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N E WS Venice: Artistic team chosen for Biennale Arte 2024
REVIEW London: Capturing the Moment at The Tate
EVEN T Malta: Mahalla Festival Beyond What Drifts Us Apart
€2.00 WHERE SOLD
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+ GABRIEL ZAMMIT
‘Unchecked’ by Stanley Donwood & Thom Yorke. Exhibition titled ‘The Crow Flies’ Part 2, 6-10 December at Tin Man Art, London. >> see page 15
THE THIRD WAY
In May earlier this year the artist Keit Bonnici walked on the steel barricades outside the parliament building at City Gate, Valletta. His performative intervention was positioned as an act of resistance and perceived as such in the press. But I find myself asking, aside from the radical and photogenic act of rule breaking, does it really work, and if so, how does it work? >> Page 19 E R I C A G I U S TA
DESIGN
Photo by Mikaela Burstow
Wonders of BETHLEHEM FEATURE Archiving, and taking digital versions of art, music, books, and films up to the moon INTERVIEW Catching up with CO-MA
NEWS Participating artists announced at the first
maltabiennale.art | MICAS meets the public with interesting press launch, discussions and unveiling of artworks by English artist Conrad Shawcross
EVENTS The Spring artistic programme at The Mill | The APS Mdina
Cathedral Contemporary Art Biennale
EXHIBITIONS British legends Stanley Donwood & Thom Yorke
exhibit their collaborative work in London | Sebastian Tanti Burlò’s latest solo exhibition at R Gallery | Narratives for Postmodern Love by Gabriel Buttigieg | That Other Place by Raphael Vella | Rebecca Bonaci explores and celebrates contemporary motherhood | A new exhibition by Fondazzjoni Patrimonju Malti at the Victor Pasmore Gallery
Erica Giusta visited Wonder Cabinet, a new cultural platform founded by Palestinian architects AAU Anastas, just a few days before the war broke out. >> Page 17
Photo by Elisa von Brockdorff
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Welcome / Team / Inside November - December 2023
Editor Lily Agius Advertising info@artpaper.press Graphic Designer Nicholas Cutajar Writers + Contributors Sarah Chircop Ryan Falzon Erica Giusta Lisa Gwen Margerita Pulè Maren Richter Kata Vizi Christine Xuereb Seidu Karsten Xuereb Gabriel Zammit Featured Artists Matthew Attard Rebecca Bonaci Keit Bonnici Gabriel Buttigieg Joyce Camilleri CO-MA Elena Degenhardt Stanley Donwood Ryan Falzon Anton Grech Shelden Saliba Sebastian Tanti Burlò Raphael Vella Thom Yorke
Museums + Galleries Jo Borg Gallery Christine X Curated Lily Agius Gallery MICAS R Gallery Society of Arts Spajzu Kreattiv The Mill Tate Modern, London Tin Man Art, London Unfinished Art Space Valletta Contemporary Victor Pasmore Gallery Wonder Cabinet, Palestine Supported by AP Valletta Babel Bistro BAS Malta Brands International Bo Concept Edwards Lowell Heritage Malta iLab Mercury Towers No.43 People & Skin The Arts Society Victor Pasmore Gallery VeeGeeBee Art Supplies Vivendo
“True art remains the magic amulet to amplify humanity and raise one to ecstasy” Prof. Richard England
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uddenly there seems to be a flurry of all sorts of art related events in Malta. There’s a resurgence of energy, a professing of ideas and an enactment of dreams. It is without a doubt a sensational thing to witness especially when we are seeing contemporary art at the forefront, with exhibitions, new art galleries and large-scale events on the horizon. It is only with consistent exposure to the arts that a healthy flow of ideas will come in its stead, and hopefully more talented artists will step forward to be part of it. There are many anticipated events coming our way that I hope everyone gets to experience, such as the ambitious maltabiennale.art launching this Spring that will bring international and local artists together in dialogue, expressing themselves through the exhibitions and events dotted across the islands. Finally, diverse contemporary art expressions will be brought to the Maltese, and the Maltese artist Matthew Attard will be representing Malta at The Venice Biennale 2024 – another exciting and historic event!
NEWS
EXHIBITIONS
09. NEW ART GALLERY Jo Borg Gallery, a space for emerging and established artists
09. THE MILL The Spring Programme by The Gabriel Caruana Foundation
12. VENICE BIENNALE 2024 Maltese artist Matthew Attard to represent Malta
10. NARRATIVES FOR POSTMODERN LOVE by Gabriel Buttigieg . 10. FROGA/ FARRAGO Sebastian Tanti Burlò’s latest solo at R Gallery . 11. GUF Rebecca Bonaci’s first solo exploring motherhood
12. MALTABIENNALE.ART 2024 National pavilions announced 15. APS MDINA CATHEDRAL CONTEMPORARY ART BIENNALE opens this November 16. MICAS inaugurates landmark exhibition
11. FAFU film premieres by Malta-based filmmakers about the environment
30. BEYOND WHAT DRIFTS US APART Reimagining one of the most representative and symbolic elements of Maltese history
15. THE CROW FLIES New paintings by Stanley Donwood & Thom Yorke in London
The Malta International Contemporary Art Space (MICAS) recently offered more insight into their developments and mindset with a well-attended conference and an inauguration of their first exhibition within the MICAS grounds. I cannot tell you how thrilled I am to see this project progress further - I’m sure that we are all anxious for their doors to finally fling open. Malta will soon have a large art space to enjoy inspiring contemporary art. I just hope that the programme of events and the art displayed will be in tune with what the public needs and ultimately be a main contributor to the cultural landscape of the community. A last note here is to all artists by Prof. Richard England for the first issue of Artpaper published in 2017: “Art is about skill, emotion, passion, dedication and resilience and also perhaps that magical touch of the inherited gene of creativity. True art remains the magic amulet to amplify humanity and raise one to ecstasy. Finally, bear in mind that when you will eventually fly, you will appear smaller to those who do not fly… so go ahead, fly, but remember to always remain an eternal student and never stop learning.”
16. IN SEARCH OF LINE A new exhibition at The Victor Pasmore Gallery 24. CAPTURING THE MOMENT at Tate Modern in London
INTERVIEWS 17. WONDERS OF BETHLEHEM The Wonder Cabinet founded by architects in Palestine 21. SKY’S THE LIMIT Archiving art in unconventional ways 24. LO SFUMATORE Catching up with the artist CO-MA
REVIEWS + PAST SHOWS 10. THAT OTHER PLACE by Raphael Vella at Valletta Contemporary 19. THE THIRD WAY Keit Bonnici’s ThirtySix Millimetre 26. LET’S AGREE TO DISAGREE Contemporary artists from Africa at Christine X 29. FROM TRADITION TO TRANSFORMATION Malta Society of Art’s legacy unwrapped
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News / Malta / The Mill / Jo Borg Gallery November - December 2023 MALTA
The SPRING Programme
at The Mill
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he Gabriel Caruana Foundation’s SPRING Programme for Emerging Artists is a versatile initiative designed to cater to artists’ unique needs. Comprising three interlinked facets - the Creative Process led by Elyse Tonna, the Artistic Programming overseen by Raffaella Zammit, and the Engagement Process guided by Martina Camilleri - it provides a comprehensive support structure. Tonna collaborates closely with artists to critically explore contemporary issues, developing thematic exhibitions. Zammit fosters values of care and collaboration through tailored activities. Camilleri facilitates dialogues and workshops,
expanding discourse on contemporary issues with the wider public. Together, these components foster artistic growth and community engagement within the SPRING Programme. For more information about the The Mill, Art, Culture and Crafts Centre in Birkirkara and the Gabriel Caruana Foundation’s artistic programme look up https://gabrielcaruanafoundation. org/events/. The SPRING Artistic Programme for Emerging Artists by the Gabriel Caruana Foundation is supported by Arts Council Malta. Synthetic Lands by Sheldon Saliba
MALTA
JO BORG GALLERY
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o Borg Gallery is a forum for emerging and established artists, aiming to develop an artist-centred legacy that values tradition, embraces innovation and reflects contemporary creative culture. This artist-led gallery translates itself into a platform for artists, whose work is showcased in a seminal year-long programme of exhibitions and events, contributing to transnational arts and culture ecosystems.
