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F E AT U R E Leiva: An image of a twelve-year-old girl who is about to become a woman

N EW S Jo Borg Gallery: A new independent art gallery in the Sliema

IN T ERVIEW Gabriel Moreno: Women living between the thin line of sensuality and fragility

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+ maltabiennale.art “Here, the island presents itself as the origin of a new political conception; the island must be conceived not as a buffer between the interloper and its inhabitants, but intimately woven with the presence of so-called outsiders. If utopia can still be spoken of today, this is the desire – to centralise the position of the islands, in order to transform the political discourse.”

Interview with Sofia Baldi Pighi, Artistic Director of the inaugural edition of maltabiennale.art, >> Page 16

EVERYTHING REMAINS THE SAME: La vergine del latte yoda II, Gabriel Moreno >> see page 20

The Beating of Yuhanna

by Sebastian Tanti Burlò

NEWS Open call for artist residency by EIB Bank | Artist Kathrine Maj presented the traditional notions of fertility and the life-giving essence embodied by the voluptuous goddess at The Mdina Biennale | Winners announced for this year’s edition of the photo contest by SEA-EU titled Sea of Diversity

EXHIBITIONS An exhibition of mixed-media artworks including clothing and installations titled Sheepsbodies at Spazju Kreattiv | A series of exhibitions centered around the compelling theme of environmental utopia at Christine X | The Louvre Abu Dhabi presents Picturing the Cosmos | A major survey of the work of Sarah Lucas at Tate Britain | Brâncuși: Romanian Sources and Universal Perspectives at Timișoara National Art Museum in Romania.

Unruly school children are herded into single file outside the Oratory in St. John’s Co- Cathedral. They gaze up at the macabre events of Caravaggio’s 1608 ‘masterpiece’, The Beheading of St. John. With visceral shock, they question “Ms! This is it?” This image is ingrained into Maltese collective memory.

The Beheading of St. John has become a national icon of Baroque Malta; a historical period and artistic style that aided in the construction of Maltese identity as truly Christian and European.

Review: Exhibition by Sebastian Tanti Burlò at R Gallery >> Page 26

Everything Remains the Same: The Beating of Yuhanna, oil on canvas, 270x190cm by Sebastian Tanti Burlò.

Photo by Edward Muscat Azzopardi

NINA MANGION

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Welcome / Team / Inside December 2023 - February 2024

Editor Lily Agius Advertising info@artpaper.press Graphic Designer Nicholas Cutajar Writers + Contributors Sofia Baldi Pighi Antoine Borg Micallef Brian Grech Lisa Gwen Nina Mangion Emma Mattei Zvezdan Rejlic Christine Xuereb Seidu Artists Featured Matthew Attard Laura Besançon Austin Camilleri Joyce Camilleri Anton Grech Daniel Jablonski Sarah Lucas Kathrine Maj Gabriel Moreno Sebastian Tanti Burlò

Museums + Galleries Christine X Curated Jo Borg Gallery Lily Agius Gallery R Gallery Spajzu Kreattiv Tate Modern, London The Louvre Abu Dhabi The Malta Society of Arts Timisoara National Art Museum, Romania

“Art is not decoration. It is an active and vibrant organism capable of sprouting within society and awakening critical and independent thought.”

Sofia Baldi Pighi

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Supported by AP Valletta Babel Bistro BAS Malta Brands International Bo Concept Edwards Lowell Heritage Malta iLab No.43 People & Skin The Society of Arts Victor Pasmore Gallery VeeGeeBee Art Supplies Vivendo

e can’t predict the future - or at least there is no scientific proof to say that we can. We can however look at the past to determine the probabilities of what’s to come. History endlessly repeats itself. It’s up to us to break the cycle and not give in to predictable patterns whereby the future looks bleak and unnegotiable.

Warfare in 2023 has proven to be the result of a centuries old movement, whereby mankind in the meantime has become inherently selfish and blinded by their own suffering. It’s a horrible cycle – and a true recipe for disaster. We can only sit back and watch – or we can listen and learn of the truth firsthand, and try help one another to make the right choices, unrelated to our own insecurities and ignorance.

Art remains the outlet for which we can relate to and start to observe our emotions and thoughts. It’s a global language that has chance to penetrate the minds and hearts of the viewers or listeners.

2023 saw Malta put up unquavering barriers to freedom when it comes to issues such as abortion and women’s rights. Artists and Maltese citizens

NEWS

EXHIBITIONS

08. MALTA SOCIETY OF ARTS AWARDS Gold Medal to Austin Camilleri

09. AN EXHIBITION OF MIXED MEDIA titled Sheepsbodies at Spazju Kreattiv

10. OPEN CALL FOR ARTIST RESIDENCY by EIB Bank

10. THE COMPELLING THEME OF ENVIRONMENTAL UTOPIA at Christine X

09. EMERGING ARTIST Kathrine Maj exhibits at The Mdina Biennale

11. WINNERS announced for the photo contest by SEA-EU

went to the streets and exhibited personal stories on the matter – yet the law still doesn’t want to acknowledge the reality or understand the personal plea for help. Another recipe for disaster.

The last year has also seen a momentous calendar of exhibitions and events, by both established and emerging artists, offering their own valuable opinion on various topics. There has also been the bold development of new art galleries in Malta, such as the Jo Borg Gallery, Victor Pasmore Gallery and R Gallery, all offering a diverse programme of events and vision.

Perhaps 2023 has been a sweet prelude for the year ahead - whilst we await the bold maltabiennale.art opening this Spring which expects an international audience and thought-provoking artworks across the islands and Malta returns to the 60th International Art Exhibition in Venice from April.

Open your eyes, open your ears, and taste the melodic serenade of diverse creativity and the minds of artists from all over the globe. And let’s predict a harmonic future.

25. A MAJOR SURVEY OF THE WORK of Sarah Lucas at Tate Britain

FEATURES 12. LEIVA: An image of a twelve-year-old girl who is about to become a woman

29. BRÂNCUSI at Timisoara National Art Museum in Romania 30. THE LOUVRE ABU DHABI presents the exhibition Picturing the Cosmos

14. JO BORG GALLERY: A new independent art gallery in the Sliema 26. EVERYTHING REMAINS THE SAME: The Beating of Yuhanna by Sebastian Tanti Burlò

INTERVIEWS 16. SOFIA BALDI PIGHI: Artistic Director and Head Curator of the maltabiennale.art 20. GABRIEL MORENO: Women living between the thin line of sensuality and fragility

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News / Malta / Malta Society of Arts Awards December 2023 - February 2024 MALTA

MALTA SOCIETY OF ARTS AWARDS GOLD MEDAL TO AUSTIN CAMILLERI Renowned visual and visionary artist Austin Camilleri joins the esteemed company of past MSA Gold Medal recipients, a distinguished group that includes luminaries such as Emvin Cremona and Harry Alden.

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the invaluable contributions of artists in the cultural and artistic domains.

He remarked: “With the contribution of the Malta Society of Arts, together with other institutions, our country can continue to support creative thinking and artistic expression that leads to renewal, the support of critical thinking, and innovation. The official recognition by the Malta Society of Arts should spur the chosen artists to work harder to make the best use of their talents, and thus continue to enrich the Maltese artistic and cultural field.”

he Malta Society of Arts (MSA) has awarded its prestigious Gold Medal to artist Austin Camilleri, in recognition of his exceptional artistic achievement in the contemporary local and international visual arts scene. A prominent figure in Malta’s art landscape for more than 25 years, Camilleri has showcased his work extensively in solo and group exhibitions across museums, biennales, private galleries, and public spaces in Europe, America, North Africa, and Asia.

The Gold Medal and its accompanying certificate were awarded to Camilleri during a private ceremony held on Thursday 14 December at Palazzo de La Salle, the seat of the Malta Society of Arts in Valletta, in the presence of H.E. George Vella, President of Malta, the President and Committee of the MSA, Camilleri’s family and friends, and a host of distinguished guests.

The ceremony commenced with a statement by MSA’s President Arch.

