcasing selected art works forming part of the second volume of the Malta Illustration Annual 2022,

an idea of the Malta Community of Illus trators, which is supported by MCAST Research. The role of MCOI is to bring together and promote professional illus trators, to push the use of illustration as an effective communicational tool, and to provide education on the subject. The Annual will be launched at the Mal ta Book Festival and is sponsored by the National Book Council. It offers audi ences a broad spectrum of commercial and publishing illustrations, together with other personal projects, all chosen by a panel of distinguished judges (Ka tie Chappell, Mark Scicluna and Julian Mallia). The works of Gattaldo, special guest of the Malta Book Festival, will be

featured in this section, among over 20 other works.

Special focus sections will be dedicated to three Maltese personalities: house hold name Trevor Zahra, who, alongside writing his well-known stories for both children and adults, has also illustrated many of his books; the late Mario Azzo pardi, a pioneer of new wave literature in Malta, who also introduced new designs in his collections; and Maltese-Ameri can cartoonist and journalist Joe Sacco, best known worldwide for his comics journalism. Prints of some of their illus trations will be exhibited alongside the books showcasing their artistic work.

A special section of the exhibition will be dedicated to the illustrations of four groups of characters that have marked the childhood of many Maltese children across generations: Kuncett u Marin ton, illustrated by Trevor Zahra; Fra Mudest by Frank Schembri and Alexan dra and Wallace Casingena; the cats in Il-Qtates ta’ max-Xatt (The Cats by the Shore) illustrated by Lisa Falzon; and Steve Bonello’s Ir-Ronnie

A selection of books will also be show cased that were designed and illustrat ed by Malta’s leading twentieth-century artists between the inter-war period and the 1980s, the likes of Alfred Chircop, Emvin Cremona and Gianni Vella.

As part of the collaboration with the Na tional Book Council, Arts Council Malta will be organising a series of Meet the Artist sessions and panel discussions with some of Malta’s leading book illus trators and publishers, and an informa tion session on their funding strategy.

The full programme of events for the 2022 Malta Book Festival 23-27 No vember 2022 will be published in the coming weeks.

Photo by Tree House

THE FIRST NEGRONI AND ESPRESSO BAR

Pain au Chocolat. The contemplative ambiance seems to slow down the time, allowing clienteles to properly experience the fine ingredients and the art of classics.

The founder said, “it is an absolute pleasure to have an exquisite Negroni ... but it is not easy to find!”

Spend some quality time at Sunday in Scotland, 10 The Strand, Sliema, and 173 St. Lucy Street, Vallet

“It is an absolute pleasure to have an exquisite Negroni ... but it is not easy to find!”

Amer Wahoud, The Founder of Sunday in Scotland

Malta

MALTA

R Gallery

R: FROM SOLDIER SANCTUARY TO CONTEMPORARY GALLERY

Anew gallery has cropped up on the contemporary art scene in Malta, de buting with a solo show by French artist Julien Vinet called Error 8003.

R Gallery, a former British military hostel in the heart of Sliema, has been transformed from a place of sanctuary for soldiers into a spacious host for bold contemporary art.

The space, which consists of four rooms, opened to the public on 22nd Septem ber, where 200 guests came to witness paintings and object-installations creat ed by contemporary artist Julien Vinet. The opening was also accompanied by a vivid performance by professional danc er Tara Dalli, who works with Malta’s na tional dance company, ZfinMalta.

Through this multimedia body of work, Vinet contemplates the question: If an object only exists through its primary definition, what becomes of it when it is seen by a different, profane, alienated or alien gaze?

In Error 8003 (id est Malfunction in the system), the artist offers an homage to the imperfections in the beautiful as in the ugly to sublimate the object-subject. The textures, shapes, compositions of fered by the artist invite us to dream, to engage in imaginative meditation and thereby rediscover the functions and functionalities of reused objects, con necting to the Camusian idea of chang ing archetypes to redefine an object.

ArtPaper spoke to Mark Sullivan, the architect and founder of R Gallery, about the new venture.

“We’re excited to offer a prominent space for contemporary art practices that disrupt,” Sullivan explained.

R Gallery aims to consider imminent questions of our time through the pro duction, display and dissemination of contemporary art in the local and in ternational context, the architect-gal lerist added.

“It’s an honour to exhibit in this archi tectural treasure and be the first artist to inaugurate the space,” artist Julien Vinet said.

“The response has been fantastic, we’ve had people coming in from the street of all ages and backgrounds. The feeling is that people are open-minded enough to allowing themselves to em brace art.”

R Gallery is located on 26, Triq Tigne and opens between Tuesday and Saturday. The current show, Error Code 8003 runs until 31st October.

Tara Dalli by Kim Sammut

Opening night by Kim Sammut

TENDER AND MASCULINE: INTERNATIONAL GROUP SHOW

Tender and Masculine is Rosa Kwir’s first group show, exclusively showcasing the work of LGBTQI+ artists. The show opens on 7th October 2022 at 7pm, with a special performance starting at 9pm. It runs until 9th January 2023 at 38 Main Street, Balzan.

The exhibition unpacks the often complex debates on masculinities but does so from a queer standpoint. By pairing the word mas culine with an adjective like tender, the provocation establishes a more nuanced and gentler approach to discussing masculinity.

Rosa Kwir opened its doors in 2021, be coming the first queer-focused project space on the island. Situated in Balzan, it was established by Maltese and Lon don-based artist Romeo Roxman Gatt and co-founded by artist and filmmaker Charlie Cauchi.

Replete with its own physical and dig ital archive, Rosa Kwir has also hosted various events over the year, including film screenings, workshops and live per formances. Tender and Masculine is the culmination of a year-long programme supported by Arts Council Malta and the Melita Cable Foundation.

The Rosa Kwir archive was the first step to creating dialogue around alternative notions of masculinity. However, we de

cided to open up this discussion by cu rating a show that invites diverse artists from different disciplines, backgrounds and places to engage with masculinity from their own perspectives.

“We invited artists to submit their work in early 2022 via an open call. The aim was to make the process as open and accessible as possible, allowing us to ac commodate a broad spectrum of disci plines and approaches, “ explain Rome oand Charlie. They were overwhelmed by the number of applications and the high standard of work submitted. They found it to be a difficullt taks to choose, “but after much deliberation, we se lected 13 artists/ art collectives that we believe truly explore the provocation put forward in exciting and challenging ways.”

Masculinity is a construct that sits in opposition and is often seen as superi or to femininity. This exhibition breaks down the culturally idealised definition of masculinity and demonstrates that numerous masculinities can exist in our culture.

MALTA

Photos by Niels Plotard

VATICAN BLUES, ANDY WARHOL AND A LOST LA LEGEND

Every edition of ArtPaper gives you a thin slice of what is going on in the in ternational art scene. This month, all eyes are glued to a Supreme court case in volving Andy Warhol that might change the art world forever, a disgruntled American in Italy unleashed his fury on a 2000-year-old statue, and the scene lost a great artist with the passing of Bil ly Al Bengston.

An American tourist smashed two 2,000-year-old statues at the Vatican’s Chiaramonti Museum after his request to speak with Pope Francis was denied. The disgruntled man directed his anger toward an ancient bust, which toppled to the floor, and damaged another while fleeing the scene. The incident occurred earlier around 12 p.m. in the second week of October in Rome.

“The person who knocked down the statues was stopped by the Vatican po lice and has been handed over to the Italian authorities,” reads a statement from the Vatican.

Chiaramonti holds approximately 1,000 sculptures, many of which are busts. The most notable of them is Augustus of Prima Porta (20 B.C.E.), a full-length marble statue of the first Roman Emper or. While it is unclear what the tourist wanted to discuss with the Pope, both artworks are currently undergoing con servation. A museum representative, however, told the Italian publication Il Messaggero that the two damaged piec

es are “minor works” within the collec tion.

In other news, Andy Warhol, who lived to cause commotion in the art world, is still doing it more than three decades af ter his death – this time in front of the Supreme Court.