Jo Borg Gallery was inaugurated on the 26th October 2023 via an exhibition showcasing sculptures by Anton Grech and paintings by Joyce Camilleri. The general public is invited to contact Joyce Camilleri on info@joborggallery.com to set an appointment and view the selection of paintings and sculptures currently on show. Jo Borg Gallery, 281a, Manuel Dimech Street, Sliema. www.joborggallery.com
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News / Malta / Gabriel Buttigieg + Raphael Vella + Sebastian Tanti Burlò November - December 2023 MALTA
NARRATIVES FOR POSTMODERN LOVE An exhibition by Gabriel Buttigieg
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arratives for Postmodern Love presents an intimate collection of paintings in which the artist Gabriel Buttigieg unleashes deep emotions and a perspective on love in the 21st century.
“This collection of work crystallises how I feel about the joy, loss and pain of love, and all that’s associated with it: memory, nostalgia, terror, desire, anticipation, disappointment, pleasure, frustration. I feel that I have at last given form and colour to the notion that fuels my entire being - a fleeting glimpse of death waiting for us which feeds our instincts, and that is why we clutch madly at the life we have left.”
Narratives for Postmodern Love, curated by Lisa Gwen, takes place at The Splendid, Strait Street, Monday to Friday, 3 to 8pm, Saturday 10am to 4pm. This project is supported by The Splendid, Andre Gialanze Photography, DV Trading, Gemelli Framing and Funderija Artistika Chetcuti.
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hat Other Place brought together many politically charged works produced in the last ten years by Raphael Vella, including several recent pieces. The works ranged from large drawings on book-pages, to smaller collages that incorporated medical and surgical imagery, and three video animations with hundreds of frames.
kingdom of the well by exploring dehumanising myths and metaphors associated with the most infamous illnesses of modernity. Raphael Vella opened up a complex debate on representation to indicate a different plot of how we could imagine forms of curing in cultural, institutional and discursive spaces that are disruptive, unruly, intense, incompatible, contradictory or transforming. That Other Place was curated by Maren Richter and took place at Valletta Contemporary last October.
. FROGA/FARRAGO
Sebastian Tanti Burlò’s latest solo exhibition at R Gallery
. roga/Farrago, Sebastian Tanti Burlò’s latest solo exhibition, open until the 12 of November, presents a collection of oil paintings that build on Burlò’s expanding conversation with his perceived surroundings. The varying themes and aesthetics take us across .. the painter’s experiences living between Siggiewi, Florence, and London.
The saturated colours of the Mediterranean are ever present in his palette, evidence of his enduring connection to the island he loves. On this occasion, Burlò widens his commentary to global preoccupation, touching on the impending environmental catastrophe and the regression of democracy to the far-right. The works in this show are a tragicomedy between the romanticised memory of the island he was born to, and what society has become.
The farrago of paintings represent different parts of these experiences, divided into series of works . titled: Growing Gardens, Melitesia Mghaffga, Probable Headlines, and The Beheading of St.John (redux). The series lays bare Burlò’s distinct preoccupations and pleasures, unified through his flair for the absurd, his satirical strokes, and underlying subversive narrative.
Yet, beneath these bleak preoccupations, there exists beauty - in the gardens and countryside where Burlò grew up and spends most of his free time. In the joy of friendships grown through childhood adventures up trees, and the long summer meals and prolonged winter walks relished with friends and family. Items and settings depicted throughout the paintings are those closest to the artist. They represent totems to humanity’s incredible progression and the fragility with which it may all regress.
Known for his political cartoons published in the Times of Malta, here Burlò swaps his pen for the brush, retaining his unapologetic social commentary. .. Siggiewi Garden
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Solo Exhibition by Raphael Vella
The exhibition drew inspiration from Susan Sontag’s ‘citizens of that other place’ in her book, Illness as Metaphor. The other place refers to the kingdom of the ill, which she opposes to the
woman on woman on woman III
MALTA
That Other Place
. News / Malta / GUF + FaFu November - December 2023 MALTA
FaFu Photos by Lisa Attard
. GUF Rebecca Bonaci first solo exhibition, exploring and celebrating contemporary motherhood
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he cultural-historical and societal changes that has altered the social position of women over this vast timeframe, have also changed the cultural norms and expectations associated with motherhood. . Referencing the Maltese word for ‘womb’, GUF explores the theme of contemporary motherhood, informed by the rich prehistoric remains and rituals found in the Maltese archipelago. The iconography and imagery from the primordial period are reinterpreted by Bonaci and the curatorial team, with the artworks in dialogue with artefacts from the period as well as other contemporary objects. Bonaci also draws from her personal experience of family bonding, femininity, recent social history, child bearing and motherhood - presenting a dialogue between past and present.
The exhibition runs until the 2nd of December, at Space C, Spazju Kreattiv, Valletta. A curatorial walk and publication launch will be held on 15th November 2023. The exhibition is curated by Sarah Chircop and supported by Malta Arts Council Malta.
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actually For Future (FaFu) will be launched on day 3 of the Mahalla Festival, on the 26th of November, with a premiére of films made by Malta-based filmmakers, Leanne Lewis, Lorraine Lewis, Sandra Mifsud, Douglas Comley, Laura Piredda and Martina Vasallo. The films will discuss the importance of biodiversity and community-related projects to protect the environment. FaFu was developed within the frame of the InnovAir-Residency-Program of the Valletta Cultural Agency and the Valletta Design Cluster that took place in November and December 2022 by the Istanbul-based filmmakers and curators Sabine and Thomas Büsch.
The Premiere of the films will be launched on the 26th of November at Santa Marija tal-Angli. The Time will be announced soon. Take a look at the program of the Festival via this link http://mahalla.inenart.eu
OPEN FROM 12PM EVERY DAY
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News / Pavilion of Malta + Artistic team at Biennale Arte 2024 November - December 2023 VENICE
Biennale Arte 2024 Artist and curators selected for the Malta Pavilion at the Biennale Arte 2024
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altese artist Matthew Attard shall be representing Malta at the prestigious 60th International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia. This will be the first time that the national pavilion will be entrusted to one Maltese artist. The solo show, entitled I WILL FOLLOW THE SHIP and consisting of a new art commission weaving together cultural heritage and cutting-edge AI-driven technology, will be co-curated by Italian American curator Sara Dolfi Agostini and Maltese curator Elyse Tonna, both active in the Maltese art scene through several institutional collaborations. Established in 1895, La Biennale di Venezia, a platform for the exhibition of works by international artists, is today acknowledged as one of the most prestigious international cultural institutions for the presentation and promotion of contemporary art. The 60th edition of the Biennale di Venezia will open on 20th April 2024 and run until 24th November 2024.
The Sea: Linking Malta and Venice in a common destiny Matthew Attard’s project for the Malta Pavilion, I WILL FOLLOW THE SHIP, explores ideas of human existence and survival at the point of convergence between history and future, physical experience, and digital input. It originates from Attard’s latest explorations into AI and drawing technology, fused with his interest for historical images of ex-voto ship graffiti, vernacular iconographies which speak of ancient local tales of faith and salvation across the Mediterranean. Located on the facades of several wayside chapels on the islands, these ephemeral etchings in stone were possibly crafted by seafarers because of the religious significance and political immunity these buildings offered.
The meanings and values of these anonymous ship drawings reverberate in our present times, where computer technology and the internet have propelled mass artistic emancipation and overturned traditional local centers of power. This is the point of departure of Attard’s project for the Malta Pavilion, conceived to catalyse the attention of the spectator via technological devices which allow for digital interaction and collective speculative thinking about the future. In fact, the ship graffiti are unique to Malta, yet resonates with many cultures whose relationship with the sea has been - and still is crucial, as evidenced by Venice’s own such inscriptions. At a time of climate change, rising sea levels, and questions of people’s place in a hyper technological world, these humble marks of hope, root
metaphors deeply embedded in human consciousness, drift in the middle of the Pavilion to reveal what hides behind screens and beliefs. With I WILL FOLLOW THE SHIP, Attard presents a platform to discuss notions of authorship and image-making in art, all while critically rethinking forms of agency and cohabitation to navigate the uncharted waters of the information society. The 60th International Art Exhibition - La Biennale di Venezia - takes place in Venice, from the 20th of April until the 24th of November 2024. Preview: 17, 18, 19 April 2024. The Malta Pavilion taking place at The Arsenale is commissioned by Arts Council Malta.
maltabiennale.art 2024
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Matthew Attard, Adjacent details of a historical ship graffiti (left) and its eye-tracking drawing (right), 2021,Digital image, eye-tracking, data, 3D software. Courtesy Malta Pavilion 2024
National Pavilions Announced
he maltabiennale.art 2024 has announced the countries that have been selected to set up the national pavilions in the first ever biennale to be held in Malta: Austria, China, France, Germany, Italy, Malta, Palestine, Poland, Serbia, Spain, Turkey and Ukraine.