Adrian Mamo, who highlighted significant moments from Camilleri’s prolific career. Mamo underscored the historical context by noting that the first Gold Medal bestowed by the Malta Society of Arts dates back to 1896, honouring Emidio Vassallo for his achievements in metal engraving. Now,

visual artist Austin Camilleri takes his place among esteemed past Gold Medal recipients, a distinguished list that includes luminaries such as Sir Temi Zammit (1904), Robert Caruana Dingli (1916), Emvin Cremona (1963), Oreste Chircop (1997), Richard England (1984), Joseph Calleja (2007), Karmen Azzopardi (2009), Harry Alden (2013), and Carmine Lauri (2015), among others.

The evening unfolded with a heartfelt reflection from one of Camilleri’s close friends, Dr. Jimmy Vella. Vella commenced by acknowledging the challenge of encapsulating the vibrant and adventurous spirit of Austin within mere words. Describing Camilleri as an avid traveller, ardent sports enthusiast,

theatre-lover and set designer, foodie and bon vivant, Vella painted a multifaceted portrait of a loyal friend and a fervent artist, highlighting an array of his remarkable qualities.

Following that, Dr. Sandro Debono took on the task of providing a concise overview of Camilleri’s prolific artistic journey and accomplishments. Debono’s presentation delved into three key facets of Camilleri’s artistic identity.

Firstly, he explored the theme of ‘renewal’ in Austin’s versatile work, showcasing the concept of ‘destructive creativity’ through Camilleri’s painting over previous works. Secondly, the presentation highlighted the depth of Camilleri’s reflections and his use of Malta as both his creative space and canvas, notably exemplified in ‘Disgha,’ where Camilleri etched poignant poetry onto rock formations. Lastly, Debono shed light on Camilleri as a social voice, vividly portrayed in works like .

‘Zieme,’ a three-legged horse sculpture designed as a statement about the fragility of power. To conclude, Debono asserted that in Malta, only a select few artists possess a national dimension to their work, with Camilleri standing prominently among them.

MSA President Mamo then invited H.E. George Vella to the stage and bestow the Gold Medal and accompanying certificate upon Austin Camilleri.

President Vella took to the podium to congratulate Camilleri and commend the MSA for honouring and acknowledging

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Post-ceremony, Camilleri shared his sentiments, stating, “I am humbled and sincerely grateful to the Board for bestowing upon me such a prestigious award. I have used gold in my artwork many times, appreciating its reflective qualities. Yet, I wish to extend this honour to the true lights in my life: those who believed in me, inspired me, those who challenged me, along with all my collaborators, my true friends, and, above all, my family,” he concluded.

The evening was enriched with musical interludes by musicians Mro. Dominic Galea on piano and Angie Vella Zarb on vocals. This polished duo captivated the audience with their beautiful interpretations of classic pieces such as Gershwin’s “Summertime”, Jobim’s “One Note Samba”, and Sondheim’s “Send in the Clowns”.

To mark this special occasion, the Malta Society of Arts exhibited one of Austin’s important works in the Chapel located within its Palazzo de La Salle “Kuruna”, created in 2002. The work. is part of the National Collection, MUZA - Heritage Malta and was loaned to the MSA to celebrate Austin’s outstanding achievements in this sector.

For more information about the history of the Gold Medal visit www. artsmalta.org/gold-medal-award and for more on Austin Camilleri, visit the Facebook Page Austin Camilleri Studio.

News / Malta / Artist Focus / Sheepsbodies December 2023 - February 2024 MALTA

SHEEPSBODIES A dog obeys, but a sheep chooses to follow.

Therefore, through Sheepsbodies we shall explore the same idea of servility, and how this influences our identity, but rather than from an imposed social stratum, such as social class, religion, or employment rank, we shall look at it as a personal choice of ‘who to follow and be influenced by’ within the modern social media reality.

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In-Nisa Hoxnin n-Nisa Hoxin reimagines the seated female figures of the Neolithic era, namely the Seated Woman of Catalhöyuk from Turkey and the headless seated figure from the Hagar Qim temples, within a contemporary context.

The artwork not only explores the traditional notions of fertility and the life-giving essence embodied by the voluptuous goddess but also examines the prevailing standards of female beauty in the Western world today. In the past, the portrayal of the obese female body symbolised notions of regeneration and the matriarchy, but now traverses diverse realms of perception.

Kathrine Maj is a visual artist from Denmark who has been based in Malta since 2020. Maj is co-founder and gallerist at R Gallery and is currently studying a BA Honours in Fine Arts at the University of Malta. Her work is informed by natural forms, often distorted in playful ways. She is inspired by nature and organic life, focusing on females and women as muses.

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heepsbodies will be a public art exhibition at Spazju Kreattiv’s Space C, in Valletta, for which Matthew F. Cassar (visual artist) will be producing mixed-media artworks, such as paintings, clothing and installations, in collaboration with Lara Calleja (writer) who will be producing literature pieces simultaneously.

How are our identity and idea of self-influenced by this process? Are we being servile to the concept of infinite information that is persistently available to us? Are these processes hindering us from focusing and consequently developing our very own authenticity and developing our self? How is this process influencing how we react and interpret the world outside? These are the questions that this exhibition will seek to challenge.

The exhibition was inaugurated on the 7th of December 2023 and remains open to the public until the 14th of January 2024.

The exhibition aims at questioning the idea of self and questioning authenticity in a world that constantly presents us with endless, fast information and shifting standards.

The title Sheepsbodies is inspired by the slang term ‘dogsbody’ - a term that was originally used by the British Royal Navy referring to junior officials who were assigned to do all the unpleasant tasks or ‘dirty work’ that no one else wanted to do. This colloquial term is demeaning in nature and inflicts a sense of servility on the receiving end of the phrase.

SALADS BY DAY DRINKS BY NIGHT @ NO.43 43, MERCHANT STREET, VALLETTA

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Exhibition / Malta / Christine X Art Gallery / Open Call / Artist Residency December 2023 - February 2024 MALTA

ENVIRONMENTAL

UTOPIA

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hristine X Art Gallery will present an engaging series of exhibitions in the first quarter of 2024, all centered around the compelling theme of environmental utopia. The diverse lineup explores topics ranging from wildlife photography to the societal impact of unchecked development and the exploration of idealised spaces.

Commencing on February 8th, the gallery will host award-winning wildlife photographer Johan Siggesson’s exhibition Africa - Land of Icons. This visually captivating and educational experience, running until February 29th, aims to inspire a profound appreciation for the beauty and significance of African wildlife.

Following in March, from the 7th to the 28th, the exhibition I Can’t Breathe by painter Svetislav Martinovic will engage viewers on a visceral level.

Through symbolic alphanumeric imagery, Martinovic prompts reflection and dialogue on the societal

and environmental consequences of unbridled development and overbuilding.

Continuing the series, visual artist Lina Maria Rincon, born in Colombia and currently residing in London, will showcase her latest collection, Reflections. From April 4th to April 25th, Rincon’s paintings, inspired by vibrant South American summers, imaginatively explore warm and idealized spaces, reflecting her quest for belonging after two decades in Europe.

All exhibitions are open to the public from Monday to Saturday, 10am to 1pm and 4pm to 7pm at Christine X Art Gallery located at Tigne Street c/w Hughes Hallet Street in Sliema, Malta. For additional information about these exhibitions, please visit www.christinexart.com. Don’t miss this unique opportunity to experience thoughtprovoking art that delves into the complexities of our relationship with the environment and society.

Africa - The Land of Icons by Johan Siggesson

Reflections by Lina Rincon

Artist Development Programme for Emerging Artists

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he European Investment Bank (EIB) Institute is pleased to announce the 2024 edition of its Artists Development Programme (ADP) in partnership with Cité internationale des arts (Paris) and Neumünster Abbey Heritage Site for Culture (Luxembourg).

The ADP offers emerging European visual artists a three-month residency, enabling them to develop their practice and create a new (body of) work(s), boosted by the mentorship of a renowned artist.

In 2024, the residency will take place over three months between the Cité internationale des arts in Paris for two months (September-October), and Neumünster Abbey Heritage Site for Culture in Luxembourg for one month (November). The laureates will be mentored by acclaimed Franco-Italian artist Tatiana Trouvé, as well as professor, theorist and art critic Christophe Kihm.