On 12th October the US Supreme Court will hear arguments whether Warhol vi olated the Copyright Act when he col ored, clipped, drew on, altered and oth erwise Warholed-up a photo of musician Prince taken in the 1980s by celebrated rock photographer Lynn Goldsmith.

The case is Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts Inc. v. Goldsmith The justices will attempt to navigate the intersection of art and law in determin ing whether Warhol changed the original photo’s meaning or message enough to ‘transform’ it into an entirely new work

– or, more accurately, 15 new works, on top of the one for which Goldsmith was paid and credited.

To Goldsmith, the case is a question of justice; her website describes her battle as a “crusade,” an impassioned effort to make sure that “copyright law does not become so diluted by the definition of fair use that visual artists lose the rights to their work.” If the Supreme Court agrees with her, a principle that is cen tral to our freedom of expression and cultural growth will be weakened for decades to come.

Lastly, LA has lost an iconic painter, Billy Al Bengston, who passed away this month at the age of 88 of natural causes in Venice, California. Bengston’s odd yet striking paintings often fea tured abstracted commercial logos and car parts. The American contemporary artist and sculptor is considered an es

sential figure of the postwar art scene of the West coast, known most for his use of the radical Californian “Kustom Kar” and motorcycle culture, using psyche delic colours and mandala-like shapes.

Bengston rose to fame in Los Angeles during the 1960’s, with his abstracted paintings of details of cars and commer cial logos. His spare compositions and alternative processes got him associat ed with the Finish Fetish movement, a style of art related to the LA look, a fu sion of pop art and minimalism akin to Southern California in the 1960s. The two or three dimensional works were often sleek and had a glossy finish, ab stract designs made with fiberglass or resin. Some critics also tie him to the Pop Art movement for his use of com mercial goods.

Museo Chiaramonti, wikicommons

Prince by Andy Warhol, wikicommons

SAM VASSALLO is a Maltese journalist, writer and artist based in Berlin.

MALTA KRIS POLIDANO

RESTORING A YOUNGER MALTA

Ioften get into a conversation where I’m told that the Maltese are a nos talgic people. I switch off after this statement is made. The answers always differ, but the cadences of their voices automatically slip into this minor-keyed sing-songy melancholy that anyone with even a faint presence of a Mal tese accent slips into when they’re mourning. I have these conversations with people in the range of 23-25, mostly–– people my age — although I’ve met many exceptions. At some point I’m asked about what I do, and start out with Magna Zmien. They tell me what a won derful thing it is. I nod. Say, “I know”. And go on to babble about the miscellanies of the ar chive and the usual “support us” speech that I’ve mastered with passion.

Then, sometimes, we get into discussions about who we are as young Maltese peo ple, usually after spurting out something we found out through the material at Magna Zmien. Recently, I’ve been choosing the ex ample of the work I’ve been doing on a col lection of photos belonging to Joseph “Il-Gu lulu” Darmanin with Magna Zmien’s team members. This set of around, 1,716 photo graphs, 3 8mm films, and 3 open reel tapes, is a snapshot of a young middle class Malta in the 1940s to 1960s. In total, there are around 10 photo albums in this collection, with imag es mostly containing photos of posed young women and holidays on motorcycle trips from Italy to Switzerland; Dino Rissi’s Il Sorpasso with young overdressed Maltese men. I feel the nostalgia and the romanticism oozing out of me even as I write this. That last line shows it, I don’t even really need to mention it, it’s evident; but the effect that this archive has on the people that experience it is truly surreal.

Unlike with other things, I feel comfortable speaking in absolutes when I say that the work that every person has put into this project – donors, digitisation engineers, art ists, the original person who recorded the moment, Maltese people, foreigners – is not lost on anyone. The connective potential that

“Nostalgia lies, never tires of lying, because it lies with the truth.”

Extract from ‘Absent Presence’ by Mahmoud Darwish

Still image from a Super 8 Film from the Jane Agius Collection, courtesy of The Magna Zmien Foundation

As a young Maltese person spending my weekends with my back hunched over listening and watching the intimate memories of others; seeing how our landscape has changed and community has dwindled, a movement like Magna Zmien is an act brought about by necessity.

KRIS

POLIDANO (b.1999) is enamoured by culture in all its forms. Coming from a background in English and Maltese, her primary interest is narrative unfolds and unfurls in everyday life. Kris considers herself as a person who tries to join research with passionate artistic practice at every level; her work in promoting the arts, her writing and archival research.

Magna Zmien can create throughout Malta’s communities and its diaspora is great. Even with a small team of around 3 part-time digitisation engineers and 4 core team members who work on a semi-voluntary basis, this year, Magna finally reached an incredible milestone. 100 donors’ collections have now been digitised by this small archival team, preserving thousands of memories.

Somewhat differently to entities like the National Archives, we are from being keepers of these memories. Donors lend their cassette tapes, Super 8 film and so on to Magna Zmien for a short period of time during which their archival content is digitised and returned, allowing for films and voices that haven’t been heard in decades to be heard again without

the physical connection between donors and their content being broken. Even though there are many sceptics of the shift towards community archive digiti sation that an archive like Magna Zmien represents, it’s important to note that whilst physical archives intend to pre serve and restore the physical material, the act of digitisation preserves and par ticularly is restorative in many ways.

For the families who pay to digitise with the archive privately and support its finances, memories that sat in one family member’s cupboard are often shared around with extended family, with connections once dulled by time being sparked again and stories being rediscovered. In the case of the people who licence Magna Zmien to keep and

use their material, the restorative re sult to the memories it passes on to the public increases through the research, outreach and artistic collaborations that the archive has done over the years.

The digitisation process is the first phase of an intimate reconnection with the past, its memories and the people con tained within it. As a young Maltese per son who has the archive at my fingertips, gathering the stories (both pleasant and formally infamous, but forgotten) has been an experience of healing. Sharing it with other people, bringing different generations within the same space and discussing the past and its place in the present through Magna’s work is a ne cessity of a nation like our little island. Malta is young, it is confused. Its stories

have been pushed back into whatever probably humid annals the people who once ruled us put them in or never even bothered to record.

The exercise that Magna Zmien is allow ing artists and researchers do with its content will continue to help in this ef fort for Maltese people to heal, discover their identities and appreciate how the past has formed our present. As a young Maltese person spending my weekends with my back hunched over listening and watching the intimate memories of others; seeing how our landscape has changed and community has dwindled, a movement like Magna Zmien is an act brought about by necessity.

SALADS BY DAY DRINKS BY NIGHT @ NO.43

MERCHANT STREET, VALLETTA

Prints from the set of images belonging to Joseph “Il-Gululu” Darmanin, courtesy of The Magna Zmien Foundation

Beyond His Time

Celebrating The Life of the Maltese Master Art Photographer, Wilfrid Flores

Shadows and Light, making its debut exhi bition at the Christine X Curated (Christine X Art Gallery) in Sliema from 29th October to 22nd November 2022, celebrates the visual legacy and the remarkable artistry of the acclaimed Maltese photographer Wilfrid Flores(b. 1912 – d. 1981), who was part of the entourage of the Maltese art scene that included amongst oth ers Edward Caruana Dingli and Emvin Cremona. Thirty-three photographs by Flores, from his earliest accomplished photographic work dating as early as the 1930s to those taken in his later years

shortly before his death in 1981, trace the artist’s development and maturation over decades whilst giving this artist the show he deserves. Despite being listed in the Focal Press ‘Who’s Who in Pho tography’ and having his work sporad ically published and exhibited in Malta and overseas, he never held a solo ex hibition of his work during his lifetime.

As a master of his craft and an inventive and technically skilled darkroom print er, his contribution to photography in Malta cannot be overstated. By compar ison, very few photographers in Malta were attaining his level of artistic inter pretation and metaphor. In fact, it would

CHRISTINE XUEREB SEIDU

Ghadira by Wilfrid Flores. Image Courtesy of David Pisani.