Members of the international press were shown round the historical and archaeological sites that will host the Central Pavilion and the National/Thematic Pavilions, including the Grandmaster’s Palace, Underground . Valletta and Ggantija Archaeological Park in Gozo. These sites characterise the Maltese islands’ expansive historic heritage encompassing seven thousand, two hundred and twenty-three years of civilisation and provide the perfect backdrop . . . for the main theme of maltabiennale.art: Bahar Abjad Imsagar taz-Zebbug (White Sea Olive Groves.) “These sites and symbols of Maltese history and Mediterranean civilisation are not mere locations for intervention; no urban environment, let alone a cultural treasure
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steeped in history, is ever neutral and silent”, says the Artistic Director, Sofia Baldi Pighi. Thus, the contemporary artists who will be exhibiting in these venues, must rebuild an intimate relationship with these locations. “To envision the first edition of the biennale in such an ancient land necessitates working in tandem with its history.” One of the unique aspects of the biennale is its targeting of specific microcommunities that are often excluded from traditional museum experiences. The programme will go beyond art exhibitions by individual artists and national pavilions, and will include workshops, interactive performance, organic gatherings, interdisciplinary masterclasses, intimate activities, community initiatives and cinema programming in an effort to bridge the gap between contemporary art and a non-sector audience, fostering an inclusive and intergenerational approach. For more information and updates log onto www.maltabiennale.art
Spotlight / Malta / Fever’s Candlelight Concert Series November - December 2023 MALTA
FEVER’S CANDLELIGHT CONCERT SERIES
Following the success achieved in more than 150 cities worldwide, this live, multi-sensory musical experience comes to Malta
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ever, the live-entertainment discovery platform known for helping millions of people find the best experiences in their cities, are bringing Candlelight Concerts to Malta, kicking off with performances in tribute to Vivaldi’s Four
Seasons, Queen and Hans Zimmer’s best works. The expansion into the region comes on the heels of the experience’s success, having delighted audiences in more than 150 cities worldwide, including Madrid, Paris, New York and London.
The first concerts will see Malta’s most iconic hotel The Phoenicia Malta, illuminated by thousands of candles, allowing viewers to fully immerse themselves in an adapted program. Candlelight Concerts are a series of original music concerts created by Fever aimed at democratizing access to classical music by allowing people all over the world to enjoy live music candlelit performances played by local musicians in various stunning locations illuminated by thousands of candles. This concept is known to take classical performances out of their usual concert halls and into unique venues that form part of each city’s cultural heritage. Launched in 2019, Candlelight concerts have already been held in unique locations, including the Atomium (Brussels), Tour Eiffel (Paris), Burj Al Arab Jumeirah (Dubai), and many more across America, Oceania, Europe, the Middle East and Asia.
featuring works from the greatest composers, such as Vivaldi, Mozart, and Chopin. Now, the ever-growing list of programs includes a wide variety of themes and genres, including tributes to contemporary artists like Queen, ABBA, Coldplay, and Ed Sheeran, as well as shows dedicated to K-Pop, movie soundtracks and many more. This multisensory experience has also evolved to feature different elements, such as ballet dancers or aerial performers, as well as other genres, such as jazz, soul, opera, flamenco and more. Candlelight: A Tribute to Queen December 29th at 19:00 and 21:00 Candlelight: The best of Vivaldi December 30th at 19:00 Candlelight: The best of Hans Zimmer December 30th at 21:00 Tickets available on www.feverup.com; starting at €38
Candlelight was initially conceived as a classical music series with concerts
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News / Tin Man Art + APS Mdina Cathedral November - December 2023 LONDON
THE CROW FLIES An exhibition of new paintings by Stanley Donwood & Thom Yorke
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series of new large-scale paintings co-created by Stanley Donwood and Thom Yorke will be presented by TIN MAN ART in a two-part exhibition, the first of which is in September, with a follow up at the end of the year. The Crow Flies marks an important moment in the duo’s 30-year association, with a series of artworks that were made by both artists literally side-by-side, painting at the same time. This new style of artistic collaboration was first born out of last year’s critically acclaimed debut album A Light for Attracting Attention from The Smile, a new band comprising Thom Yorke, fellow Radiohead bandmate and film composer Jonny Greenwood and jazz drummer and member of Sons of Kemet, Tom Skinner. Having first met Yorke when they were both art students, Stanley Donwood has provided the artwork for all of Radiohead’s albums and materials since 1995’s The Bends. His iconic paintings provide the first visual foray into Yorke’s music, both throughout the musician’s solo career and with his various band projects. Beginning in 2021, Donwood and Yorke worked on these paintings while The Smile conceived, recorded and performed its debut album. In a complete example of co-creation, both artists worked on the canvases physically at the same time, often in a tiny studio setting. This differs from
previous approaches, in which their artistic dialogue usually took place via faxes and notes. As well as providing album art, these sessions ultimately spanned two years and produced over 20 works that will now be exhibited to the public for the first time. The artwork itself is closely linked with The Smile’s genesis. The band’s name is taken from Ted Hughes’s seminal poetry collection Crow, which also inspired the paintings and title of the exhibition. During the pandemic - when the public first became aware of Yorke’s new musical project - the accompanying artwork and animations that were posted with each new single became a source of speculation amongst fans, as they pored over hints and possible revelations regarding the forthcoming album. Part of an on-going decades-long collaboration between the pair, this body of work draws on a fascination with maps and topography that can be seen from album artwork of 20 years ago; Radiohead’s Hail to the Thief (2003). Inspired by, among others 17th-century maps by Persian pirates, early drawings of the British Isles, and US military charts from the 1960s, Donwood and Yorke began their own versions. At first the pair drew objects from the album’s lyrics to serve as a potential map legend, where symbol and text explain to the viewer what the map is showing. This approach was later discarded in favour of a more abstract technique, but some drawings can still be made out under layers of paint.
The process of map-making has also inspired this new series. Techniques of drawing and painting on vellum (calfskin) that were commonly used in historic map-making have led to a difference in approach, eschewing the digital processing that has categorised much of their previous work. Waterbased gouache, egg tempera and powdered mushroom have been favoured over acrylic. The works are also considerably lighter in tone, a departure from earlier work such as Kid A Mnesia, with explosions of blue and a focus on gold, again influenced by the gold-leaf paint of centuries-old maps. Reflecting on these materials, Yorke likened the art sessions to the process of making music, saying “that was what I found incredibly exciting. It just stays active for so long… I became so conscious of the fact that the two processes are almost exactly the same”. Observing the similarities between music-making and art production, they have also both referred to themselves as a ‘two-piece’, working side by side and responding to each other’s work in real time. In this new method of working, the editing process is effectively withdrawn, but the paintings retain the familiar motifs and thematic elements that run throughout their artistic collaboration. From the stylised mountain backgrounds of Kid A (2000), to the twisted branches of The King of Limbs (2011), and the winding river-like roads of OK Computer (1997), The Crow Flies is a continuation of a journey into a visual dreamlike landscape that has been charted for almost 30 years. The exhibition will also include a Flemish woven tapestry of one of the key paintings, commissioned by the
artists to celebrate the album’s one-year anniversary. With over 20 works to include, the series is being exhibited in two parts. James Elwes, TIN MAN ART Director, says: “Stanley Donwood and Thom Yorke’s 30-year artistic partnership has been culturally groundbreaking - and ‘The Crow Flies’ marks a momentous new chapter for them. This two-part exhibition showcases that rarest of achievements: pure co-creation. The paintings, sublime illustrations of technical and mental virtuosity, are the result of two artists working together to build worlds in gouache and gold. At a time of deep discord, this show reminds us of the awesome power of collaboration and the oft-misused term ‘genius’.” ‘The Crow Flies’ is shown two parts. The first part was presented between the 6th and the 10th of September. Part Two will take place between the 6th and the 10th of December, at Tin Man Art, 4 Cromwell Place, London SW7 2JE, Wednesday to Saturday 11am to 7pm and Sunday 11am to 4pm. For enquiries visit: www.tinmanart.com
MALTA
APS MDINA CATHEDRAL CONTEMPORARY ART BIENNALE The 2023 edition of the APS Mdina Cathedral Contemporary Art Biennale, under the artistic direction of Giuseppe Schembri Bonaci, will transform the Mdina Cathedral Museum into a space for contemporary dialogue on the Mediterranean region, weaving mythology, politics, and identity together through international artistic projects. The theme ‘Mediterranean Goddesses’ deals with notions of spirituality and fertility, and how harkening back to divinity can provide a strong aesthetic
reply to the political and climactic issues of our age. The format presents an evolution on previous editions of the APS Mdina Biennale that explored notions of the Mediterranean as expressed through art and artistic dialogues with our ongoing environmental crisis. Contemporary artists from across the world will be displaying works that engage with this theme, positing their own aesthetic reply to the perpetual relevance of the Mediterranean and her Goddesses.