From 15 December, 2023, emerging artists under the age of 35 are invited to apply for the following calls for applications: • Thematic call “Disruption: The Imprint of Man”: 2 Laureates, open to nationals of EU Member States • Thematic call “The Future of Water”: 1 Laureate, open to nationals of EU Member States • Geographic call: 1 Laureate, open to nationals of Austria, Croatia, Hungary, Finland, Luxembourg, Portugal, Slovakia • Geographic call: 1 Laureate, open to nationals of Ukraine

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Eligibility criteria • Born after 1 January 1989 (in the case of an artist duo, both members must be aged 35 or under) • EU National or National of a specifically targeted country (in the case of geographic calls) • Fluent in English Budget and duration The residency in Paris will take place from the beginning of September until the end of November 2024.

The EIB Institute will cover the artists’ travel costs to Paris, from Paris to Luxembourg, and from Luxembourg.

The artists will receive an €80 flat-rate daily allowance to cover their living costs during the residency and all or part of the production costs, and will be provided with a live-in studio space.

In addition to the above, the artists will be granted a contribution towards production of €500 at the beginning of the residency and a success fee of €1000 at the end of the residency, provided that they have produced a work or body of works. Upon completion of the residency, the EIB may consider acquiring an artwork produced on-site by the artists. https://institute.eib.org/whatwedo/arts/artists-residencies/

Exhibition / Malta / Photo Competition / Sea of Diversity December 2023 - February 2024 MALTA

SEA OF DIVERSITY Winners announced for this year’s edition of the photo contest by SEA-EU titled Sea of Diversity

From left to right: Photos by Arjun Puthiyadath Radhakrishnan, Luisa Zoe Zimmerman and Emma Borg

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EA-EU is one of the pioneers in the European Commission’s European Universities initiative, an alliance of 9 coastal European universities: Cadiz, Western Brittany, Kiel, Gdansk, Split, Malta, Algarve, Naples Parthenope and Nord.

This year’s edition of the photo contest titled Sea of diversity, organised by the University of Split, focused on celebrating diversity and the richness that comes with it. SEA-EU are pleased to announce the winners from the local and international competition:

SEA-EU brings together universities from port cities that have been centres of cultural mixing for centuries, and offers a long list of opportunities for the community. If you study, research or work at or with a SEA-EU university, you are also part of SEAEU and can benefit from courses, mobilities, languages, resources, infrastructure and new joint degrees that will enhance your career and your life.

International Competition Winner 1st: Luisa Zoe Zimmerman Local Competition Winners / University of Malta 1st: Emma Borg 2nd: Luisa Zoe Zimmerman 3rd: Arjun Puthiyadath Radhakrishnan https://sea-eu.org/home/ https://www.um.edu.mt/about/seaeu/.

Instagram @seaeualliance

“The photo competition offered an unforgettable experience, meeting new individuals and forming friendships…”

Luisa Zoe Zimmerman

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Review /Malta / Spain / Austin Camilleri December 2023 - February 2024 MALTA | SPAIN

ANTOINE BORG MICALLEF

WHEN MAN Gives Birth

Photo by Brian Grech

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often find myself thinking about mortality; my own, my parents’, my friends’, and even my cat’s. As I make a mental calculation of how close I am to the estimated centre of my lifespan, I become filled with a sense of anxiety and dread.

Questions start to swirl in my brain, replacing every other thought almost as instantly as I feel the surge of panic rising just beneath my diaphragm – ‘But have I done enough?’ and ‘Who will guide my nieces?’ or ‘Who will tend to the garden?’.

And ‘Will I be lost to time, like the billions of souls before me’?

There is something deeply unsettling

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about being aware of one’s unavoidable demise. And yet, the delicate balance between life’s fleetingness and the acceptance of its end has also pushed our species to achieve feats that go beyond the capacity of our simple biology.

Humankind’s relationship with life and death is ambivalent and tends to intertwine with other polarising notions such as fertility and gender, making it an ideal stage for artistic expression. History has shown men to act as the main archivists and benefactors of this relationship — but why is this the case? I turn to Austin Camilleri’s 2022 exhibition LE.IVA | ANGERISALAZYFORMOFGRIEF and chief artwork of Leiva in an attempt to disentangle these dichotomies.

My first encounter with Camilleri’s body of . work was the 2014 public installation Zieme, a bronze sculpture that seeks to topple the classical European approach to monumental equestrian representation.

This three-legged horse evokes an illusory approach to the power that standard military and political horse-mounted sculptures aim to showcase. .

Zieme is a great starting point to consider men’s historical contributions (and obsession) with leaving a legacy to their name in an attempt to transcend their death. Camilleri has long worked to dismantle this self-imposed veneration in classic artistic depictions, with pieces such as the Homo immortalis (2011– 2022), where he erases the identities of powerful statesmen from a series of

busts through a collection of veils. .

In the decade since Zieme, LE.IVA broadened this debate by focusing on the dualities that underpin human society — creation and destruction, life and death, and societal gender roles.

There is an abject disparity in the historical representation of the human sex. Men are usually extolled as powerful and conquering forces, while women are portrayed in a variety of narratives, from mythical beings to witches, and loving mothers to monsters. Fertility is a common thread that connects female historical narratives, seeing as the male sex is biologically precluded from the possibility of carrying and bearing children.

and sacred objects from The British Museum. “Veneradas y temidas” takes the audience on a 5,000-year journey through historical representations of feminine power, exposing the dualism of lust and love, sinner and saint, and fertility and barrenness. Artworks depicting famous goddesses and creatures, including Ishtar, Medusa, and Sekhmet, collide with an alluring performance by Marina Abramovic and Zenele Muholia’s striking portraits.

With Leiva, Camilleri managed to transcend his biological limitations and experience his own form of parturition.

And much like the billions of women who have now been lost to time, he is fully aware that she will be subjected to praise and judgement in equal parts.

Austin Camilleri’s work continues to toe the fine lines that inhabit the spaces between social and political extremes.

The beauty of pieces such as Leiva is not that they are conceived with excessive hubris, rather the work is a vehicle to open dialogue about the incidence and persistence of dualism.

A scene from Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s acclaimed television show Fleabag (2016–2019) neatly sums up just how little modern society has evolved since.

The titular character shares a raw yet intimate interaction with Belinda, a woman who receives an award for ‘Women in Business’ but finds the whole ordeal patronising.

Belinda unburdens her frustration at women’s imposed and structured role in society and states how: “Women are born with pain built-in; it’s our physical destiny — period pain, sore boobs, childbirth, you know. We carry it with ourselves throughout our lives,” she says. “Men don’t. They have to seek it out and invent things like gods and demons. They create wars so they can feel things”.

I could only agree with Belinda, as we men “invent things” in a feeble attempt to assert our nature and power over women and each other, an innate reaction to the barrenness of our physiology. It is, therefore, possible that historical men of noble vanity were compelled to create ‘life’ out of their existence and their eventual death — a form of ‘Male Legacy’, if you will.

So does Austin Camilleri (or I, for that

matter) also fit into this narrative of ‘Male Legacy’? The answer is both no and yes, or better yet, Le and Iva in Maltese.

He continues to invent and birth things that are incredibly personal and sweetly evocative – a man whose legacy will be incidental but surely merited.

Leiva (2022) is a statue forged in aluminium, emerging from a real-life body cast that the artist reworked. It portrays an image of a twelve-year-old girl who is about to become a woman, captured just before her first period.

The essence of Leiva is anchored in the stark contrast of a child’s innocence with her biological potential to produce life. She embodies the various contradictions that characterise Camilleri’s 2022 exhibition, earning her a rightful place as part of the 2023– 2025 exhibition “Veneradas y temidas” (Revered and Feared) at various CaixaForum locations throughout Spain. Leiva is currently at CaixaForum Madrid for the first leg of “Veneradas y temidas” until January 14, 2024, where viewers are encouraged to consider how the feminine remains relevant in the modern world. The exhibition will move to CaixaForum Barcelona until the 16th of June.