Speed by Wilfrid Flores. Image Courtesy of David Pisani.

take until the late 1980’s, past the year of Flores’ passing, for photography as an art form to become fully recognised by museums and art institutions world wide. His intention was not to document Malta (as many others were doing) but to go beyond the document towards a more contemplative reading of his pho tographs. By doing so he left us a testa ment of a time in Maltese history. Twen ty-eight digitized photographs from his original negatives as well as three dark room prints of his work, interspersed among his two vintage prints, provide a deeper perspective on themes central to his practice, demonstrate the pow er of his legacy, and will spark critical conversations about the state of our own society that has veered towards an obsessive exaltation of the self. He

showed empathy for the people he pho tographed, and for the human condition as a whole. Hiis quasi-romantic relation to nature speaks to us of a calm and se renity that’s lost in today’s world.

Organised by the Christine X Curated and curated by David Pisani, Shadows and Light - The Wilfrid Flores Ar chives draws from what remains from the outstanding collection. It demon strates the artist’s embrace of the Mal tese landscape as a singular yet remark ably wide-ranging photographic subject. The exhibition charts his own artistic development and creative range. As an ever enthusiastic teen, Wilfrid joined his father Renzo Flores (1912- 1981), a well known calligrapher, in photogra phy and cinematography with his ear

CHRISTINE XUEREB SEIDU founded Christine X Art Gallery in 2004 after a university degree in Art History and Anthropology. She has returned to Malta after a year in Ghana where she explored African art and culture.

liest accomplished photographic work dating as early as the 1930s. Despite his talent, his recognition in photographic art would only take place later on in life. Working as a forensic expert allowed him to support his family as well as ac quire an advanced technical knowledge in photography which he was so pas sionate about. He was also often com missioned to do portraits of visiting dig nitaries and celebrities whilst working as a portraitist of the first order. In 1944 he founded the first Malta Photographic Society, shortly after his father Renzo was killed by a bomb that destroyed the Casino Maltese in Valletta.

Throughout the run of the exhibition, a programme relating to themes explored in Shadows and Light will take place primarily online. From a discussion

about Flores’ career, to a talk about his work, audiences near to and far from Malta will be able to engage with Flores and his legacy during this critical time in our nation’s history.

Organised by the Christine X Curated and curated by David Pisani, Shad ows and Light- The Wilfrid Flores Archives will be exhibited from 29th October to 22nd November 2022 at Christine X Curated, Christine X Art Gallery in Tigne street c/w Hughes Hallet street in Sliema, Malta. Open ing hours are Monday to Saturday 10am to 1pm and 4 to 7pm. For more information relating to this pro gramme of events, please follow us on christinexcurated.com or contact us on info@christinexart.com or +356 9984 4653.

Farm Cloud by Wilfrid Flores.

Image Courtesy of David Pisani.

St Paul’s Bay by Wilfrid Flores.

Image Courtesy of David Pisani.

MOTHER, MUSE MIRROR: AN ACTIVIST-FILMMAKER MAKING WAVES FROM NADUR TO NEW YORK CITY

In a quaint town on Malta’s sister island is a place known for raving carnivals, a slowness of village life that is dis appearing, and more recently, a centre for the fight against the chomping teeth of building contractors. I’m talking about Nadur, where filmmaker and activist Chelsea Muscat resides. Muscat, at 25, is making waves from Nadur all the way to New York, for film and photography works that are at once raw, immediate, confessional and radiat ing a beauty that aches the heart, reminiscent of Nan Goldin and Tracy Emin. I caught up with Muscat to speak about her artistic practice and activism.

Hey Chelsea. What inspires you? I aways just follow the feeling, the heart, the gut. It comes very spontaneous and personal in that way as I try to explore that feeling. My art is a way to process. It’s very therapeutic.

You grew up in two very different places…

I grew up in Gozo and never left the country until my parents moved me to New York City. It was shocking, I didn’t like New York. I was disconnected from the sea. You know, in Gozo you see a pony and chicken on the street or a sweet Nanna who

gives you potatoes she grew in her garden. You feel good and safe. I’m more fond of NYC now, but it is intense and huge.

Tell me about the first time you picked up a camera.

I came back to visit Gozo at 13 with a camera that is still the only one I use today. I have one lens and this one camera with sand in it, from 2012.

That’s where I started my photography journey. My first ever subject was the landscapes of Gozo. In high school, I took one elective class of basic filmmaking and loved it. I was depressed in high school so it was a good way for me to process. In college, I had no idea what I wanted to do. I was “undeclared” as they say, and I decided to do film.

I didn’t have a portfolio or any help. I reapplied and I got in and restarted.

Your mother is a subject at the centre of more than one of your works. How did your mother become your muse?

I started taking pictures of her in 2018, but it was really during pandemic that I solidified it, I made account of story of my mother, and thought, ok, this is a photo series, maybe a book or something. Even before that, in junior year we had documen tary class and I made a film about my mum. It helped get me into film school.

I’ve been through a lot of things with my mother. This is my way of trying to process our relation ship, to understand her in a way, and you can see an evolution in the works. The first works I did of her were very aggressive, in-your-face, but now I think as I get older, the work has also grown and changed, it’s more naturalistic, celebratory. I needed to process my anger and the earlier work

BTS LOST KID By Salvina Muscat

Strolling Up, Story of my Mother

reflects that. It’s more gentle now, as I’ve become.

The work feels like cinematic con fessions, just as your newer film Searching for the Wave. What can you tell us about it?

Searching For The Wave is based on a major heartbreak I had. It was my senior thesis film, its very noticeably personal.

Its about cyclical trauma, the movie, be ing still tied to your parents, even when we think we can cut ties and be indepen dent from them. It made me step back and realise I don’t have it figured out and that’s normal. My films are always non-linear in this way, going through memories and fit them together to make sense of what doesn’t make sense.

As humans we try to use logic for ev erything, including love and death. The brain tries to compute and classify but it doens’t work. Somethings things hap pen without explaination, like the fact that I never got closure from that rela tionship. I couldn’t understand how you

can go from lovers to strangers.

In 2018, I wrote I lost myself when I found you, which was more intuitive in that I didn’t intend for it to be anything.

I was experiencing a lot of existential ism from an abusive relationship and got obsessed in being alone in nature.

I was intense and had a strange pulling urge to film myself in nature, immersed

in water. I collected a library of footage, walking for hours in greenery. It was gorgeous.

It sounds connected to your latest project.

Yes, my new film too; Lost Kid Won derer, is me by myself in nature. In this film, I imagine the world coming to an end. It’s a cinematic poem about some

one choosing between safety and being alone with themselves because humani ty hurt them too much.

Is Chelsea Muscat a one woman show?

Hell yes - I love collaborating but I shoot, edit, colour, write and narrate my own work.

What about your activism?

It’s so important to me. A huge project is threatening the landscape of Nadur, so we’ve been fighting for the last two years. When I first heard of it, I went out and shot a little film about it, it really got people talking and wanting to help in the fight. That’s a great connection i have between my art and activism.

I want Maltese people to know, if we really came together and screamed we would have the power. But people need to be wiling to show their faces and un derstand our power. It’s really that sim ple.

Lost Kid Wanderer Still Searching for the Wave Still

Lost Myself When I Found You Still

MALTA SAM VASSALLO

A COLLECTION OF CHARCOAL DRAWINGS AND HAND-CRAFTED OBJECTS…

Acollection of charcoal drawings and hand-craft ed objects by multi-disci plinary artist CO-MA will be presented at Green Shutters Pop-Up Space in Floriana, opening on the evening of 11th of November. Curated by gallerist Lily Agius, this will be the artist’s sec ond solo show.

CO-MA centres a desire to experiment at the forefront of his art practice. Re placing his paintbrush for sticks of char coal and “using cheap, glittery make-up brushes” in 2019, he began creating strikingly vivid portraits, which mesh desolate bodies and figures in decay with mystical, otherworldly overtones. His work has no frills but contrasts liv ing in the world of black and white.

“Charcoal gives me freedom to have a full range of control to play with values, textures and intricate details. I’m drawn to the medium because it feels natural, especially when dealing with skin tex tures,” CO-MA explained.

“The collection of drawings I will pres ent at Green Shutters are not a series, but they are made from the same place. I work quite intuitively - they’re all com ing from a want to experiment and ex plore the process.”