For the 2023 edition, the APS Mdina Biennale is collaborating with the ‘Changing Gear’ research project. An international conference focusing on Mediterranean modern art will be held on November 28th at the Mdina Cathedral Museum, offering an opportunity for academics, researchers, and artists to engage with the art historical and theoretical issues surrounding the theme.
The exhibition, titled Mediterranean Goddesses, will be open to the public from the 14th of November until the 15th of December 15th, 2023 at The Mdina Cathedral Museum. www.mdinabiennale.com
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News / Malta / Victor Pasmore Gallery + MICAS November - December 2023 MALTA
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ow showing at the Victor Pasmore Gallery, IN SEARCH OF LINE is Fondazzjoni Patrimonju Malti’s latest exhibition which explores the nature of the line and how it has manifested itself over time, a subject that has challenged, inspired, and intrigued artists over many centuries. Through this selection of works, mostly of Maltese twentieth-century artists, as well as some works from the Victor Pasmore collection, the exhibition, designed by FPM Creative Director Michael Lowell and curated by Sarah Chircop, also from FPM, dives deep into the artists’ drive to create and represent images, meanings, and emotions through line. A fully illustrated exhibition catalogue accompanies the exhibition, featuring essays by prominent artists, art writers, and philosophers, including Matthew Attard, Robert Brewer Young, Vince Briffa, Richard England, Giulia Privitelli, and Michael Zammit. The reflective, poetic piece penned by the curator, introduces the three main sections of the catalogue—the line’s
this exhibition. They are displayed together in a cube format and are accompanied by a soundscape, whereby the visitor is invited not just to look at Pasmore’s lines, but also to listen to their movement, their story. This is a subject that Pasmore developed and executed in various media—drawing, paint, prints—over many years, experimenting with the rhythms and sounds of abstract painting that he referred to as ‘visual music’.
manifestation in invention, gesture, and movement—which, in turn, correspond to the flow of the exhibition itself. The point-form structure and seemingly fragmented ideas, gradually combine into a consistent narrative, deepened by the essays of the various authors, each written with an independent rhythm inspired by the highlighted artwork. Inviting, yet inconclusive, these essays are intended to act as guides, mere signposts, along an imaginative, visual, sensorial journey in search of the
concept, expression, and legacy of line, through stunning examples of Maltese art history. Victor Pasmore, known as the father of British Abstraction, was a pioneer of the abstract art movement in Britain and a leading figure in its development. Moving from figurative painting to constructivism and on to abstraction, Pasmore found the latter to be the truest form of expression. Five of Pasmore’s Linear Symphonies form part of
The Victor Pasmore Gallery, under FPM’s management and previously housed at the Polverista Gallery at the Central Bank of Malta, in Valletta, has been closed since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic in March 2020. FPM’s new premises at APS House, 275, St Paul Street, Valletta, were inaugurated on 30 September 2023, with the launch of the current exhibition. These premises will also be the permanent home of the Victor Pasmore collection, scheduled to open to the public in 2024. IN SEARCH OF LINE runs until 14 January 2024. For more information visit www.victorpasmoregallery.com
MALTA
MICAS INAUGURATES Landmark Art Exhibition The Malta International Contemporary Art Space (MICAS) reached a significant milestone in its journey by inaugurating its first art exhibition, What is to become is already here, by the renowned British contemporary artist, Conrad Shawcross, right on the MICAS site. The event unfolded against the backdrop of the historic military architecture of the Ospizio, marking the launch of the fifth edition of the MICAS International Art Weekend in 2023. MICAS worked closely with Shawcross to curate the exhibition, featuring his artworks throughout the site. “What is to become is already here” comprises three distinct bodies of work and alludes to the essence of MICAS itself – a prelude to the future as it readies for its official opening while existing within
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the historical fortifications that have stood for centuries. The MICAS International Art Weekend 2023 attracted a remarkable international audience and continued with a lecture by the renowned American Director of Museums, Timothy Rub. The lecture centered on the responsibility of museums to support continuity and change, followed by a panel discussion moderated by Artistic Director Edith Devaney. The panel included Timothy Rub, Waqas Wajahat, Conrad Shawcross, and Dr. Georgina Portelli. The weekend’s events demonstrated MICAS’s commitment to promoting contemporary art and fostering international connections within the art world.
Conrad Shawcross, The Dappled Light of the Sun (Formation I)
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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.
Architecture /Palestine November - December 2023
PALESTINE
ERICA GIUSTA
Wonders of BETHLEHEM Erica Giusta visited Wonder Cabinet, a new cultural platform founded by Palestinian architects AAU Anastas, just a few days before the war broke out.
E
arlier this year, in May, architects and designers Elias and Yousef Anastas inaugurated what they described as “a space for art production, cultural development and neighborhood transformation”, perched on a plot of land overlooking a beautiful natural valley split in two by the Israeli West Bank barrier, just outside Bethlehem. I was lucky enough to visit the space a few days before the current Israeli-Palestinian conflict broke out, and to experience an atmosphere of openness and vivacity which now feels painfully remote. If on the one hand, writing about a cultural and architectural project at this time of devastation feels
almost trivial, on the other hand, it is perhaps now more important than ever to shed light on the resilience of Palestinian identity, and on some of its most innovatory aspects. Wonder Cabinet is an extraordinary example of both: as a container and incubator of ‘stories’, and as a building whose spatial and formal qualities represent the spirit of a community striving for independence and collaboration. Like a contemporary version of a traditional cabinet of curiosities, the raw concrete volume housing Wonder Cabinet amazes the visitor with its unusual appearance first, challenging the colonial British mandate-era policies which require all buildings to be faced in stone, and, once inside, with its diverse collection of stories. These are collected, amplified and sometimes initiated by the Anastas brothers, in an effort to explore Middle-eastern cultural richness and its great potential for cross-fertilization with other cultures, whose tangible results take different forms: dj sets, tasting menus, handcrafted objects, yoga classes, workshops, international architectural collaborations - just to mention a few examples. The structure is purposely flexible in order to accommodate a programme which brings together different creative sectors. The founders’ own architectural practice, a small concept store and a multipurpose events space sit on the top floor, while the station of Radio Alhara, founded by the Anastas brothers with a group of friends in March 2020, and a bar-restaurant with international chefs in residence enliven the first floor. The ground floor is the testing ground for the most experimental cultural productions, and it will soon house the manufacturing facilities of Local Industries, the product design offshoot
Photos by Mikaela Burstow
of AAU Anastas inspired by the skills of local artisans working with a distinctive ‘non-nostalgic approach’. In the wake of the conflict, Radio Alhara teamed up with a group of artists and other local stations to promote a 12 hours mixtape titled ‘Learn Palestine’, made of songs, lectures, interviews and discussions involving a number of scholars and musicians, as a reaction to the current misinformation and misrepresentation of Palestine, and in line with the self-determining, cooperative and international spirit of the Anastas brothers. While very grounded into the local scene and genuinely communitydriven, the non-profit cultural association Wonder Cabinet manages to reach an international audience and, most importantly, to dissolve stereotypical aspects of Arab tropes, therefore contributing to shaping the cultural evolution of Bethlehem and of the whole region.
In a recent interview, Elias Anastas said that “Wonder Cabinet is also a reaction to Palestine. We invite people to come and produce out of Palestine instead of just constantly looking at Palestine.” At this time of conflict and uncertainty, his words echo as more than an invite to explore the Palestinian cultural landscape. They now sound like a timely reminder of the importance of listening to voices other than ‘the dominant voice, which has historically been a singular, exclusive voice, whose reach and power ignores huge swathes of humanity — financially, creatively, conceptually’ as Ghanain-British curator Lesley Lokko stated at the opening of the ongoing Venice Architecture Biennale. Wonder Cabinet is home to a fascinating, powerful and polyphonic voice, listen to it. https://wondercabinet.space/ https://www.radioalhara.net/
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GABRIEL ZAMMIT is a curator, writer and creative producer. He works both independently and with institutions. He has a background in philosophy and art theory. His interest lies in art as a tool capable of investigating the edges of human experience.