She will be joining a selection of works by renowned contemporary artists, including Ana Mendieta and Niki de Saint Phalle, as well as 154 artworks

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Review /Jo Borg Gallery December 2023 - February 2024 MALTA

LISA GWEN

A gallery with an edge An edge. A literal one. A space that comes to a sharp point, guiding the eyes steadily and leading it to a tight corner. This is perhaps the pivotal characteristic heightening the most recently opened gallery, in the heart an ever-busy Sliema.

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o Borg Gallery opened its doors a mere weeks ago.

Launching with a dual exhibition by gallery owner, and visual artist Joyce Camilleri, together with painter and sculptor, Anton Grech. Their untitled show has a quiet strength, a punch, that is rare to encounter. This gallery possesses a mood, a vibe which is hard to decipher, let alone break down into intelligible jargon. The works on show – despite their apparent contrast – completely complementary.

A marriage of sorts, wherein chromatic and textural qualities dance, hand in hand.

The exhibition is sparse, yet hardly minimal. The patterned cement tiles and the clean, white-washed walls, the perfect backdrop and counterbalance to an otherwise, neutral space. Both Joyce and Anton show several works in this inaugural show, some of which have already been exhibited elsewhere, under a different ‘guise’ and vestige.

What hits viewers on entering the gallery is a large, suspended work on paper, which Joyce executed as part of her Ochra et Nigreos . art residency at MUZA, in 2021. The piece is somewhat somber yet immediately captivating, whether the subject deals with undulating waves or rolling mountaintops, remains deliciously unintelligible.

It sits (un)comfortably, between earth and sky. It is also, in perfect balance to Anton’s piece de resistance – Ares – the god of war, the

spirit of battle. A piece that has crossed oceans over the years and which has been exhibited under different titles and in various contexts, and which has been re-christened specifically to reflect upon the present precarious moment which shall undoubtedly go down in history. Ares, is the artist’s reply to the destruction that is befalling us all, yet also poignantly an homage to all the present-day fallen warriors in both Ukraine and Gaza.

It took the best part of 24 months to transform and launch this gallery.

Punctuated by interconnected rooms, the inverted-U-shaped space, leads the visitor from the entrance into ‘the edge’, where Ares sits, in silo, lifelessly facing out onto the busy street through a wall

of glass. The structure of the space, its bones and history, dictated its present future.

Well ahead of the October gallery launch, Joyce knew she wanted to create a space upon which she could build a legacy. She chose to name it, Jo Borg Gallery: ultimately, the name Jo(e) Borg, represents the (Maltese) everyman; thus, it was conceived as a space where primarily Maltese and Malta-based contemporary artists could show their work and engage with peers.

This is not to say that international artists will not be showcased in her space, far from it. In fact, she is already in talks with two painters, abroad, to exhibit in the gallery coming March

“The patterned cement tiles and the clean, white-washed walls, the perfect backdrop and counterbalance to an otherwise, neutral space.”

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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.

2024. The intention was also for the gallery’s second show to purposely coincide with the launch of the first Malta Biennale, which is already generating ripples, and with several arts and cultural organisations devising their programming around the two-month plus, event.

A gallery with a most specific name, and an exhibition that lacks one. Apart from exhibitions containing the name of an artist as a title, with the word retrospective almost consistently in succession, it is rare to have an exhibition with no name. Almost abstract in concept. The work on show is, however, clearly distinguished by its materiality, within an environment where the current idiom is overtly digital, virtual, immaterial. This was a conscious decision, made in tandem by both Joyce and Anton, as it is, perhaps the strongest principle binding their work together. Joyce adds how, “We purposely chose no title for the show; we didn’t want to create any expectation by adding a title. We wanted it to be solely about the work: about the sculpture and about the painting. Our artistic practice is a concept in itself, we didn’t need to iterate it with a show title.”

Jo Borg Gallery will host four exhibitions annually: every project lasting some three months. The lengthy duration is purposeful, in that it allows for alternative programming and ancillary events to take place around the show in a structured, rather than concentrated manner.

Furthermore, Joyce explains how she wants to be able to “connect with the artist and their work; that is the process by which I shall select artists to show in the gallery. It will be a negotiation between myself and the artists, and striking a balance between our aesthetics. Moreover, the work of artists has to be consistent; it needs to show direction. The artistic journey together with a sense of authenticity needs to transpire.

In other words, the extrinsic and the intrinsic must be combined.”

“By artists; for artists.” This should be the most celebrated concept surrounding this gallery, and venture, as a whole, concludes Joyce. “The space is there to ‘serve’ the artwork, just like our houses are there to serve us.”

Jo Borg Gallery can be found at 281a, Manwel Dimech Street, Sliema. www.joborggallery.com

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Interview / maltabiennale.art / Sofia Baldi Pighi December 2023 - February 2024 MALTA

maltabiennale.art

Aerial view of Valletta

“A coming together of historical legacy and contemporary art”

72 artists from an estimated 30 countries will participate in the inaugural edition of the maltabiennale.art which is due to run from 11 March to 31 May in 20 locations dotted across the Maltese islands. We talk to the Artistic Director and Head Curator Sofia Baldi Pighi, to find out more about this anticipated event.

What is your personal vision and wish as the artistic director for the maltabiennale.art?

The first edition of maltabiennnale.art 2024 aims to examine the Mediterranean from an insular perspective; being surrounded by sea drastically alters one’s vantage point and response.

Through insular thinking, it becomes evident that the Mediterranean basin has two shores—it is both Southern Europe and Northern Africa, a meeting of Orient and Occident, a confluence of East and West.

Far from being something pure, the island is always a principle of composition and invention. Location is the immediate identifier of any isolated land mass, Malta’s maritime lore dates back centuries, and its crucial role throughout history has been as a strategic crossroads in the Mediterranean. Malta is adept at transformation, as a crossing of arrival and departure, as a nation-state, the Maltese identity emerges from centuries of colonisation. Indelibly linked to the

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various seafaring cultures that have dominated and declined through the region, Malta’s natural harbours have provided shelter, refuge and trading outposts to all who sought to settle, conquer, and reign - the Phoenicians, the Romans, the Byzantines, the Arabs, the Normans, the Order of St. John, the French and the British.

And how do you wish it to be seen and experienced by the public?

The public can expect to experience the biennale as a coming together of historical legacy and contemporary art. To envision the first edition of the biennale in such an ancient land necessitates working in tandem with its history. These sites, symbols of Maltese history and Mediterranean civilisation, are not mere locations for intervention; no urban environment, let alone a cultural treasure steeped in history, is ever neutral and silent.

If psychogeographic thought teaches us about the continual influence that landscape has on our psyche, then contemporary artists, called to exhibit in

these venues, must rebuild an intimate relationship with these locations.

The role of heritage in this biennale is the starting point, and many of the artists have reacted directly to the context of the work, so my hope is for the public to have an immediate sense of this overlapping, in which the contemporary challenges and recontextualizes the often-overbearing weight of the past. Common assets, including cultural treasures, exist only if there is a community of inhabitants exercising their fundamental rights through them.

What do you want to give, what do you feel that you offer, to the biennale.art?

As a curator I practice an interdisciplinary approach; culture is interconnected and I prefer an approach of cross fertilisation across different fields. This is why,together with my fellow curators Elisa Carollo and Emma Mattei, we have created bridges with other disciplines such as anthropology, archaeology,

pedagogy, philosophy, sociology.

We are collaborating with experts across these fields, who can inspire the artists during the process and inform the public through our public programme. In fact, these collaborations have already guided us as curators in finding the topics we are addressing. A project such as a biennial is also a collaborative and cooperative one. My grandmother advised me thus: “always surround yourself with people you can learn from.”

What do you find unique about Malta that will make the maltabiennale. art attractive and different to other biennales? How have you worked with Heritage Malta to expand on the aims of the biennale?

The historical heritage is without a doubt the unique factor here, and the possibility of consigning contemporary art inside these locations, with their own memories and histories. In this biennale, no one space is neutral, or white.

Working alongside Heritage Malta, the

custodians of these extraordinary spaces, is a great honour, both for myself and the artists, I can’t think of many places in the world where neolithic, baroque and medieval structures can serve as a backdrop for contemporary work. We are working with the archaeological and maritime departments within Heritage Malta, and we will be exhibiting artifacts from the archives within the context of the biennale’s thematics. I am especially grateful for allowing us access to the collections, imparting their knowledge, and having the trust in us to share this with the public.