The self-taught and self-proclaimed anti-social artist spends his days in his art studio, where he worked on these monochromatic pieces as well as the objects that will also be exhibited at the gallery, which include bespoke, up-cy cled lamps and furniture.

Besides being a visual artist, CO-MA is also a “collector of nice things” which are broken down into their primary parts and find themselves in the new objects that he builds.

“I had 10 boxes of things I’ve collected throughout the year: parts from cars, fridges, washing machines, an antique hose, doors and windows that are 300 years old,” the artist explained.

The result are pieces that are at once functional, intriguing and oth erworldly. And while the paintings and objects are not intentionally connecting, they are undeniably distinct to CO-MA’s eye.

“In this show, we’re pulling together CO-MA’s different skills into one space. The furniture is just as crude as his art. It’s real, uninhibited and yet still respectful to the mediums being used,” Lily Agius, Green Shutters gallerist added.

“The lamps for example are fun yet laborious, playful yet strange. COMA likes to challenge himself, and audiences will be able to experience this at the show.”

Green Shutters itself is not a typical formulat ed gallery, it’s a raw space, which will work in favour of the art. It’s about the ambience and harmony between the space and the work as a whole. I want to demonstrate that art can define or make a room, it’s not just static piec es to hang on your wall, it’s something to dis cuss!” she added.

“A collection of charcoal drawings and objects” by CO-MA will open on 11 November and run until 3 December. Green Shutters is located at 27 Triq San Frangisk, Floriana.

For more information see www.coma-art ist.com and follow the gallery on Instagram and Facebook. www.lilyagiusgallery.com

“Charcoal gives me freedom to have a full range of control to play with values, textures and intricate details. I’m drawn to the medium because it feels natural, especially when dealing with skin textures.”

Residue

Residue is an exhibition by Joseph Farrugia, currently being displayed at Bureau Iniala in the heart of Valletta. Curator Maria Galea speaks about the work and the artist himself.

Residue brings together a collection of re flective research inspired from a scientif ic phenomena whereby Joseph Farrugia explores the existence of humankind through matter, consisting of particles, in relation to our conscious existence and we as humans leave different forms traces as proof of our existence. Joseph Farrugia’s deep analogy and thought provoking visuals arise questions that go be yond scientific theories, they tap into a somewhat reli gious or rather self reflection trajectory of who we are as beings both physically and theoretically. How do we define our traces, in this case referred to as residue, through generations and personal evolutions?

The first time I entered Joseph Farrugia’s studio I couldn’t help but notice one of his very first works ex hibited at his solo exhibition at the Fine arts Museum in 1990. The painting was divided into a cluster of parti cles and formed a spectacular unified visual, almost like a puzzle that joined together to form our life. It was a realisation of how the artist’s trajectory has ever since been almost like an exploration of human experiences and their relation to scientific and religious theories.

Residue resonates with our past, present and future. The three works,’Liquid Time’, ‘Seated Presence’ and ‘The Rhythm of Fading’ are touching upon the evolu tion of generations, each generation is fading into the next leaving behind different traces of each person who has been part of this trajectory. ‘The Missing picture’ also touches on the feeling of sorrow and what our loved ones who are now gone, referring to sorrow and mem ories as the remaining residue left within us. Some of the works are left open to interpretation by the view er however the collective creative process throughout the collection is an internal exploration of ourselves and what we each leave behind throughout our existence.

Even though the works bring along a deep refectory process, some visually reflect a sense of almost infinite lightness and ambiguity. Particularly in reference to ‘ Embrace’, ‘Nimbus’ and ‘A Garden of Stars’, each form a spectacular visual with the application of tiny char coal and soft pastel dots applied in a very agile and free spirited manner. The artist in these works is almost em bracing the creator through a scientific lens, bringing a human visual to life through a formation of dots that in this case reflex particles.

In conclusion, this collection is a self reflective jour ney, a moment for us to pause, reflect and identify with the works the trajectory we all create and leave behind.

MG: What inspired this collection and how do you identify in it?

JF: In many ways, this collection of works is a pro gression of my past works over a span of more than thirty years. My drawings and painting have always delved into existential themes which essentially ask questions about the nature of being. Residue is an

exhibition that invites the viewer to reflect about the reason for being, and what we leave behind.

Many of these works were inspired by an image I en countered whilst visiting a museum, where visitors could rest on three stools resting against a concrete wall. The constant flow of visitors seated on these stools leave an impression of their heads and shoul ders on the wall which form a sense of collective identity through the traces they leave behind. In a similar manner, we leave traces of ourselves as we in teract with our environment and with others, and are

The Missing Picture

Photos by Lisa Attard

in turn influenced by the residue of others. Al though the imagery is fundamentally an explora tion into spirituality, this sense of abstraction is also experienced in the digital world in the way we leave traces of ourselves when we purchase, network with others, and exchange information.

MG: How does the medium chosen reflect within the subject matter?

JF: The preferred media for these works are charcoal and soft pastels. I find these ideal for projecting a sense of fading, fading into the in finite. Some drawings are composed exclusive ly of thousands of tiny strokes that collectively build into a figure of a person juxtaposed against a vast expanse, or blended against a background like a shadow. I also find a crayon to be a more intimate and, in a way, impulsive medium which allows for gestural strokes that may also reflect the current mood of the artist and which is thus projected on the artwork.

MG: Science plays an important part onhow we view the world, in your works you inter pret the understanding of scientific studies in relation to our existence, has this re search and creative process of this series helped you develop your understanding of the matter?

JF: There are certainly references to scientif ic thought in these drawings. Science is about discovering truth, and explaining the ‘what’ of existence. Its major limitation is that it does not

address the ‘why’ of being or how things are the way they are, which is the realm of spirituality. I believe that art can be a catalyst to bring the two together. This is not an entirely novel thought, as we find this constructive dialogue between sci ence and art even in the renaissance, as happened in the application of perspective techniques, for example. In today’s world, science is making ex traordinary progress in exploring the universe at cosmic level, most recently through the Webb telescope. At the other end of the spectrum, the marvels of the quantum world enable us to look and search inward and contemplate the nature of matter. I find that, even though I am certainly not a scientist, these discoveries inspire artists to look beyond what is, and to provoke questions about the nature of existence, even if such ques tions do not have definite answers. This is why art, science, spiritualty and religion have always been at the core of human civilisation.

MG: What should the viewer expect?

JF: I think that the viewer will be facing works that are aesthetically pleasing through the tech nique used and subject matter, but which also bounce back to provoke meditation and self-re flection.

Residue, by MarieGallery5, runs until 21st October. Bureau Iniala is on 37, Treasury Street, Valletta

Self Perpetuating Spirit

The Shadow

MALTA

GABRIEL ZAMMIT

An alchemy of disruption

Outsider Art in the White Cube

The label of outsider artist has come to function as something of an umbrel la term for individuals producing work outside the culturally established centres of psychological or social nor mality. Outsider art is characterised by an almost total stylistic freedom and a unique use of materials with a disregard for ‘correct’ form and a lack of concern for art-historical context. “These [types of] artists,” artist and art historian Jean Debuffet writes in 1988, “derive every thing – subjects, choice of materials, means of transposition, rhythms, styles of writing, etc. – from their own depths, and not from the conventions of classi cal or fashionable art.”

GROUNDWATERS outsider perspec tives and visions of elsewhere, an ex hibition being held at Valletta Contem porary Gallery, grew out of a fascination with art as a radically free sphere of ex pression and brings together work and objects made by a group of individuals in the same spirit of exploring indepen dence from compromised culture as had by Debuffet. The exhibition, however, develops a widened definition of outsid er art that is oriented towards aesthetic practice as transformative ritual, thus also drawing into the circle of investiga tion religious art, ritual art and art ther apy practices. Objects such as West Afri can Bocio fetish dolls, ex-voto offerings and the alchemical philosopher’s stone

have been introduced into the space to provide a touchstone narrative of trans formation around which the artworks gather, each adding or taking accord ing to its specific valence. GROUND WATERS is an attempt to thread these strands into a coherent story which weaves into the past and dips into the world of alchemy, ritual and subterra nean desire, looking for visions of else

where and alternative narratives which lie outside what is recognised, fashion able and canonised in order to build a deeper understanding of who we are, and who we could become.