Review /Performance / Installation November - December 2023 MALTA
I
n May earlier this year the artist Keit Bonnici walked on the steel barricades outside the parliament building at city gate, Valletta. His performative intervention was positioned as an act of resistance, and also perceived as such in the press. But I find myself asking, aside from the radical and photogenic act of rule breaking, does it really work, and if so, how does it work? The piece played out across various platforms, Bonnici began to tease the idea of his performance on social media from before the act itself (this only became apparent in retrospect) and then, with no fanfare at all (I wasn’t aware of the performance until after it happened), gathered a small group of friends and walked on the 36 mm wide steel-pipe bars of the barricades which, since the protests in 2019 that led to Joseph Muscat’s resignation, have remained outside our parliament building. Bonnici was aided by a modified palju (a Maltese traditional hand fan) and a small wooden ladder that he used to climb onto the barricade. Both the palju and the ladder were made by the artist himself and the performance was followed by several posts on Bonnici’s social media feeds, as well as an exhibition, detailing fragments of his process and teasing out the conceptual foundations that drove the work. I think the piece was incredibly moving and beautiful in its vulnerability, although not entirely beyond critique. Let me explain. The juxtaposition of a fragile human body suspended on cold steel, framed by the hulking mass of the parliament building at dusk, is an image that remains seared onto the surface of my brain. The delicate palju, an artefact from an old Malta that is being mourned, became a funeral lamentation but also, through the palju’s reinvention - a scrappy reshaping and repurposing - a powerful message of hope that bypasses the usual nostalgia-soaked invocation of timesgone-by, alluding to possible futures, rather than an irretrievable past. This is further emphasised by the fact that the artist collaborated with his “crafty mum” to make the palju. The steel barricades have been placed outside parliament to halt discourse, creating an adversarial environment outside the house of the people, designed flatten conversation into
GABRIEL ZAMMIT
THE THIRD WAY
KEIT BONNICI’S THIRTY-SIX MILLIMETRE
ACM is an arms-length institution, but it is no secret that it is subject to the usual political string-pulling. At the same time though, without the Council’s and therefore the government’s support, the art world in Malta would not be what it is, both on the macro and micro scales. The funds it metes out are mainly taxpayer funds anyway, and they enable projects in a very real way, my own included, so I can’t see a clear link between political machinations that happen behind closed doors and independent projects of this scale. In material terms I don’t feel it is an issue. However, the question hangs in my mind unresolved, and I don’t have an answer, because in non-material terms it is not nothing. Bonnici’s work can be contextualised within a group of loosely organised individuals creating ‘anti-system’ art that looks for alternative ways of looking at the world.
dualities. What the barriers represent is the lack of nuance in politics and identity that has grown within the Maltese system. They were placed there to protect corrupt politicians from rioting mobs at a time when it had become obvious that the government had lost its legitimacy to govern the country. The barriers split the terms of the contest in two - you’re either on one side or the other, blue or red, supporter or protester. Keit’s performance enacts a narrative rewriting that echoes out beyond the artwork. Suddenly, within the context of the current contemporary landscape, where we don’t have any clear solid alternatives, Bonnici and his objects subvert this dualising force and create a new possibility. The steel barriered space is forced to bend to the will of the trickster artist. By treating the barriers as a game and teetering along them Bonnici finds a loophole that reorganises the space around a third way - that of being in-between - and the dichotomy is broken. Thirty-six Millimetre shows us that it is possible to take back our spaces, places, and objects in a radical way which, assuredly but humorously, creates nuance and pushes against the will of an architecture hell-bent on control, all we need to do is find third possibilities within systems that appear to be closed.
It is fortunate that Thirty-six Millimetre has this constructive drive at its heart, because the message put forth (especially on social media) can become moralistic at times; “we all belong here./ You bought the metal” Bonnici writes in one of his posts. The angry tone adds nothing to the work that is not already present in some other form, and its cool criticality is ruptured at this juncture, becoming reactionary and didactic. In his post Bonnici claims a position apart from the wider ‘you’, drawing the work into its own hermetic world of the privileged ‘I’. This would not ordinarily be a problem, but within the context of a work that has democratisation at its heart, it becomes one. The project was also funded by Arts Council Malta, and there is an obvious question that immediately comes to mind - is it a compromise for a project with a powerfully critical edge to be funded by an arm of the government which it critiques? Knowing Bonnici the piece would have happened anyway, funding or no funding, and there is no doubt in my mind that the money he received did not influence his decision making. But on a less tangible level the work is sanctioned and therefore claimed by an institution that is within the sphere of Bonnici’s critique.
Romeo Roxman Gatt, and Tom van Malderen, for example, who, each in their own distinct way look for little glitches within the systems that enable and constrain us, playfully subverting social norms and questioning hidden power structures. More directly correlated to Bonnici’s work is Florinda Camilleri’s movement project that reclaimed Castille Square in 2022 and looked to non-human perspectives for new possibilities of being in public space. There are many more artists who I could mention here, but the purpose of placing Bonnici’s work within this group is to characterise, in very general terms, a way of thinking that has developed within the contemporary Maltese cultural landscape and which uses rule breaking as a form of meaning making. Thirty-six Millimetre functions via an oblique beauty and a logic of paradox that makes barriers porous (literally) and solidifies contradictions into a meaningful act. It does not fall into the trap of cynicism or dualism and uses materials, craft, and mischievousness to find loopholes for creating a new middle ground by subverting power against itself. The work brings a moment of intimacy to a reality that radiates alienation, and it acts as a beacon of hope for what art can deliver by way of creating new possibilities where there appear to be none. We can all learn from Bonnici’s work.
Does this change it?
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Exhibition / International / Lunar Codex November - December 2023 GLOBAL
CHRISTINE XUEREB SEIDU
SKY’S THE LIMIT:
Archiving Art Matters to honour artists who have found time to dream despite wars, pandemics and climate change. It was his dream of going to the moon and he wanted to share that dream with artists from 161 countries whose works he loves by archiving their works in the sky, at various points on the moon. Comprising of four time capsules named the Orion Collection (which was launched into space as part of the Artemis 1 mission, from November 16th to December 11, 2022), the Nova Collection (which will launch to the lunar Southern Hemisphere from November 15-20th 2023), the Peregrine Collection (which will launch to Sinus Viscositatis some time in December 2023) and the Polaris Collection (which will launch to the Nobile Crater in the Lunar South Pole in November 2024). The Lunar Codex uses digital and analog technology to preserve the art, books, music and more. The primary technology used for the Neon and Polaris time capsules is NanoFiche
Portrait of Elena Degenhardt with Salvation in the background. Photo Courtesy of the artist
A
rchiving art has long been talked about in the art world. And it’s not only physical, tangible works of art. Richard Rinehart, director of digital media for the Berkeley Museum and Pacific Film Archive, finds that we are in a race against technological obsolescence for digital art too, adding (in a ’Wired’ interview dating 2002) that ‘It’s no longer about storage. It’s about preserving intent, rather than bits or bricks …It’s about collecting the authority and experience to recognise an artwork in a medium that hasn’t existed yet. That’s a pretty radical step.” Talking of radical steps, fast forward 21 years and we are now seeing Canadian physicist, international best selling author and art collector Dr Samuel Peralta ‘s Lunar Codex project taking digital versions of art, music, books and films up to the moon. Dr Samuel Peralta has sent one and will be sending three more cultural time capsules with the work of tens of thousands of artists, writers, filmmakers and musicians he has selected, to the moon. His intention was Image used under license from Shutterstock.com
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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.
but full of fear of its passing and so I try to freeze a moment in time through my art. Having my artworks archived in a time capsule on the moon is probably the best way make the ephemeral permanent”she said.
analog technology which is used for the first time ever for this archive. It is capable of storing orders of magnitude in the same space as microfiche, being waterproof, of near-zero degradation factor and being able to last hundreds of thousands of years, dubbing it a ‘million -year archive’, whilst also having the highest density storage media in the world. The primary storage technology used for the Orion Collection was digital non-volatile memory cards which could record large amounts of data with a very small weight profile. Stacked analogdigital technology is also being used, for the third time capsule Polaris. Layers of nickel shielding NanoFiche memory discs and digital memory cards also optimize capacity and ensure archival longevity. We spoke with Elena Degenhardt who lived in Malta for a few years and who is now currently based in Cannes, France. She was one of the artists chosen for this project and whose 12 works, including ‘An Ego Dissolved …’, ‘Youth II’ , ‘Paper Birds’ and self portrait ‘Breaking Point’, which document the Covid-19 pandemic as it was experienced by different age and gender groups, are part of this project. Elena told me, when asked what this project meant to her, “One day I will no longer be here, maybe the originals of my paintings will disappear but the exact copies of these works will live on
So how did Dr Samuel Peralta find all these artists, I ask? In the summer of 2020, PoetsArtists, an internationally renowned art community Elena Degenhardt is a member of, announced an exhibition call as a direct response to the pandemic, seeking works that evoked the feelings of shelter, comfort and safety. The curator was Dr Samuel Peralta. The exhibition “Shelter” was published on ARTSY (since all physical galleries and museums were closed back then). All the works in the ‘Shelter’ exhibition were included in the Lunar Codex project and its only catalogue will be the one on the moon.