What mediums are we expecting to see?

Together with fellow curators Elisa Carollo and Emma Mattei, we decided to collaborate with contemporary multidisciplinary artists, capable of engaging with various media.

From installation to painting, from sculpture to performance to video

Underground Valletta. Photo by Daniel Cilia

art. The importance lies in embracing different techniques as a multiplication of possibilities for an (emotional) encounter with our audiences.

The main exhibition of the Biennale will host all these media in 12 historic locations across the Maltese archipelago.

Architect Nigel Baldacchino, also an artist in his own right, is crafting a bespoke exhibition design for each artwork, featuring a suspended scenography (as in almost none of these locations is it possible to use nails on the walls), always in dialogue with the historical architecture.

What’s the proportion of Maltese and international participants? And what was the process for finding and choosing the artists?

The Main exhibition is conceived as a space without borders and distinctions, meaning that we are creating an exhibition path that will fuse the voices of the Maltese, and Malta-based artists with the international ones.

The promotion of Maltese and Maltabased artists is roughly 25 per cent of the overall selected artists. We sought artistic productions capable of being permeable to the Maltese historical context while simultaneously speaking to a universal audience. In particular, the curatorial team favoured research projects of an interdisciplinary nature and community-based artistic practices.

Which buildings and spaces are being used for the biennale, and is there one main space?

The first edition of maltabiennale. art is conceived within a Central Pavilion—the heart of the project— with four curatorial themes extending into 20 locations. Adjacent to the central pavilion beats the heart of the national pavilions and thematic pavilions, each signed by Maltese and international curatorial colleagues, tasked with conveying their own vision of Insulaphilia, a critical approach in this inaugural edition. Spatially, the

Ms Sofia Baldi Pighi. Photo by Brian Grech

biennale extends to various locations, including Birgu, Cospicua, Senglea and Gozo, not just Valletta. The concept is to decentralize and question the notion of what is central and peripheral. What we are seeking is for art to encounter the people, not the other way around.

Are Maltese art galleries and artists being called, or expected, to participate at the same time with satellite events? If so, what impact do you think this would have on the event if they did?

The decentralization of cultural activities has always been at the heart of the first edition of maltabiennale.art. Only the Main Pavilion extends into 20 locations, including all the venues designated for national and thematic pavilions.

The biennale aims to be a cultural event capable of embracing the entire island.

We hope that all the spaces dedicated to contemporary art on the island (from

galleries to independent spaces to numerous cultural entities) believe in this adventurous endeavour. We look forward to the boomerang effect of the artists involved in the malta biennale who are operating on the island.

Malta has an extraordinary creative community, and we hope that the biennale can be seen by local entities as a platform to expand their international connections and generate new opportunities.

At the conference you stated that: “Artists should reflect on the community and the biennale aims to have a social impact.” Can you discuss this further and explain how you hope the maltabiennale.art will manage to do this, or how you hope it will?

The curatorial public program is to be a series of educational activities starting from the works exhibited at

“Here, the island presents itself as the origin of a new political conception; the island must be conceived not as a buffer between the interloper and its inhabitants, but intimately woven with the presence of so-called outsiders.

If utopia can still be spoken of today, this is the desire – to centralise the position of the islands, in order to transform the political discourse.”

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Interview / maltabiennale.art / Sofia Baldi Pighi December 2023 - February 2024 MALTA Continued

the Main Pavilion of the Biennale. Each artwork has been considered not only as the result of a creative process but also as an activator and starting point for community-based and horizontal pedagogical projects.

Each of these activities is tailored to specific audience types, including children, youths, seniors and the professional creative community as well as the various micro-communities of Malta and Gozo. As curators, we are aware that contemporary art may be challenging to access, so one of our responsibilities is to create a bridge between the artistic vision and nonsector audiences.

You mentioned at the conference that there will be a political vision - in what way?

I truly believe that art is always political, and contemporary art needs to be courageous enough to address current issues. I would like to emphasize the word courage, and the role that contemporary art is called to play in societies. Art is not decoration. It is an active and vibrant organism capable of sprouting within society and awakening critical and independent thought. It is also true that the goal of art is never to provide answers, but to raise questions.

We aim to promote discussion and debate that will stimulate critical thinking, even if some of these topics are sensitive and polarizing. The point of creating an exhibition means ensuring a safe space for the freedom to think and embrace diverse opinions within the frame of culture.

Laura Besançon

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Can you name some of the ‘big’ or most interesting names or projects participating? And can you discuss one or more of the projects?

I would like to give the opportunity for two artists from maltabiennale to share their stories, who are not part of the ‘big’ names in the art system, but whose research praxis deserve to be discovered. One voice is Maltese – Laura Besançon, she recently exhibited at the Izmir Mediterranean Biennale and is conceptualizing a monumental artwork for the Malta Biennale. The other is Daniel Jablonski, a Brazilian artist based in Paris, whose research has long embodied the spirit of Insulaphilia that we are addressing in this biennale.

Laura, please can you share something of how your work will involve the public, and how it relates to the theme within the section you have been placed, and the building/ location being proposed?

Throughout history, Malta was an opportunity for expanded horizons but are we now expanding horizons in the right ways? Are we an identity, unique on the global stage? Or are we becoming more of a global identity, on a unique stage? My proposed artwork for the Main Guard site, places a familiar yet abstracted element atop the terrace. This site, with its historical and cultural significance, will serve as a symbolic backdrop for the work, offering a dynamic interplay with the building’s architecture and historical context. Aligning with the curatorial focus of this exhibition site, it encourages contemplation on Malta’s evolving identity. This intervention was inspired by a personal take on a

Daniel Jablonski

daily observation that is akin to what I call ‘visual vandalism’, yet I believe is a universal feeling, especially in the local population. It may seem controversial, but it mirrors the unavoidable reality of Malta’s skyline, possibly sparking conversations about the consequences of rapid urban development.

The installation becomes a playful emblem of Malta, and as a female artist intervening in a male-dominated narrative, the artwork may be seen as an assertion, and a visual proclamation echoing, “I can do it too”. Positioned strategically atop the terrace of the Main Guard and overlooking the main square, the artwork will confront diverse audiences and provoke reflection on Malta’s past and future and the imposing presence of progress against the enduring spirit of heritage.

Daniel, what is the general notion of ‘island’ within your work, and how does this apply specifically to placing it within the context of insulaphilia and the malta biennale’s thematic concerns?

Two years ago, I was watching a rather long documentary on WW2, in which the narrator repeated each hour or so: “Meanwhile, Malta is being bombed”.

Due to its strategic location, that tiny rock, then a British colony, was bound to be attacked by the Axis. What no one could have foreseen was the ruthlessness of the aerial battles to be fought there, and their result: after a bombing campaign that lasted 154 days and nights without interruption, Malta would become the only territory in the whole European theatre to have successfully pushed back the Nazis.

I wanted to go there. When I did, a year later, I used the opportunity to take notes for a future project, about bombings and sheltering. Little did I know that the passport that would get me back to this island was already in my portfolio. ‘Hy Brazil’ is an investigative series of works about a phantom island called ‘Brazil’ before the discovery of the Americas. Present in virtually all nautical charts from 1325 to 1870, this imaginary island has occupied a privileged place in the imagination of Age of Discovery — literature, scholasticism, mythology and science — as a wonderful but unreachable place. ‘Hy Brazil’ aligns with the Biennale’s theme. By telling the story of a well-documented hallucination of the colonial unconscious, it suggests that islands can be seen as prototypes for territories ‘waiting to be colonized’.

However, being shown in Malta, this project takes on a different significance.

It embodies and celebrates the story of

this specific island that, unlike other larger continental lands, has managed to put up a fierce resistance against its many invaders.

Sofia Baldi Pighi, Artistic Director Sofia Baldi Pighi is an independent Italian curator based in Milan.

Since 2017, she has been focusing on the encounter between art, historical and landscape heritage through contemporary art exhibitions, public programs and ad hoc art therapy workshops for public and private institutions.

