4 minute read
EXHIBITION new generation of Maltese architects on the state of the built environment
from Artpaper. #21
by Artpaper
December 2022 - February 2023
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MALTA
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.
ERICA GIUSTA
EXPERIMENTS IN ENTROPY:
An insight into what a new generation of Maltese architects has to say on the state of the built environment
The entropic life cycle of various architecture elements dominates and inspires the discourse led by Andrew Borg Wirth, curator and exhibiting architect, on what the role of the architect is, or should be, in the current Maltese context. Conceived as a group show, Experiments in Entropy is an experiment in itself, in the way it brings together 11 young professionals on the basis of their age and educational profile, therefore providing the audience with an unusual and accurate photograph of a very specific group, at this specific point in time, in Malta. In contrast with these specific premises, the spectrum of research topics tackled by the group appears very broad. Notions of progress, heritage, identity, authenticity and even animism are called upon and analysed, in some cases too eagerly, in others more effectively, by a series of sitespecific installations and other works. The ambitious choice of such layered and far-reaching topics must have rendered the exercise more challenging and the process even more enriching, at times even rambling. The common denominator that binds together all the outcomes is a great sense of urgency: from the ingenious reuse of limestone dust proposed by Suzi Mifsud to the accumulation of data which Nick Theuma presents as an opportunity to reflect on the tangible consequences of invisible processes that architects contribute to, and from the photographic documentation of what is regarded as progress that Lucia Calleja shares as a collection of postcards to “Arka”, the 1:1 scale portal that Felic Micallef constructs to beautifully criticize the current approach to the Maltese built heritage, all the pieces express the urgent need for new and tangible solutions to the overdevelopment currently vexing the island.
Common objects like the ubiquitous gold aluminum door, which Jean Ebejer repurposes as an invite to introspection, or organic elements like the ephemeral carpet of fine construction material laid by Matthew Scerri, take the visitor by surprise and encourage the questioning of current practices. The traditional dichotomy between eternity and temporality of architectural projects is rejected, and future transformations of built structures are imagined in a postanthropogenic scenario. Objet trouvé,
December 2022 - February 2023
MALTA
Continued
fragments, rubble and dust generated by the ever-growing construction frenzy are adopted as primary media of expression, with a few exceptions, including the sardonic cartoon by Isaac Buttigieg tackling the multifaceted role of the architect and the convoluted dynamics of decision-taking processes that it entails.
Every layer of every contribution conveys the intensity and the character of this great moment of crisis of the status quo. A “crisis” as a neutral moment of change which can develop positively does not seem possible anymore: nature and entropic processes of organic transformation are entrusted with the definition of a possible future. As Michele De Lucchi recently said while presenting “Satellite Stations”, a project for a series of structures made of natural materials and intended to be re-absorbed by nature, at La Triennale di Milano, «we have to seriously rethink what is destined to eternity and what needs to be consumed and reused in the short term. There are things which deserve to exist forever, and others which don’t. We have to identify what is what very quickly because we live in a sort of “exponential age” in which everything changes at an everincreasing fast pace. Many things should be preserved, and many others should be recycled». The group identified by Andrew Borg Wirth seems to align with the position of this representative of an international and, funnily enough, much older generation of architects, especially in the way they both look at entropic processes as a potential strategy to resist overdevelopment and take a radical stance against climate change.
How can time and decay become building materials? How can they be transformed into assets contributing to a new, truly sustainable design approach? How can this approach be then tested in the Maltese context, with all its peculiarities? Can the past be connected to potential futures? The exhibition successfully suggests relevant questions and will hopefully prompt many others. “Experiments in Entropy. Ten years ago I joined Architecture School”, curated by Andrew Borg Wirth and featuring works by Maria Azzopardi, Isaac Buttigieg, Kane Calì, Lucia Calleja, Jean Ebejer, Katrina Galea, Andrew Galea, Felic Micallef, Suzi Mifsud, Tracey Sammut, Matthew Scerri, Nick Theuma, Mike Zerafa, and Norbert Francis Attard is open at Valletta Contemporary (East Street, Valletta) until the 18th February 2023.