Aesthetically the work overlaps with various other categories such as naïve art or folk art etc. and the amalgam of what is being called ‘outsider’ art is a

site of conflict and GROUNDWATERS reflects this conflict. The exhibition’s fi nal argument is that this kind of art and meaning-making bypasses the circuits of conventional creativity and plunges straight into the groundwaters of our collective subconscious, and is there fore telling of its hidden structures.

Adrian Camilleri, Self-Pleasure - Manifested Flesh (2016) acrylic and watercolour on paper

West African Bocio Fetish Doll (c. 1850-1920) wood, cloth, shells, dried grasses, thread and metal fishooks

Photos by Lisa Attard

GABRIEL ZAMMIT is a curator with a background in philosophy and art theory. His curatorial practice is driven by a curiosity in art as an alternative method of meaning-making which is free from the limits of conventional ways of looking at the world. He derives most of his inspiration from literature, particularly mythology and poetry, and uses conceptually driven projects to explore the limits of the human condition.

The exhibition is the first in Malta to explore outsider perspectives. The white cube is the temple to what art has become in the 21st century, it is a monument to capital, consumption, hi erarchy and ultimately unfreedom. In my view, it is time for different voices to take over the gallery and museum spaces, especially here in Malta, and to empower outsider perspectives to take over a white cube space is to challenge the culturally sanctioned mechanism of bestowing the right to create truth, and therefore to question the validity of established ways of thinking about cre ativity, and by proxy ourselves.

In curatorial terms this challenge is fa cilitated by several physical changes to the space - differently coloured walls, a

room flooded with water (groundwater itself seeping upwards out of the stone) a sound design component built from field recordings constructed out of the mundane everyday hum within which we live our lives, changes to lighting etc. - in order to make the white cube bend and flex so as to make room for different ways of constructing truth.

GROUNDWATERS takes its title from Charles Russell’s 2011 publication of the same name and seeks to extend Rus sell’s research into new contexts. “We sense that we are encountering indi viduals who may be very much like us but who also seem to exist in another dimension of our world,” writes Russell, “suggesting degrees of intensity or es trangement that may be at once fasci nating, desirable and frightening … the mystery of otherness and its closeness can loom forth even more strongly in the encounter with the work of outsider art ists, whose inner journeys pull us deep into themselves and into ourselves.”

GROUNDWATERS is ultimately about creating a space for that encounter to happen, but what this might finally re veal is up to the individual who is expe riencing the work.

Participating artists - Anonymous, Emma Attard, Adrian Camilleri, Wil liam Driscoll, Emma Johnson, Salvi na Muscat, Joe Vassallo.

Open from 30 September - 12 Novem ber. The project is sponsored by the Arts Council Malta project support scheme.

Joe Vassallo, Hand 1 (2014) acrylic on plaster cast manufactured by Charles Sammut workshop

Emma

Attard, Black Horse

Stallion

(2022) ink, coloured pen and crayon on paper

William Driscoll, Untitled (undated) coloured ink on paper

Anonymous, verso of Untitled (undated) biro on found paper

ERICA GIUSTA

IN CONVERSATION WITH MARCO SAMMICHELI from Milan’s Triennale

Earlier this year, in Sep tember, the Malta Inter national Contemporary Art Space (MICAS) hosted a conference centred around the most relevant question of what the role of contemporary art in public spaces isor should and could be. After the stim ulating keynote speeches of professors Richard Noble (Head of the Art Depart ment at Goldsmiths College, Universi ty of London) and Jean-Paul De Lucca (associate professor of Philosophy at the University of Malta), the discus sion was animated by a panel of both local and international speakers from different creative disciplines, includ ing Marco Sammicheli (director of the Museo del Design Italiano and curator of the design, fashion, and crafts sector at the Triennale di Milano). A leading figure on the European design scene, he found some time, after the event, to delve deeper into certain aspects of the public conversation, to discuss his work at Triennale and to share his views on the local scene too.

educed by the timeless charm of the Maltese limestone, he is particularly in trigued by the ambiguous relationship between indoor and outdoor generated by spaces like Teatru Rjal: a roofless yet enclosed space, historically and cul turally very layered. Marco works a lot with and within this duality, exploiting its layering in an effort to produce open spaces: both physically open, “roofless”, as he likes to describe them, and con ceptually open, to conversations, en counters and exchanges. The installa tion commissioned to Francis Kerè for the currently ongoing 23rd Internation al Exhibition, or the Triennale installa tions at the airport of Milano Linate are just two of several examples of “roofless spaces” that successfully brought art and design in the public realm. As the director of the most prominent design institution in Italy, Marco is committed to reaching out to as many people as possible, not afraid to step out of the stunning Triennale palazzo in the elitist

city centre, and to engage with all po tential audiences in the most open pos sible way.

“I like the term “roofless” because I feel that it perfectly describes a democrat ic space where anyone, from any back ground, can meet and follow an inter esting conversation, or initiate one, and really enjoy the public realm” he says. A firm believer that the totemic presence of works of ‘art for art’s sake’ does not have the potential to transform a public space and to offer something more than an Instagram photo opportunity, Marco focuses on collaborations with artists

and professionals from different disci plines as a way to reject rigidity and blur boundaries, and to therefore make con temporary arts accessible and relevant to as many audiences as possible.

Design, like many other disciplines, is in fact the ultimate reflection of society, and as such, it should always maintain a direct connection with it. In “La Tra dizione del Nuovo”, the exhibition that Marco curated for the Italian pavilion at the 23rd Triennale titled “Unknow Unknowns”, the way in which design evolved in line with the major political and socio-economical changes of the

last few decades is the very backbone of the show. When asked what simi larities he sees between questions of the past, exploring new lifestyles, new economies and new social values, and today’s challenges, revolving around the fall of those values, the climate change emergency and the general crisis of the status quo, he speaks about a specific research-based attitude as the common denominator which always character ised, and still characterises, Italian de signers as innovative.

“The main objective of “La Tradizione del Nuovo” – he says - is to communi cate a specific aspect of Italian design, and the way it always strived towards re search. In the five generations of design ers that the exhibition shows, from the ‘60s to the ‘90s, the common element is their research-based approach, and the fact that they were always supported by an adventurous business community, willing to take risks – something which rarely happens today. The entrepre neurs and the designers were often ex ploring together, in pursuit of answers and solutions to the big changes of so ciety. Certain questions were never fully answered – he continues – and certain topics remain high on the agenda of Ital ian design: urban environments, work ing spaces, means of transports, they were always a priority, and they still are. Other questions have evolved. In 1964, for example, the theme of the 13th In ternational Triennale was ‘il tempo libe ro’, the nature of leisure time. For the first time, designers were investigating the boundaries between work and lei sure, in relation to the booming consum erism of the time. What defines work time, and how that is different from free time, remain relevant questions. We still don’t have clear answers, we are actu ally more confused today, in this world in which we work from home and we keep ourselves entertained, glued to the phone, at the office. Also, computational power and how big data could affect our everyday life was a hot topic already, especially from the late 60s onwards.

Starting from the 70s, other topics like

Refik Anadol, Universe Simulations: The Merging of Milky Way & Andromeda. Exhibition view. Photo: DSL Studio

women’s rights and women’s empowerment struggles took centre stage. The work of Cinzia Ruggeri, Antonia Campi, Eleonora Fiorani and others, also part of ‘La Tra dizione del Nuovo’, show how women active in different fields were brought together by the exploration of alternative perspectives on the female body, in the space and as a tool for introspective research in a culture that was discriminating them because of that very body. Again, a theme that remains very contemporary. ‘La Tradizione del Nuo vo’ shows all these iterations on a number of key questions. That’s why I call it ‘tradi tion’, a tradition of running after something which is, or always feels like it’s new.”

The 23rd Triennale, is titled “Unknown Un knowns. An introduction to mysteries” and is curated by Ersilia Vaudo, astrophysicist and Chief Diversity Officer of the Europe an Space Agency. Marco’s artistic choic es are very much in line with this theme.