Sofia Baldi Pighi was part of the curatorial team of the first Italian National Pavilion – Che cosa sogna l’acqua quando dorme? – for the 14th Gwangju Biennale in South Korea, curated by Valentina Buzzi and promoted by the Italian Cultural Institute in Seoul, supported by the Embassy of Italy in Korea, Quadriennale di Roma, and the European Media Art Platform, cofounded by the European Union.

Baldi Pighi is a curator for Una Boccata d’Arte 2023, a contemporary art project spread throughout Italy, promoted by Fondazione Elpis in collaboration with Galleria Continua, with the participation of Threes Productions. Through exhibitions, lectures, and workshops, she has collaborated together with various museum institutions and universities, including Triennale (Milan); MANN Archeological Museum (Napoli); Pilotta Monumental Complex, (Parma), Permanente Museum (Milan); Orientale University (Napoli), Brera Fine Arts Academy (Milan), NABA New Fine Arts Academy (Milan), SwissInstitute (Milan); Virgilio Sienis’ Academy of Art and Gesture (Florence), Order of Architects (Milan). Baldi Pighi has collaborated with various national and international companies to support art projects: Corneliani Spa (founding the Corneliani Art Collection), Confcommercio Lombardia; Repower; A2A; Servizi Italia; AIDDA – Association of Women Business Executives.

She is also the curator of the artistic didactic collective PSICO. LOBO, which fuses psychology and performance and is an active member of the autonomous association Art Workers Italia.

Interview / Madrid / Gabriel Moreno December 2023 - February 2024 MADRID

Gabriel Moreno established his name with his signature style for advertising campaigns and his artworks exhibited around the world. His paintings tell a story – of contemporary women living between the thin line of sensuality and fragility.

Can you remember how it felt at the start of your career, when you got your first solo show and started to establish your name as an artist?

Did anything change, and what challenges did you face?

My transition to the world of art was not a very abrupt change because I came from advertising illustration. It happened gradually, when a gallery contacted me and I began attending some fairs. I was swimming between two worlds for a long time, advertising and art, so I didn’t feel the change very much. I didn’t have to start from scratch to be in a gallery, as my work as an advertising illustrator was already respected. I could do “what I wanted,” so even though it was commercial work because it was advertising, my work was quite artistic and had a high reach. It was seen on buildings, magazines, and newspapers.

It was well-known, and the exhibition

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of my work was even stronger than it is now, due to the power of advertising.

Therefore, I didn’t notice a change in the valuation of my work. It was more of a change in format and a search for it to be less and less commercial.

My big change happened when I started in the world of illustration at the age of 34, which is very late. I was designing logos for Almazara, the oil company in my town, and for agricultural machinery.

And a month later, I started doing advertising campaigns for companies like Repsol or Coca-Cola and seeing my work on buildings and in international magazines. It was a big change, and the feeling I had was that it’s never too late, never stop trying, because it can happen. The last train never passes, that’s my feeling.

What advice would you give an artist who hopes to become a fulltime artist?

The advice I would give to an artist who wants to become a full-time artist is to always have a plan B, if possible, or to have financial support from another job, because otherwise, they run the risk of becoming frustrated, as ultimately, they need to live and have a decent life.

In addition, starting to make a living from art can take a long time, so a lot of patience is needed. That would be a rational advice, like the one a parent could give.

However, the advice that I personally believe I can give is that the second job, the support that allows you to keep fighting for your art to have a place, should never prevent you from continuing to create and work on your art. Because if it does, you’re not really

having support, but rather a wall that prevents you from making your paintings and doing your things. It is essential that the job that gives you money to live does not occupy all your time and does not prevent you from pursuing your art. It is important to be willing to sacrifice and live with less, if necessary, but never let that job stop you from pursuing your art.

How did you find and establish your medium to work with?

This question is very easy, I have always drawn. I have studied fine arts, painted, and done sculpture. I have also worked with watercolours and have used all techniques, such as encaustic and egg tempera. I studied at a very classical university and have experimented with all techniques. However, since I was a child, I have always drawn with a pencil, that is the technique in which I feel most comfortable and in which I excel.

Queen Pizza VIII

GABRIEL MORENO

“It is important to be willing to sacrifice and live with less, if necessary, but never let that job stop you from pursuing your art.”

Although I can use other techniques, such as oil painting, I don’t achieve the same quality as I do as when I draw. I have an innate talent for drawing that I don’t have in other techniques, so it’s a bit absurd to try to do something in which I don’t excel, especially when I enjoy drawing so much.

You now have apprentices working with you. Can you discuss the need for this and what it allows you to do?

The need to have apprentices and what it allows me is to survive. My type of work is very detailed, with a lot of line work. It is a very handcrafted and oldschool process, which means that every detail of my artwork is a pencil drawing, pure line work, there is no paint. There is no big brush. Therefore, if I were to make the paintings alone, I would make one every month or month and a half.

And I need to make 3 to 4 paintings per month to be able to survive, since when working with a gallery, I cannot deliver a painting every month and a half. So, there are parts of the artwork that are mechanical. In every artistic process, there are mechanical parts. In the case of a painter, it would be assembling canvases and priming the canvas. In my drawings, there are tasks like covering the black backgrounds, covering the colour red, starting from a white base made with pencil, shading is done, and those flat colours are filled in, tattoos, like shading on some fabrics, etc. These are very mechanical tasks, but in the end, they can add up to 60% of the time dedicated to the artwork.

advertising, I do not want my artworks to resemble mere photographs from Vogue. That is why I seek distinctive features that deviate from the typical or conventional, while still conveying strength and sweetness at the same time. Achieving this delicate balance is a constant challenge in my work as an artist.

Can you describe the process behind each work?

The artistic process begins with the idea of what I want to create. My work

always revolves around women and how they convey different emotions. I try to approach this in an ironic way and search for elements that bring that story into the present, giving it a pop and ironic touch. Basically, when you are in front of the artwork, you see something beautiful and technically well-executed that attracts you and invites you to approach. And when you get closer, you discover more details that make you smile, think, and reflect.

Once I have that clear, I select the model,

which can be a complicated process.

And we put her in a character, whether real or conceptual, and look for the appropriate elements such as fabrics, sparkles, textures, colors, and even objects like a cake, a baseball bat, or a motorcycle. Then, we carry out a photo shoot, which is the creative part of my work. My focus is very realistic, so the creativity lies in the photo shoot. What cannot be captured in the photoshoot cannot be captured afterwards. After having around 350 images, I select approximately 15 that aesthetically

How do you choose your models?

It is certainly complicated. My main goal is for people to fall in love with the character we have created when they see my paintings, rather than becoming obsessed with the model. Beauty is the central focus for me, but there are many types of beauty. Capturing the typical beauty seen in a fashion magazine with a model is easy, but I am searching for something deeper. My objective is to find a beauty that conveys personality and character. Coming from the world of La vergine del latte yoda II

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Interview / Madrid / Gabriel Moreno December 2023 - February 2024 MADRID Continued

and conceptually represent what I want to convey. From there, I use those photographs as a reference to draw and create the paintings, using pure drawing techniques. This part is not boring, it’s exciting! I can see what I have in mind, and the photograph is reflected in the painting, in the lines. Conveying the sensuality of a gaze, the sweetness or strength through drawing is thrilling, but it depends on the image being able to reflect what we have achieved in the photo shoot.

What’s the meaning behind the tattoos?

The specific meaning of each tattoo is not important, it is more about the concept that these tattoos encapsulate, what they represent. They come from my work as an advertising illustrator, where I used tattoos extensively with models to convey messages. If it was a perfume, the tattoo would consist of flowers related to the fragrance, forming part of the concept. This became a trademark of my illustration. As I transitioned into the world of art and wanted to distance myself from that superficiality, I wanted to try to bring that element in a more real and less superficial way. For that, I was searching for tattoos that had personality, and I found two types that caught my attention: Japanese tattoos and Russian tattoos. Both have a rich history, and through them, one can see the history of their respective countries... In the end, I chose Russian tattoos because Japanese tattoos, despite having a profound meaning and trajectory, were too aesthetic. I wanted something that contrasted with the beauty of the model and the roughness of the tattoo... Specifically those from Russian prisons, on Russian prisoners, from the time of the Tsars to the Soviet Union era. They are very interesting tattoos, grotesque and rough, with very harsh messages. I am not so interested in the messages they convey, but rather in the fact that they are tattoos from Russian prisoners, made by themselves, with codes, meaning, and a history that varies depending on the political climate. When you see them, they transport you to a type of person who is tough, violent, with stories and scars.