An ego dissolved in blue over the landscape by Elena Degenhardt. Photo Courtesy of the artist
Find out more about thjs project on https://www.lunarcodex.com/ When considering ways to archive your artworks, remember that sky’s the limit, literally.
in space. My parents used to have a home telescope and as a child I spent hours looking at the moon, absolutely mesmerised by its shapes and the idea of the infinity of the universe. I still am. This is one of the reasons why the sea is at the centre of my art. With its reflective surfaces and fascinating depths, I see it as a reflection of the sky and the universe, a tangible universe. The thought that a part of me will live on in space is quite surreal but also beautiful’. I learnt that although this is the first time artworks were being taken to the moon within the past 50 years, it’s also the first project to bring works by female artists to the lunar surface. This deepens the relevance of her participation in this project because, in her words, “many of my portraits and figurative underwater works process my own but also other women’s experiences in the society that places high and sometimes controversial demands on women in their professional and private lives.” “No matter what I paint or draw, it is the ephemeral, the fleeting, the fragile that interests me in my painting subject, either it’s constantly moving waters, water reflections, fading light or a person in a transitional age or state of mind. I am fascinated by time
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Interview / CO-MA November - December 2023 MALTA
LISA GWEN
Lo sfumatore S
fumato. Sfumature.
Sfumare.
Italian can be such a poetically seductive and suggestive language.
[sfu’ma:to] Say it... softly. As though it were a whisper; a secret to be disclosed in the lowest of decibles. Barely audible. Decidedly alluring. This word, (and its derivations) above all others perhaps, best describes COMA’s painting. This word is purposeful. Meaningful. And it is not one to have been callously selected. Coined during the Renaissance period, the sfumato describes a painting technique which denotes a softening of colour, medium or pigment, almost like a gentle blurring that adds contour to shape and line. Leonardo da Vinci, the most prominent painter to adopt the sfumato technique, described it as “without lines or borders, in the manner of smoke”. CO-MA’s work, although distinctly contemporary, harks back to the Old Masters in more ways than one. Not only is his meticulous technique for shading and blending, reminiscent of the Italian fathers of the Renaissance, yet his ideal of beauty, and his portrayals of the female form, most especially in portraiture, retain that undying
Now I Can See
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LISA GWEN holds a first degree in History of Art and a Masters in Cultural Heritage Management. She is a freelance curator and writer for art and design events.
As the work he produces is grounded in a lot more complexity. His penchant for non-colour, and the strong shadows dominating the faces and features of his figures possess hints of the art deco period, or even film noir. His bodies, on the other hand, have a quasi sculptural quality; quite uncannily, he successfully mimics the tactility of marble – a quality achieved by combining the texture of the surface material with the medium of charcoal in order to achieve a quasi iridescence, which is quite haunting when viewed up close. Because that is how CO-MA’s work has to be seen. Up close, and then from a distance, and then up close again, if only to reassure your eyes of the incredulity which beholds them.
Fragments Series 01
flavour of timelessness and unfaltering classicism which seemed so effortless in the 15th century. Yet, contrary to the Old Italian Masters, CO-MA does not merely idealise his figures by beautifying them, he takes it a step further; he is, perhaps somewhat secretly, a master manipulator… for, none of his ‘sitters’ are real; each one is literally a figment of his imagination; he ‘handpicks’ features, body parts, from various found images, and amalgamates, juxtaposes, enhances them. These figures are combines, collages, hybrids, if you will. Fictitious, yet somehow, familiar. Because, it is this familiarity which makes them so attractive; it’s almost as though we’ve seen them before, in another lifetime, in another era – just not as raw and bare, or unclothed; decidedly not tattooed, nor captured unabashedly sighing with pleasure.
are tenebrous portraits; they are obscure, sensual… nocturnal creatures given form through repeatedly soft brushstrokes. However, to simply classify CO-MA’s work as being indebted to these old masters, would be somewhat facetious.
Since his debut show, not even two years ago (December 2021), there have been a number of significant progressions in CO-MAs work. He no longer seems (as) intent with masking or displacing his figures or even shielding their eyes; their faces and features are there to be admired in their full glory; every cheekbone, every cleft chin, every eyelash, and every pained expression. In fact, most of his figures seem to outwardly display an internal anguish of sorts. Ghost (2023), is perhaps the most haunting of his recent works. One can’t help draw comparison to the stoic stance of the Mona Lisa; yet there is no mystery with CO-MAs Ghost; there is no hint of a smile at the corners of her mouth and lips, she’s barely engaging with the
viewer; she’s demure, ambivalent… yet entirely bewitching. Sitters generally agree to having their portraits painted. Unless one captures a snapshot, and executes a painting surreptitiously, there is an understood consensus behind the process. In this case, the sitters are all unknowns, they are all evocations, given ‘corporeality’ by the artist. The words of Oscar Wilde (The Picture of Dorian Gray) come to mind: “every portrait that is painted with feeling is a portrait of the artist, not of the sitter. The sitter is merely the accident, the occasion. It is not he who is revealed by the painter; it is rather the painter who, on the coloured canvas, reveals himself.” And what if the sitter is completely fictitious? Doesn’t the painting become a complete reflection of the self, in some form or other? The enigma shrouding each of his figures is the same in which the artist shrouds himself. He with no name; just a persona. Perhaps these paintings are a bold expression of admiration, yet also, of criticism towards the dwindling and lacking values of femininity and feminism. And yet, it’s done with such subtlety, such ability – much like his use of the sfumato technique - that it is barely detectable. Yet so obviously there. CO-MA will be exhibiting in London and Denver, in 2024. More info on: https://www.coma-artist.com/
CO-MA also incorporates the archetypes upheld by northern masters during this period in art history; the same masters who ‘popularised’ the psychological or the occupational portrait above the more traditional and conservative status portrait. Yet his genre deserves a ‘title’ of its own; his sitters are fantastical, completely conjured, quasi cyborg (in more than one instance), their enigmatism omnipresent. These First Flight
Resurrection
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Exhibition / London / Tate Modern November - December 2023 LONDON
K ATA V I Z I
CAPTURING THE
I
Moment
n the year 1850, in his journal, the Romantic painter Delacroix mused over a freshly taken daguerreotype of a faraway heavenly body, created with starlight which had been travelling in space long before Daguerre himself had invented his camera. The painter’s reflections on light and images are made poignant in retrospect, in view of the changes that would unfold in the following decades, the growing significance of photography and its impact on visual arts.
Tate Modern’s current thematic exhibition Capturing the Moment (open until 28th January 2024) focuses on the complex interaction and potential convergence of photography and painting, presenting artworks in eight rooms. Instead of taking a strictly historical or chronological approach, the show puts under scrutiny some points of encounter of the two mediums avoiding over-representing either. The main themes could be listed as composition, the physical qualities of the respective mediums, the ephemeral being captured or the mere illusion of the same.
David Hockney Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures), 1972. © David Hockney Photo Art Gallery of New South Wales Jenni Carter
The research behind the exhibition made explicit only goes back as far as the twentieth century and among the many quotes scattered around on the walls, one of the first is by Picasso, welcoming painters’ ‘newly acquired liberty’ gained through the appearance of the camera. The ensuing freedom of experimentation is showcased through painted portraits by Lucian Freud, Francis Bacon and Picasso himself sharing the space with Dorothea Lange’s photographed Migrant Mother (1936). A similar artistic independence is demonstrated through contemporary artist George Condo’s portraiture under the possible label of ‘psychological Cubism’. One protagonist of the exhibition is Jeff Wall, with his large-scale colour transparency mounted in a lightbox, A Sudden Gust of Wind (after Hokusai) (1993). Here, it is photography, or, Paula Rego, War 2003. © Paula Rego. Image © Tate (Oliver Cowling)
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more precisely, meticulously compiled, digitally manipulated image-making that has been inspired by a nineteenthcentury Japanese woodblock print, creating tension between the apparent capture of the moment and an obsessively implemented composition. A different kind of tension is generated by the recreation of Veloso Salgado’s orientalist painting The Arrival of Vasco da Gama (2014) as a photographic tableau by Bangalore-based artist Pushpamala N, casting herself in the role of the European explorer. Thomas Struth’s museum photographs, where the consumption of images in a museum setting is depicted to be displayed in a museum setting, Hiroshi Sugimoto’s near-abstract Seascapes, Gerhard Richter’s oddly-composed, photography-based paintings and many more works add to the play with the concept of capturing or re-capturing the
KATA VITI is an English teacher and eternal student - currently waiting to start her Master’s degree in History of Art at The University of Malta.
moment. A strong point of the exhibition is its displaying key works by such artists as Andy Warhol or David Hockney in a wider context, in dialogue with paintings and photos rarely associated with them.
might seem to have a central role among them: ‘Only photography has been able to divide human life into a series of moments, each of them has the value of a complete existence.’ (Eadweard Muybridge)
Starting off from the initial paintingphoto dichotomy, the visitor eventually encounters works inspired by the cinema, such as Luc Tuymans’s The Shore (2014) and by the digital world, immersed in what the museum website calls an “open-ended conversation” between different mediums. A final quote explains why photography
Also at Tate Modern: Yayoi Kusama’s fully immersive, constantly reconfigured Infinity Mirror Rooms, where advance booking is essential (until 28th April 2024) and A World in Common: Contemporary African Photography (until 14th January 2024).