A striking effort of inclusivity, ‘Unknown Unknowns’ creates a vast series of connec tions between disciplines and approaches, in what is also one of the European exhi bitions with the highest representation of African countries. This is particularly in teresting from our perspective, from Malta, which is historically and geographically an important link between the two continents. At this remark, Marco points out that a

ERICA GIUSTA is Director of Innovation at architecture firm AP Valletta. She read for an MA in Architecture, and has a Post-Graduate Master from the Sole24Ore Business School in Milan. She contributes regularly to academic journals and international architecture magazines such as A10 New European Architecture and Il Giornale dell’Architettura.

strong African representation was crucial in the development of the curatorial choic es of ‘Unknown Unknowns’ since in Europe we know very little about the African de sign scene. “Africa is a big unknown which we keep looking from a very Eurocentric perspective – he explains - Triennale wants to be truly international and open up to the work of African designers, we want to en courage opportunities for exchange. Cer tain opportunities could exist for Malta as well, in its role of European outpost very close to the African continent”.

Malta never took part in a Triennale exhibi tion, and it is hard to disagree with Marco when he speaks about what a great oppor tunity it would be. He sees the country as a place which is traditionally multicultural, Mediterranean in a unique way, with traces of Italian culture and of semitic languag es, very European and somehow still very

British at the same time. “Malta presents a complex layering which would deserve to be analysed further, in detail, as a special cultural, social, economic laboratory, with many traditions and a peculiar mix of resis tance and curiosity towards contemporane ity. When it comes to design, the work of talented architects and designers working at the border between old and new immedi ately comes to mind: Salvu Scerri, Matthew Demarco with Maltatype, creating a new visual alphabet rooted in Maltese tradition but very relevant to contemporary culture, AP’s projects. Malta would be such a great case study, I would love to see it in the next Triennale”, he concludes.

A promising invite and a series of challeng ing suggestions which hopefully will be taken on board by the local cultural insti tutions.

In the foreground: Bosco Sodi, Perfect Bodies. In the background: Yuri Suzuki, Sound of the Earth: Chapter 3. Exhibition view. Photo: DSL Studio

In the foreground: Andrea Galvani. Instruments for Inquiring into the Wind and the Shaking Earth In the background: Alighiero Boetti, Mettere al mondo il mondo, 1975. Exhibition view. Photo: DSL Studio

ALTOFEST

Works of art are often experienced in public, sometimes with anti-theft security measures, and often from a seat far from the stage. Altofest is an international performance arts festival designed to get the artist and the consumer as close as possible to each other, and this year it’s Valletta’s turn to host this incredible event! Joanna Delia caught up with Giovanni and Anna to understand it better.

What is Altofest?

Altofest (altofest.net) is a human-spe cific project of experimental sociality based on values such as proximity, gift, and hospitality.

The project was born in Naples in 2011 by TeatrInGestAzione, with the artistic direction of Anna Gesualdi and Giovan ni Trono. It is conceived as an act of artistic and political resistance “to give rise to” a large and heterogeneous com munity, generating critical thought. The artists are hosted in the homes of resident citizens, whom we call “space donors”. Citizens and artists live togeth er for two weeks, including a period of artistic residencies and the following opening of the houses to the public.

Altofest is a device conceived as a col lective performance in the shape of a

festival. The Altofest dramaturgy cor responds to the plot of itineraries and routes that guide the inhabitant of the Fest in an orchestrated sequence of ur ban landscapes and domestic intimacy that is crossed by performing artworks and talks.

Altofest activates a transversal process, which calls to dialogue all the social components of the urban fabric in which it is engrafted, aiming to overcome roles favouring choral participation. This in clusive experience generates “original relationships” thanks to a semantic in terference between the flow of daily life and the feat of artistic creation in the domestic space. Everyday life is perme ated by the foreign vision carried by in ternational artists and languages of the live arts hosted in the program.

JOANNA DELIA

MALTA

Photos by Valentina Quintano

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.

Awarded by the EFA (European Festi val Association) with the EFFE AWARD 2017-18 (Europe for Festivals Festivals for Europe), resulting in the six best Eu ropean festivals among more than 715 candidates. In 2018 it was included as a best practice in the annual report “Io sono cultura 2018” (t/n, I am culture), edited by Symbola Foundation. Also, in 2018, the Italian Ministry of Cul ture awarded it the “European Year of Heritage” label. Winner of the Funder35 (2016); SIAE-Sillumina (2017); Allianz Kulturstiftung (2019) calls. Altofest is also an indicator of the cultural interest of the city of Naples in the Cultural and Creative Cities Monitor tool of the Euro pean Commission.

What is the process of recruiting performers and artists?

There is a difference between the annu al editions in Naples and the special edi tions outside Naples. Regarding Altofest in Naples, the annual edition, we select artists to spread an international open call. It is an opportunity to overlook the worldwide artistic trend because we receive more than 600 proposals each year. The dramaturgy does emerge from observing all the proposals. Indeed, the whole “fest” is composed as a perfor mance in itself, and each performance is part of the dramaturgy of Altofest. Each edition brings to light the thematic and aesthetic discourse that emerges from the selection of all proposals we receive.

Altofest Naples is the lab where citizens meet artists we didn’t meet yet. It is possible because an established group of experienced space donors is ready to experiment with us.

Regarding special editions, we make a direct call to artists following the char acteristics of new space donors. Be cause citizens are involved for the first time, it is essential to us the specific care that an Artist already knows Al tofest can have.

In both cases, the match Artist-resident it’s up to us as Artistic directors. It de fines dramaturgy. The selection is not the expression of a personal judgment, but it responds to the writing process of dramaturgy by emergence, different edition by edition.

Would you be able to describe the range of performances Altofest showcases in a few sentences?

The program welcomes contemporary live art artists experimenting with hy

brid practices. Altofest aims at tran scending the genre, altofest is a place where experimentation with language is not necessarily tied to stylistic trap pings that, rather than defining an art form, trap it in a cage. The performanc es that can be seen at Altofest are main ly hybrid, but even when it is possible to define one of the works in a genre, there is always in that work research on language capable of provoking thematic and aesthetic reflection.

All the performances have been con ceived for a formal space and should have already premiered in an artistic context. The “Altofest engine” trans forms the performance into something unexpected for its author through a translation of the signs for the domestic context.

Is this the first time Altofest is be ing held in Malta?

In 2018 Altofest left the borders of Na ples for the first time, inaugurating a se ries of special editions commissioned by

different European Capitals of Culture: Altofest Malta 2018 for Valletta 2018 ECoC; Altofest Matera-Basilicata 2019 for Matera 2019 ECoC; and on 2022 a re-edition for Valletta, commissioned by the Valletta Cultural Agency. It is also in cluded in the Kaunas 2022 and Trenčín 2026 nomination dossier, acting as a de facto connector of a “spontaneous” net work among the cities sharing this title.

Altofest Malta 2018 ECoC edition, the festival run in 11 towns, Rabat, Man ikata, Hamrun, Qormi, Santa Venera, Zejtun, Bormla, Birgu, Sliema, Gzira and Valletta. In the Altofest Matera-Ba silicata ECoC edition, the festival run in 11 towns: Venosa, Melfi, Moliterno, Sarconi, Montalbano Jonico, Tursi, Tri carico, Grassano, Montescaglioso, Migli onico, Matera.

These two special editions lasted one month with a relay structure, in which from one village to the next, the art res idencies overlapped for a week so that

there was always one residency ending and one beginning.

How did that go? What was the feedback locally?

It was surprising to see how a project born in Naples succeeded in living in a new place. People reacted very well, the moments of the meeting were touching and full of new and unexpected reflec tions. We knew it could work but did not expect it so strongly. Many artists stayed in touch with their donors, and some returned the hospitality by wel coming them back to their countries. Some space donors came to Naples to visit us. And we are still in touch with them. The bond and the strong friend ships born between artists and donors last beyond geographical and linguistic distances.