That contrast between the beauty of the model and the roughness of the tattoo was what I was looking for, just as I wanted the tattoo design to have a contrast between black and white, and an aesthetic strength.

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Are there any artists, styles, or eras in time that inspire you and you find inspiration for your work?

Well, of the classics for my type of work, which is very aesthetic and focused on drawing, Egon Schiele and Gustav Klimt are the artists who have always interested me. Edvard Munch also inspires me for his expressiveness, but there aren’t many who inspire me.

It’s not because they lack quality, but rather because they must adapt to my drawing technique and artistic vision. In addition, I follow many artists like Frank Shepard, OBEY, and Roberta Coni. With today’s social media, I am constantly seeing images of other artists. There are many that I follow, enjoy, and have at home, but I couldn’t single out a specific one as a reference when creating my works.

QUEEN´S TIME-OUT VI

You’ve been commissioned by many known brands. Have you had to refuse any or are there any standards that you stick to when collaborating with a brand to illustrate for them?

Yes, one works for many brands, and probably many have reasons not to work with them all because if we analyse important brands, either their factories exploit people, or the type of materials they use are not the best for the planet.

I have only refused one project for a religious organization because I didn’t share their beliefs.

Is there anything that you have come to like or dislike in the art world?

From the world of art, I like everything, and I dislike everything. Everything has its good side and its bad side. I come from the world of advertising and receiving changes in your work, having your creativity questioned, having changes made, all of that is very frustrating. In the art world, I work alone and do whatever I want. I decide what I’m going to do. But working alone without projects is boring, very lonely.

Sometimes you need the opinion of other people, but as an artist, I have my people, my team, who contribute ideas to me. In the end, I decide. When you’re in advertising, it’s not you who decides - you have a client who tells you what to do.

Having a solo exhibition or going to an art fair is wonderful, but the pressure in the art world is much greater than when I worked as an advertising illustrator. The competition with other artists, selling, creating new things... You decide what you want to do, but you also must be

constantly innovating and deciding what to do and what not to do. That’s why you’re always under a lot of pressure.

You feel like the next month you’ll stop selling artworks, that you’ll stop being liked. Sometimes it gets boring because you live with constant pressure. But the wonderful thing is that you create your own path, guide your career, and make your own decisions.

What’s your favourite art fair to visit or participate in?

My favorite fair is ArtMiami, during Art Basel week, because it is a fair that fits

with my type of art, with my level, with where I am right now. Everything you see contributes to you. There are other fairs that are more conceptual and very interesting, but as an artist, they don’t contribute to me, like Art Basel. During that week in Miami, all the galleries and artists from around the world come together. There can be 20 or 30 fairs happening at the same time. If you’re an artist, you have to be there that week.

Whether you exhibit or not, it’s a week where you can see what is being done and what is not. It’s like being in the Disneyland of the art world.

do a photo shoot, many ideas arise. It’s the work, I don’t believe in moments of divine inspiration. When you’re a soccer player and you play a lot and train a lot, new passes emerge, and that’s the work.

much expression!’ That’s what I enjoy, but during the 12 hours I spend drawing eyes I listen to informative podcasts, topics that keep me interested and make the time pass, not music.

What’s a typical weekday for you?

Do you have any morning or evening rituals?

Well, a normal day for me is quite boring. I leave home and head to work at eight in the morning. I work until about midnight. Then I get some sleep and wake up to prepare for the ArtMiami works. This has been the routine for the past 2 months. Under normal circumstances, when I don’t have such a heavy workload, I wake up at seven in the morning and take my children to school. After that, I usually go to the pool and the gym, as artists, especially illustrators, have back problems and need to take care of ourselves to continue painting. Then, I arrive at my studio and spend the day drawing until night comes and I rest a little to sleep. In summary, my normal day doesn’t have much magic.

What’s next?

I have a solo exhibition around the beginning of June at the largest gallery that Bartoux has in Paris, which is quite big. I will participate with around 30 artworks. That will keep me very busy until the opening day, so I don’t think I’ll have time to breathe until then!

What do you do to take a break?

When I take a break, there isn’t much magic either. I do sports as much as I can to take care of my back, which is in very bad condition. I try to take good care of myself because my future depends on it. My future depends more on my physical health than whether my work evolves or maintains its quality. If I don’t have good health, I can’t continue working. In my free time I try to take care of myself by going to the gym, swimming, and drawing. I don’t have any free time during the day. On weekends, I might have a little more time, although I also draw on weekends. But... going to the movies, reading... hmmm... what do I do when I’m not working? Reading is what I enjoy the most and it’s also somewhat inspiring for me, apart from being with my family. In other words, working, being with family, and reading.

Unfortunately, there’s no more time left.

How do you stay inspired?

There isn’t a specific process to inspire me, it’s just being alive! It’s living, going to exhibitions. Nowadays, Instagram, social media, and the internet have unfortunately replaced art books. I follow many artists who inspire me, people I admire, but it’s not a process or ritual to inspire me. I don’t believe in inspiration; I believe in visual culture. Inspiration is having knowledge, knowing what other artists do, going to exhibitions, going to museums, but to acquire knowledge and fill your mind with styles, trends, ways of painting, ways of doing things.

Except in some cases where, knowing something new, an idea comes to you, apart from that, inspiration does not exist. I think it’s better to think that it’s work, work, work. When you’re working, all your senses are focused on what you’re doing, and while you’re doing it, you think, “What if I do it this way?

Or if I do it another way?” Sometimes, there’s a mistake and something I like comes out of it, and I say, “I’m going to use this more.” And this can lead you to something else. Work is what inspires you, working 12 hours a day, developing your technique. When you’re going to

How would you describe your main goal as an artist?

My main goal as an artist is to continue as I am now. My work is drawing, and with that I can afford the lifestyle I have.

I can support my family, pay for my children’s education, and lead the good life I have, of course, with the help of my wife. I draw from the morning, and when people ask me what my job is, I say “drawing.” That was my goal, it was a dream... And maintaining that is the main objective. Once that is granted, which is the most important thing, and for which I am grateful, I am not grateful for “what a wonderful painting I have made now” or “this series is better than the previous one.” No, I am grateful because I wake up in the morning, and my job is to draw. Sometimes I forget that I should be grateful for that, but it is very important.

As an artistic goal, I want my work to have more depth over time and to not get bored. I want to find a challenge in every series I create, not only when it is hanging on the wall, but also while I am creating it. There is not much more that I can control. I cannot control what the audience thinks, if they transcend, who will see them or not. What I can control is how I do it, and by controlling what I do, the results will surely come.

Read full interview online www. artpaper.press

Do you listen to music while you work?

I don’t usually listen to music because in fine arts, we always had headphones with the radio. I am a radio person and I listen to many podcasts because my work while drawing is a bit boring.

My drawing has a lot of detail, it’s very realistic... I spend many, many hours making an eye, making a mouth, making hair. Let’s say I don’t enjoy it much when I’m making the eye, but when I see the finished eye and see the result, I say, ‘Wow, it has turned out so well, it has so

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Exhibition / London / Tate Britain / Sarah Lucas December 2023 - February 2024 LONDON

Sarah Lucas: Happy Gas

T

ate Britain presents a major survey of the work of Sarah Lucas. One of the leading figures of her generation, Lucas is internationally celebrated for her bold and irreverent work, often exploring the human body, mortality, and very British experiences of sex, class and gender.

This exhibition brings together more than 75 works spanning four decades, from breakthrough early sculptures and photographs to brand new works being shown for the first time. Devised in close dialogue with the artist and presented in her own voice, this survey takes a fresh look at Lucas’s practice to date.

Sarah Lucas rose to prominence among the Young British Artists of the early 1990s. She attended Goldsmiths College from 1984-87 and showed her work in Freeze, the legendary exhibition curated by Damien Hirst in 1988.