Pablo Picasso, Buste de Femme, 1938. Yageo Foundation, Taiwan. © Succession PicassoDACS, London 2023
SALADS BY DAY DRINKS BY NIGHT @ NO.43 43, MERCHANT STREET, VALLETTA
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Exhibition / Review / Malta November - December 2023 MALTA
KARSTEN XUEREB
‘Let’s Agree to Disagree’ Paintings by Engdaye Lemma & Tiemar Tegene Christine X Curated / Art Gallery in Malta 21st October – 12th November 2023
T
he exhibition of the most recent and exciting artworks from Africa featured at the gallery curated by Christine X in Sliema provides us with the latest set of stories that by unfolding continuously, tell us more about people, journeys, explorations of self and diverse societies. We may heed the artists’ call, or challenge, to agree to disagree, but on this we’ll all be happy to settle – the show shouldn’t be missed. A LOOPING JOURNEY THROUGH TIME AND LIGHT Engdaye Lemma and Tiemar Tegene, who are incidentally, or not, partners, delve deep into social issues and their inherent contrasts while considering the tensions that transpire from a society made up of many individualities. They each have their distinct interpretations which push forth from their unique methods of representation. One aspect that emerges clearly comprises the diverse ways in which our surroundings, both natural as well as urban, shape and colour the multiple forms in which life is reconfigured. In his artistic statement, Engdaye states he examines society as an abstract concept in order to extricate the intricate web of relationships among its members. His works observe how human activities gradually, and sometimes abruptly, transform private and public spaces, leaving their mark and instigating change. These spaces transform simple as well as complex social spaces, and Engdaye’s work invites us to adopt a holistic perspective in order to transcend individual actions. While it is true that many phenomena can be traced to quirks and routines,
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the ensuing visual structures that are created by elements such as rustic textures, plastic rugs, discarded paper, colours, printed words, remnants of paintings and the layers they form on walls, poles and fences, act as a testament to the rapid and transient nature of things and activities in these spaces. The resulting chaos conveys a sense of the past and present: it reflects how humans think, exchange information, engage in their cultures, even play at ‘civilizing’ themselves, and express their ideas and thoughts in broad, ethnographic contexts. This powerful perception is conveyed through ten untitled mixed media works on canvas produced in 2023. In contrast, Tiemar’s work grapples with the innate nature of personal and social traits, both when they are predetermined at birth as well as when they are reinforced through processes of socialization. Her works suggest that the social realm primarily exists within the interactions among individuals, considering aspects of peoples’ lives that go beyond the social domain. Thus, the distinctiveness of human emotions shines through. We can perceive feelings of alienation, pain, marginalization and suffering brought about by the uncertainties of our contemporary world.
Yet to Be Titled VII 2023 by Engdaye Lemma. Photo-Courtesy of the artist
Her artistic focus centers on capturing the precise moments of our emotional experiences and subjective encounters. Her exploration encompasses memory and history, resistance, dreams and visions, and the human body. It also wrestles with the portrayal of hopeful aspirations and fears, isolation and the yearning for a fulfilling life, curiosity and despondency, as well as the interplay between pride and confusion. Tiemar’s work reflects the intricate tapestry of our emotions and experiences in the complex world we inhabit. The six works exhibited are reductive monotype with mixed media on paper and are all recent creations (2023).
emotional journey and reflections on her interactions with others. The intricacies within her artwork carry hints of stories she has encountered, whether from conversations, song lyrics or film narratives. By melding elements of reality with her imaginative touch, her portraits evoke distinctive and universally relatable emotional moments.
Tiemar raises questions and conducts inquiries centered on individuality. She investigates how societal shifts driven by multiculturalism, global culture and interlinked economies impact our selfperception and identities. Her work challenges the notions of what it means to be human and where we belong.
THE ARTISTS IN FOCUS Tiemar’s interplay with time and space is incipient. She was born in 1994 in Addis Ababa, but make that 1986 in the Ethiopian calendar. She holds a BFA in Printmaking from the Allee School of Fine Arts and Design in Addis Ababa. Her artistic approach involves pushing the boundaries of traditional etching processes by embracing spontaneous experimentation and infusing colored pencil elements into recurring icons and patterns, all while interweaving layers of personal narratives.
Some of the main elements we encounter are healing, intuition, reflection, exploration of self in relation to society, opening up doors and the dismantling of frames that connect past and present to the future, leading to myriad possibilities. There seems to be a passage from a somewhat still scary past, sometimes stemming from childhood trauma, into an uncertain phase of what may come next. The color black gives strength, as Tiemar notes. There’s a journey worth making, a fundamental part of which is the therapeutic element that comes from scooping out feelings just as the paint on the initial tablets is, to be gradually ensconsed in somewhat safer dimensions that may be shared, communicated, challenged, reinforced and debated through a strong, defining aesthetic sense and self.
Tiemar strives to encapsulate the profound depths of human emotion.
Tiemar’s serve as
On occasion, the monochrome easing out the duality of darkness and light,
artistic compositions transformations of her
DR KARSTEN XUEREB is a researcher in cultural policy and Mediterrenean relations. He is a member of the UNESCO World Heritage Nomination Project at the Ministry for Culture in collaboration with the University of Malta in Valletta. His work is accessible at https://culturalpolicy.blog/.
presence and lack, are struck by vivid color, particularly red. Unmistakably, this sudden streak recalls similar striking effects such as those achieved by Albert Lamorisse in the French, postwar movie, The Red Balloon (1956). The universal, enduring appeal of this red intrusion stems in part from the simple, childlike awe that it evokes. The film has the power to anthropomorphize a floating ball in a way that is realistic enough to get even jaded adults convinced that it is alive. The blood evoked by Lamorisse, and reiterated by Tiemar, suggests that the very symbol for death and destruction, may inspire a way of overcoming the pain. Like the boy Pascal, lifted, in film critic Brian Gibson’s words, ‘out of this rigid, petty, earthbound life’, in Tiemar’s paintings, healing and exit materialize by considering how deep the blood runs, its spillage by aggressive, colonial, ties, and whether it is a remnant of the enchained past or a promise for a present and a future full of life.
1-54 leading African Art Fair in London, following her solo exhibition at the same gallery in September. She participated in “Fictions” in 2022 and “Addis Contemporary II” in 2021. Tiemar’s work featured at the National Museum of Ethiopia, Alliance Ethio-Francaise and the Gebre Kristos Desta Centre. She has undertaken commissioned projects for public murals in Addis Ababa. Her work has been showcased at the Lithuanian National Museum of Art and James Fuentes Gallery in New York.
In October 2023 Tiemar is being represented by Circle Art Gallery at the
Similarly elusive in definitions of time or space, Engdaye Lemma was born
Tiemar Tegene. Photo Courtesy of Rahwa Gebrelibanos
Engdaye Lemma. Photo Courtesy of Noad Lemma
in 1987 in Dessie, but 1980 in the Ethiopian calendar. He also holds a BFA in Printmaking from the Alle School of Fine Art and Design in Addis Ababa, where he lectures. His journey in the art world is marked by a rich history of exhibitions and active participation in printmaking-focused workshops. Engdaye employs a fusion of diverse techniques in his artwork, conveying concepts that transcend time and defy boundaries with a sense of adaptability. Referring to previous work portraying multilayered, urbanised landscapes Engdaye notes how his hometown in
northern Ethiopia, particularly the ancient Lalibela historic cave churches, ceremonial passageways and tunnels dating from the 12th century, provide an eternal spring of inspiration. In spite of being a UNESCO World Heritage Site, this area is blighted by structural poverty. The inhabitants are very protective of their land, thereby engendering conflict, while living in the shadows of their ancestor’s amazing creations. Engdaye explores the relationship between past and present communities by adopting the perspective of people who lived there centuries ago and comparing it to that of contemporary communities. The past seems to live on in the structures built and the cavities hewn from the land, shutting out yet at the same time embracing the community. In 2023, Engdaye’s work has been featured collectively at the Addis Fine Art Gallery. ‘Alle Legends’was followed by ‘Eastern Voices: Contemporary Artists from East Africa’ at the Addis Fine Art Gallery in London.