When Altofest was brought to Malta, it was its first time abroad. We worked for two years on the preparation, trying to talk to as many people as possible about the project and being among people as much as possible. It was difficult to im merse ourselves in another culture, an other way of seeing the world, we were displaced.

The Festival displaces works, asking its authors to translate them for domestic spaces and in that first special edition in Malta, for the first time, the displacer was displaced. We had to translate our selves, into another language, in another culture. In this process, we discovered anew what we had been doing for seven years, looking at it through the eyes of someone seeing it for the first time. It happened to us what happens to artists when they arrive at Altofest.

The Maltese are not traditionally very keen to open their doors to strangers. Was it difficult to recruit hosts?

Opening the doors of one’s home is nev er easy, not only in Malta. Nowadays, people live with an attitude of defend ing their space, time, and belonging. And the enemy is another human. We lost a common enemy and found it in our neighbour or the foreigners. When we came to Malta in 2016, it was our first time here. We started by meeting people in the street and observing the movement of people in the towns and the daily life of the territories. There were always steps to take, first meeting outside, then at home in the living room, then slowly from the living room to the kitchen and then to the whole house. It was a long process of building trust. And

Feature /Malta / Altofest

MALTA

for us, it was a continuous refinement and fine-tuning of our way of narrating the project, each time finding more pre cise words to share from the first time.

The current edition runs just in Valletta. Valletta is inclined to be cosmopolitan, people from all over the world converge there for different reasons, but it is very small and is going through a process of gentrification and touristification, which makes it very fragile. We know how pro cesses like these can destroy the iden tity of a people by crystallising it into a form that can be spent in the tourist market. Despite this, those who live in Valletta, because they were born there or chose it as their home, love it deeply,

it is a type of feeling I often see in Nea politans towards their city. Among these people, each moved by a different rea son, we found our Space Donors; some of them to discover something about themselves, some for the joy of being challenged, some for the beauty of the project, some to give the city another poetic experience, some for the love of art, some because every poetic act is a political act.

We also had bad experiences because the human variable is unpredictable.

But in more than ten years are very few, less than one hand’s fingers.

How was the response of the hosts to the performances (in the previ ous edition)?

The hosts change their gaze day by day, following the process of creation. So performance becomes familiar even if, at the beginning, it seems too experi mental to someone.

They are introduced to an unusual lin guistic dimension that extends the vo cabulary and the sight. We share with the citizens that the project is chal lenging, and cohabitation is necessary because otherwise, the daily life of the artist and that of the citizen cannot mutually affect each other. At a certain point, it becomes routine to see an art ist dance in one’s kitchen or an actor re

peat his performance in the bathroom.

Just as it is natural to set the table for lunch in the same place where one’s performance takes place. The work of art breaks into everyday life, enabling the poetic part of existence to emerge.

Staying for two weeks lost in translation and out of our comfort zone is what we think is needed for the process to work.

Is there any uniquely Maltese feed back you received?

At the beginning of the community building process, all pretty Maltese peo ple were worried about the costs, and it seemed strange to us because the same people were the first to offer you a drink

or something else. Most of them asked if they had to feed them. But we nev er thought it was out of avarice, it was a defence. We probably thought that those who have been colonised or invad ed are burnt, and people from outside are perceived as a potential danger to their wealth and identity. Having over come the first reaction, it was enough to explain well that the festival was found ed on the gift to see how a different ap proach emerged.

The gift for us is the main engine of the whole Altofest, it is the gift that, being unquantifiable, creates the possibility of building a relationship not devoted to consumption, in which each gift is followed by another gift of a different

nature. It only took a little while for people to realise the deeper meaning of the project and that it was like hosting an old friend, who is self-sufficient, and with whom you can feel free and happy to share your life.

Reciprocity is needed to build a commu nity.

How do you find the response to contemporary performance art and dance changing over the years?

In the last ten years, artistic mobility and residencies have been promoted and funded by many cultural institu tions worldwide. So practice and poetic exchanges have been crucial to sharing visions, processes, and works. The usual categories fell in favour of hybrid forms. But it is not the same everywhere. Clas sical forms remain the preferred forms because they offer something immedi ately recognisable, yet it is becoming increasingly clear that it is precisely in hybrid forms that the creative space of the spectator is larger.

Has the response in Malta changed from your experience so far?

We have been coming to Malta since 2016, 6 years is a short time to draw a line of change, indeed, Valletta has changed since Valletta 2018, and it is clear that it was a change the city was asking for.

Do you feel that projects like Al tofest are valuable in opening the community’s eyes to the world and highlighting the value of art in help ing us understand each other?

A project such as this places the con frontation with the other at the fore front, Altofest creates a field of nego tiation in which we are all away from home, and we all have to work on cre ating a common language. The artistic process that lives in homes becomes the source of this new language. An artist who translates his or her performance for a domestic space not only infests the spaces and time of life in a house but infests the meaning placed in objects, adding a new dimension to each of them and leaving a poetic seed in the places he or she passes through. But also the life of the house and the numerous sto ries that inhabit it influence the artist’s work through an act of resistance, just as marble resists the sculptor. But that resistance affects the final work, like an inoperative intelligence.

To welcome an artistic operation into one’s home is to realise that being in vaded is sometimes a privilege. We aim

to foster a new sense of humanity, en couraging cooperation between people from different backgrounds and condi tions and creating a new resilient hybrid community.

What did you take home after Al tofest in Malta?

After all this intense time spent here, we certainly bring with us ‘another look’, we have made space within ourselves for another culture, welcoming anoth er worldview, and now returning to our world, we will look at it through your eyes. As we always say for Altofest, the legacy we leave behind is a void.

He who welcomes makes space for the guest, but after the guest’s departure, that space remains empty, a void to be filled, a place to inhabit. So it is for us too.

What’s next?

We want to unify, in a unique and big one, all the local communities of Altofest: A unique broad community that finds it self sharing a “poetical citizenship” as a widespread, open and inclusive prac

tice. Over the last ten years, Altofest has gathered around it a heterogeneous community composed of residents, international artists, scholars and re searchers, and cultural experts. People from different social statuses are bound by a shared project. The core of Altofest is its community and the ideal geogra phy that takes shape from it. We love to say that Altofest is a “human-specif ic” project because it is founded by the permanence of connections over time, the frequency of relationships, and the persistence of the spaces that the com munity “inhabits”. Since the beginning, the image of the “Hovering City” was a source of inspiration and, at the same time, an objective to pursue: an ideal place inhabited by people connected by poetical practices based on the princi ples of proximity, gift, and hospitality. New geography rises from the different territorial, linguistic or cultural realities to give rise to a relational and proliferat ing ecosystem.

Anna Gesualdi and Giovanni Trono Teatringestazione and Altofest’s cre ators and directors

Earlier this year I came across an article on The Art Newspaper citing the title ‘We Are Under Water, But We Can Dream: Inside Madagascar’s First Con temporary Art Centre’. It put a smile on my face as I believe this is what art is really all about. We have been noticing an increase in art centres popping up throughout Africa as many private pa trons are realizing what art is capable of doing in their home towns. Joël An driamearisoa, the artistic director of the recently launched non-profit art centre Hakanto Contemporary in Antananari vo, believes that Malagasy artists must believe that they’re important to their country, as living and thinking as an

artist ‘benefits everyone’, even though amid this initiative many locals suffering poverty following the floodings feel the contrary.

The Madagascar-born artist Andri amearisoa, who represented Madagas car in 2019 at its first appearance in the Venice Biennale, describes the city Antananarivo as a mix between Rome, London and Lisbon with a lot of British sophistication, since it was once col onized by the British but also takes a lot of inspiration from Portugal, France and Italy. And although it is part of the African continent, he says it feels more Asian.

He wanted to create a place for artists in Antananarivo who inspire him and since

the inception of Hakanto Contempo rary in 2020, it was indeed the first time many of the artists exhibited their work to a museum standard. Hasnaine Yavar houssen, a 35-year-old art collector and the chief executive of Groupe Filatex, a real estate and energy firm that provides around a third of the island’s power, is committed to funding Hakanto Contem porary and establishing Malagasy artists on the world stage. He plans on building a larger standalone gallery, upgrading from the current 400 sq. m site in an office block. Residencies and interna tional travelling exhibitions of Malagasy art are being planned and an education outreach programme is already under way in schools across the city. Multi-dis ciplinary artists are being supported

through the Endowment fund, allowing space for dialogues between the local and the international art scene through residencies, workshops and exhibitions, which will also benefit the community who can visit for free.

Amongst the artists who have benefited from this initiative are the leading Mal agasy photographer Ramily and other Malagasy photographers Viviane Ra kotoarivony, Rijasolo, Joan Paoly and Philippe Gaubert. Other visual artists in clude Rina Ralay Ranaivo, Temandrota, Malala Andrialavidrazana, Vonjiniaina, Alexandre Gourcon, Domi Sanji, Ndao Hanavao and Donn. Hakanto Contem porary’s current exhibition ‘La Nouvelle Main’ which runs until 22nd October

Uprooting Earth Element installation work by Temandrota (Biennale Arts Actuels, La Réunion). Courtesy: Jean-Pierre Dalbéra from Paris, France, CC BY 2.0 httpscreativecommons.orglicensesby2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Spotlight /Madagascar/ Africa

AFRICA

2022, is that of a group exhibition with artists Rose Kely Ranarivelo, Andy Ra soloharivony, Fitiavana Ratovo and San ka. Joël Andriamearisoa, the centre’s artistic director, currently has an in stallation at the atrium of South Africa’s Zeitz Mocaa until 25th July 2023, a con tinuation of his 2019 Venice Biennale installation. Also running at MACAAL Marrakech is his solo show ‘Our Land Just a Dream’ which runs until 26th July 2023. Every corner of this contempo rary art museum is filled with his draw ings, paintings, textiles, sculptures, ob jects designed by him at the shop and food designed by him at the restaurant.

Before Hakanto Contemporary there was just the Institut Francais Madagas car and La Fondation H which served as exhibition spaces in Antananarivo.

La Fondation H also has another space in Paris which help out Malagasy art ists promote their work internationally.

Until 11th November, Viviane Rako toarivony, vice-winner of the Prix Par itana 2022 (a program of Fondation H which has supported the Malagasy art scene and awards 3 Malagasy nationals

or those living in Madagascar each year, since 2017) currently has her exhibition ‘Oxymore’ at the Antananarivo space. She benefited from personalized sup port from the Fondation H team as well as a production grant for the realization of her exhibition. Meanwhile, Fondation H invited the Malagasy artist Temandro ta for a creative residency at the Cité Internationale Des Arts in Paris, where he developed a body of work giving rise to the exhibition Barbie Caillou, which is currently showing at Fondation H’s Parisian space until November 23, 2022.

Other Malagasy artists getting interna tional recognition include Mahefa Dim biniaina Randrianarivelo who was one of this year’s CAP (Contemporary Af rican Photography) prize winners and Emmanuelle Andrianjafy who was the Aperture 2017 portfolio prize’s runner up.

Temandrota artwork at Beyond All You Are Mine at Hakanto Contemporary. Courtesy: Hakanto Contemporary

Joël Andrianomearisoa I’ve Forgotten the Night Installation at Venice Biennale 2019. Courtesy: Revue Noir

12.09.22

Until 1 January 2023

WOLFGANG TILLMANS: TO LOOK WITHOUT FEAR

“The viewer...should enter my work through their own eyes, and their own lives,” the photographer Wolfgang Tillmans has said. An incisive observer and a creator of dazzling pictures, Tillmans has experimented for over three decades with what it means to engage the world through photography. Presenting the full breadth and depth of the artist’s career, Wolfgang Tillmans: To look without fear invites us to experience the artist’s vision of what it feels like to live today.

MoMa, New York City

Until 8 January 2023

CINTHIA MARCELLE: A CONJUNCTION OF FACTORS

A Conjunction of Factors is the first exhibition to offer an overall perspective on the work of Cinthia Marcelle (b. 1974, Belo Horizonte). Driven by a desire to disorganise the hierarchies and binary oppositions that pattern our daily interactions, the interconnected layers of Marcelle’s practice express a consistent concern with reimagining the dynamics of collectivity.

MACBA, Barcelona

Photo: Frederica Sabino

27.09.22

Until 3 November 2022

AND YOUR FLESH IS MY GREATEST POEM Antenna Space is delighted to present the group exhibition “And Your Flesh Is My Greatest Poem”, which takes its title from a poem itself. Brought together by curator Mohamed Almusibli, artists Sitara Abuzar Ghaznawi, Isabelle Cornaro, Shahryar Nashat, Dala Nasser, Hana Miletic, and Ser Serpas explore poetic abstraction in ways relevant to their mutual subject of the body and respective mediums. Risen from the materials of these artists’ fevered process, the painted and sculptural exquisite corpse still bears the inevitable scars of ordinary life.

Antenna Space, Shanghai

Until 16 October 2022

FRIEZE ART WEEK 2022

The fair is one of the world’s most influential contemporary art fairs, focusing only on contemporary art and living artists, and takes place each October in The Regent’s Park, in the heart of London. Taking place in The Regent’s Park, Frieze Art Week bringing together galleries from 42 countries, to celebrate the creative spirit of the city. Led by Eva Langret, Frieze London will feature over 160 of the world’s leading contemporary galleries. Frieze Masters, directed by Nathan Clements-Gillespie, will feature over 120 galleries, showing work from ancient to modern.

The Regent’s Park, London

Photo: Linda Nylind

Events

30.09.22

Until 12 November 2022

GROUNDWATERS: OUTSIDER PERSPECTIVES AND VISIONS OF ELSEWHERE

GROUNDWATERS brings together a collection of artworks made by a group of outsider individuals living and working in Malta. The exhibition unearths unique aesthetic logics as well as stories of pain, hope, survival and strength. It includes ex-voto paintings, West African Bocio fetish dolls and other objects which have their roots in religion, magic and ritual.

Valletta Contemporary 15, 16, 17 East Street Valletta, VLT 1253

Photo: Lisa Attard

28.10.22

Until 4 December 2022

INACTION IS A WEAPON OF MASS DESTRUCTION

Inaction is a Weapon of Mass Destruction is an art project meant to shed light on the mediatic processes utilised to spread information about war and its effects on the viewer. The work reflects the artist’s preoccupation with fabrication, editing and twisting of information people outside the conflict zone might be subjected to. The dangers arising from this are very serious as they might severely impact public opinion on matters of humanitarian aid and military intervention based on falsities or half-truths. The project is meant to provoke viewers by a number of analytical, ironic, and at times, cynical works based on factual, fictional images and theoretical work. Different experts from journalism, film, art, education and the military fields will also contribute to the project in a number of talks and workshops.

Spazju Kreattiv, Valletta / Kamra Ta’ Fuq, Mqabba

07.10.22

Until 9 January 2023

TENDER & MASCULINE

The exhibition unpacks the often complex debates on masculinities but does so from a queer standpoint. By pairing the word masculine with an adjective like tender, the provocation establishes a more nuanced and gentler approach to discussing masculinity. Rosa Kwir opened its doors in 2021, becoming the first queer-focused project space on the island. Replete with its own physical and digital archive, Rosa Kwir has also hosted various events over the year, including film screenings, workshops and live performances. Tender and Masculine is the culmination of a year-long programme supported by Arts Council Malta and the Melita Cable Foundation.

Rosa Kwir, Balzan

Photo: Niels Plotard

Until 31 October

ERROR CODE 8003

If an object only exists through its primary definition, what becomes of it when it is seen by a different, profane, alienated or alien gaze? This question, at the centre of R Gallery’s first exhibition Error Code 8003 ( id est Malfunction in the system) and is the common denominator between the works that Julien Vinet will present. In this multimedia solo exhibition, the artist pays homage to the imperfections in the beautiful as in the ugly to sublimate the object-subject. The textures, shapes, compositions offered by the artist invites us to dream, to engage in imaginative meditation and thereby rediscover the functions and functionalities of reused objects, connecting to the Camusian idea of changing archetypes to redefine an object.

R Gallery, Sliema

Photo: Lisa Attard