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Review /Malta Society of Arts November - December 2023 MALTA
FROM TRADITION TO TRANSFORMATION: MSA’S LEGACY UNWRAPPED
Photo by Lisa Attard
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n an era marked by a reevaluation of history, where grand narratives are being replaced by a focus on unheard voices and overlooked fragments, institutions like the Malta Society of Arts (MSA) are taking a fresh look at their past. The MSA, deeply entrenched in Malta’s cultural landscape for more than 170 years, is grappling with its own historical complexities, acknowledging both its triumphs and shortcomings. As part of its 100 Years at Palazzo de La Salle Anniversary Celebrations, in September 2023 the MSA presented “Fragments of a Legacy,” an exhibition that sought to navigate the institution’s multifaceted history. This exhibition not only celebrated the MSA’s contributions to the cultural sphere but also addressed its conservative tendencies, its role in shaping the local art scene, and the voices it may have inadvertently silenced. The Malta Society of Arts has been able to call Palazzo de La Salle its home for precisely the past 100 years: in 1923 the Government of the time bestowed Palazzo de La Salle upon the Society for its use. Amid the festivities marking this centenary throughout 2023, “Fragments of a Legacy” offered a portal into the heart of the MSA,
acknowledging the Society’s undeniable and profound impact on Malta’s cultural landscape. Since its inception in 1852, it has been an unwavering supporter of artists, musicians, and craftspeople. It has offered them tuition, financed their studies, offered space for concerts and exhibitions, and provided opportunities for artists to exert influence in the international cultural scene via their involvement in the MSA. Yet, the MSA’s narrative is far from monochromatic. New research has shown that while it nurtured artistic innovation, the institution occasionally stood in the way of groundbreaking art. It inadvertently sidelined women from positions of influence and dismissed works that would later be celebrated as masterpieces of Maltese modern art. But within the annals of the Society’s story, a progressive undercurrent persisted/s, upheld by the very artists who found/ find a haven within its walls. This duality formed the foundation upon which “Fragments of a Legacy” rested. Over time, the MSA amassed an archive and art collection that echoed its multifaceted engagement with the cultural world. The exhibition delved into the Society’s permanent collection, its extensive archive, and loans from private collections. This immersive journey through the last 100 years of
the MSA’s artistic history provided a curated exploration of controversy, significance, discord, and excellence, all functioning as fragments that coalesced into a refreshed comprehension of the Society’s contemporary role. The exhibition featured 21 artists who work across a diverse spectrum of media, from photography and sculpture to painting and installation. From luminaries like Anton Inglott, Frank Portelli, Victor Pasmore, and Emvin Cremona to contemporary talents like Aaron Bezzina and Matthew Attard, “Fragments of a Legacy” celebrated the diverse voices that have contributed to Malta’s artistic tapestry. The MSA’s archival collection, a treasury of rare documents, including past exhibition catalogues and records from wartime Malta, further enriched the exhibition’s narrative. Divided into five galleries, each representing two decades of history, the exhibition constructed stories around particular themes - whether it’s the rejection of radical modernist artworks in the 1950s or the awards and prizes conferred by the Society. Every piece within the exhibition formed part of an intricate web of connections, forming a vivid narrative that illustrated a unique fragment of history, memory, and identity.
In the words of Adrian Mamo, President of the MSA, “Over the past 170 years, the Society always chose to adapt its function to the needs of the local artistic community by varying the nature of the art courses it offered, improving its facilities, and helping to encourage promising artists.” The MSA’s identity has continued to evolve, a living testament to its enduring history. “Fragments of a Legacy” served as a bridge between the institution’s rich past and its ever-adapting role in today’s art-loving community. It’s an exploration of the complex facets of an enduring legacy, revealing a vibrant tapestry of art and culture that has flourished within the walls of Palazzo de La Salle. “Fragments of a Legacy” was a Malta Society of Arts initiative and the research found in the exhibition is further elaborated in the recently published “Palazzo de La Salle, Genesis and Evolution”, edited by Gabriel Zammit and Caroline Miggiani, and available from selected bookstores and from the Malta Society of Arts. For more information about the Malta Society of Arts visit www.artsmalta.org
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Architecture /Mahalla Festival 2023 November - December 2023
MALTA
ERICA GIUSTA
Beyond What Drifts Us Apart DEBUNKING DOMINANT REPRESENTATIONS OF LANDSCAPES SURROUNDING COASTAL TOWERS, IN A BID TO OVERCOME COLONIAL LEGACIES.
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eyond What Drifts Us Apart (BWDUA) is the title of an art initiative curated by Elyse Tonna in the frame of the Mahalla Festival 2023, taking place in November in and around the watchtowersof Qalet Marku and Tal. . Ghallis, in Bahar ic-Caghaq. The project originates from the need for the re-imagining of one the most representative and symbolic elements of Maltese history and identity; the coastal tower. Originally meant as direct embodiment of the island’s role as fortress and bulwark of Christianity, the series of watchtowers dotting the Eastern and South-Eastern coastline of Malta, from Armier to Qrendi, has increasingly lost its significance, rapidly falling into disuse over the past decades. Conceived as a site-specific and community-driven artist residency programme, BWDUA looks at the area between two of these peripheral yet highly symbolic sites as an opportunity for exploration of new and emancipated perspectives on the role of the towers and their surroundings. In an effort to overcome the most common militarydominated narratives and their colonial legacy, BWDUA has invited a group of artists to engage with indigenous natural elements both on land and at
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sea, opening up the conversation and sharing their creative processes with local communities. “We intend to break the rigidity of the traditional art exhibition as an event happening at the end of a creative process, opening to the public just as a final showcasing moment. We are more interested in sharing rather than showing, and so are the artists who will live and produce their contributions in conversation with each other, with the natural landscape surrounding them and with the local communities who interact with it”, says Sabine KüperBüsch, Istanbul-based filmmaker and cocurator of the Mahalla festival. “Artists will work on their pieces exclusively on site during the residency, tackling the re-imagination of this area from different angles, and offering different sensorial experiences as a result”, adds Elyse Tonna, before giving me a brief overview of the work of the artists involved. Fernando P. Ferreira, a Portuguese artist currently completing a PhD, will combine his interest in cartography and material culture with his experimental artistic practice by overlapping the social narratives belonging to the site through weaving natural materials with a portable loom which
he purposely designed. Marija Rasa Kudabaite, a Lithuanian sound artist based in Brussels, will focus on sonic spatialisation of fragile and ephemeral natural elements, radically shifting away from human-dominated narratives. Similarly, but through a different lens, Maltese dance artist and researcher Florinda Camilleri will work on a performance inspired by the Posidonia Oceanica, the seaweed indigenous to the seascape in front of the watchtowers, which has been protecting the marine ecology of the coast for centuries, acting almost as its ‘natural guardian’.
The coastal natural landscape will serve as inspiration for the work of Austrian sculptor Alfred Graf, while Maltese artists Samuel Ciantar and Charlene Galea will manipulate, re-imagine, and repurpose found objects inherent to the space and its surroundings, in some cases of human fabrication. Visual and multimedia artist Rakel Vella will tackle the curatorial statement thought the lens of digitalisation, using different digital media to engage with the physical attributes of the space. As indicated by Sabine Küper-Büsch, the common denominator bringing together all contributions will be the focus on ecological damages currently endangering the Mediterranean, and the prioritisation of “beyond-human communities, in an effort to garner an understanding of their validity in the safeguarding of socio-environmental and cultural heritage aspects of threatened landscapes.” The outcomes of the residency will be presented from 24th November to 10th December at the Qalet Marku tower, where the artists hope to engage with a wide and diverse audience. An updated programme will be available on www.unfinishedartspace. org and www.diyalog-der.eu. Beyond What Drifts Us Apart is a collaborative event of the Istanbulbased Mahalla Festival organised by Diyalog, this year in collaboration with Unfinished Art Space and partnered by Din L-Art Helwa. It is part of the MagiC Carpets Platform, co-funded by the European Union’s Creative Europe program, and is supported by Arts Council Malta, and by the Federal Ministry for Arts, Culture, the Civil Service and Sport of the Republic of Austria.