Exhibiting together and sharing a playful and daring approach to materials and images, this generation challenged the British art world and made an indelible impact on the cultural landscape. Tate Britain’s exhibition begins with some of Lucas’s early works from this era, including those made from tabloid newspaper spreads like Sod You Gits 1990 and Fat, Forty and Flab-ulous 1990. These introduce the artist’s use

of innuendo and word-play, as well as her interest in feminist discourse and representations of the female body. Her early career is also reconsidered as part of a wider story, from her childhood to her life today, highlighting her ongoing examination of social conditions beyond the confines of the art world.

Lucas’ use of chairs, and her evocation of seated figures, have a central role in the exhibition. Lucas explains, “I decided to hang the exhibition mainly on chairs. Much in the same way that I hang sculptures onto chairs”.

Across her career, she has often taken domestic furniture and imbued it with a humorous and unnerving honesty about sex and desire. Tate will bring together a selection of such sculptures from the 1990s, ranging from early examples like The Old Couple 1992 – made from two chairs, a wax penis and a set of false teeth – through to later sculptures like Hysterical Attack (both Eyes and Mouths) both 1999, which formed part of an intervention at the Freud Museum in 2000. Also featured are examples of Lucas’s signature soft sculptures made from stuffed tights, including Mumum 2012 and Bunny 1997, which was shown in the Royal Academy of Art’s landmark 1997 exhibition ‘Sensation’.

The exhibition goes on to explore the growing range of materials used in Lucas’s sculpture, including bronze,

Sarah Lucas Mumum 2012. Private collection. Courtesy the artist and Sadie Coles HQ, London © Sarah Lucas

resin and concrete. This change in materiality was a major departure from the techniques she had been using for decades, including tights and stuffing, cigarettes and food, which were chosen for their immediate availability.

Examples include concrete furniture like Eames Chair 2015, bronze casts of stuffed phallic shapes like DICK ‘EAD 2018, and giant cast concrete vegetables such as Florian and Kevin 2013 which have been installed on the lawn outside Tate Britain to coincide with this exhibition.

Sculptures are juxtaposed with largescale photographs of the artist from throughout her career, including her earliest and most well-known portrait Eating a Banana 1990. Blown up as wallpapers and looking down on her sculptural works, these portraits reflect the important role of the photographic image in Lucas’s practice and set up a dialogue between her older and younger self. This juxtaposition continues with Lucas’s most recent self-portrait series Red Sky 2018 shown alongside several larger-scale sculptures and installations,

including This Jaguar’s Going to Heaven 2018 – a dismantled car clad in thousands of cigarettes – and Exacto 2018 – a chair skewered with fluorescent tube lights. A series of nude plaster casts including Pauline, Sadie and Me (Bar Stool) are reunited, having first been shown in 2015 when Lucas represented Britain at the 56th Venice Biennale.

A highlight of the exhibition is a large gallery of recent sculptures made between 2019 and 2023, including 16 new works displayed for the very first time. Some show a return to the found objects and stuffed tights of Lucas’s early work, such as SUGAR 2020 and CROSS DORIS 2019, while others are rendered in finely cast bronze and resin. These recent works show how Lucas has continued to rethink the themes which have defined her career, including the objectification of the female form and the anthropomorphic potential of everyday objects, while consistently bringing fresh perspectives to her practice.

Until 14 January 2024

Sarah Lucas This Jaguar’s Going to Heaven, 2018. Courtesy of the artist and Gladstone Gallery © Sarah Lucas

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Exhibition / Malta / Sebastian Tanti Burlò December 2023 - February 2024 MALTA

NINA MANGION

EVERYTHING REMAINS THE SAME:

The Beating of Yuhanna

by Sebastian Tanti Burlò

U

nruly school children are herded into single file outside the Oratory in St. John’s Co-Cathedral. They gaze up at the macabre events of Caravaggio’s 1608 ‘masterpiece’, The Beheading of St. John. With visceral shock, they question “Ms! This is it?” This image is ingrained into Maltese collective memory. The Beheading of St. John has become a national icon of Baroque Malta; a historical period and artistic style that aided in the construction of Maltese identity as truly Christian and European.

In a recent exhibition at R Gallery in Sliema, Maltese artist, Sebastian Tanti Burlò, unveiled his parodic appropriation of The Beheading entitled Everything Remains the Same: The Beating of Yuhanna (Hebrew for John). While Burlò’s re-working pokes fun at Malta’s fetishistic “love affair” with Caravaggio’s Beheading through the workings of parody and satire, the artist also harnesses the paintings’ sentimental associations and pays tribute to Caravaggio’s artistic prowess. Burlò’s appropriation combines iconoclasm and idolatry, criticism and nostalgia in a dialectical embrace.

This approach of paradoxically, both calling back-upon and protesting against is undoubtedly the mark of a trickster. Burlò (which translates to joke or mock in Italian and Spanish respectively) intends to destabilise the status quo by using “art as a catalyst to open people’s eyes” and water the seed of change.

Artist at work. Photo by Zvezdan Rejlic

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Everything Remains the Same: The Beating of Yuhanna by Sebastian Tanti Burlò. Photo by Edward Muscat Azzopardi

Just as Caravaggio utilised 17th century dress to insert the Baptist’s execution into the Baroque present, the contemporary events of Burlò’s Beating unfold against the same muted backdrop of the original Beheading.

Fragmented historical periods overlap in a temporal montage as both artists utilise historical citation to speak of present day circumstances, notably violence and injustice. The notion of temporal progression is overturned; re-asserting Everything remains the same.

The striking image of the Baptist’s body is replaced by that of a dark-skinned food courier pinned down by a law enforcement officer who assumes the role of executioner. Baton at his side and knee approaching neck, this stance distinctly recalls the acts of ex-Officer Derek Chauvin who murdered George Floyd in 2020. This event stimulated a global reckoning with systemic discrimination, racial violence, and the

legacies of European colonialism. Here, Burlò conflates racially driven police brutality in the United States and illegal employment practices involving migrant food couriers in Malta, whose labour was likened to ‘slavery’ in a 2022 Times of Malta article. By merging these two transatlantic moments, Burlò’s painting urges viewers to reconsider the all too common ‘here and there’ or ‘us and them’ world view. In doing so, we are forced to confront our own biases and complicity as we witness The Beating enacted before us. Viewers stand, face to face, with a group of bystanders in the painting who, like us, observe the dire situation. Phones out, these voyeuristic onlookers are ready to circulate yet another graphic image. The scene of brutality is repeated within the painting, on the bystanders’ phone-screens, and further proliferated and diluted through social media. Violent imagery is no longer confined to news reports on our living room television screens, violence is portable, carried around in our back

NINA MANGION is a Maltese/British Art Historian, she holds a First Class BA in the History of Art from The University of Oxford. Her principal interests lie in the intersections between art, fashion and performance. Her dissertation, ‘Un-natural Fits?’, focuses on the performative fashion shows of the late Alexander McQueen and their ability to transform bodies, transgress boundaries, and unsettle the human subject. Nina is currently pursuing an MA in Curating.

pockets ready for consumption as spectacle.

Burlò completes The Beating by pasting this graphic image into a context of consumer culture. The onlookers on the right, indifferent to the unfolding events, consume a fast food delivery while the Valletta rats scurry to feast on the sacrificial doner lamb kebab spilling out of the courier’s blood red delivery box. The festering bin-bags carry the discarded material of our daily life like an archaeological remain; a testament to Malta’s growing waste problem and an artefact of our consumer excess.

itself into question as it does the target.

The Beating implicates itself while remaining playfully open to audience’s interrogation, and reimagination; Burlò’s is an exemplary work demonstrating the transformative quality of parodic discourse.

According to the 20th century Cuban poet Severo Surdoy, to be Baroque is to threaten, judge, and parody the bourgeois economy by attacking its symbolic pillars. Burlò’s image of wastefulness, excess, and violent spectacle chimes with the aesthetic logic of the Baroque. While The Beheading inspires resistance, it is hard to ignore the painting’s status as bourgeois commodity. How can we reconcile Burlò’s indictment of middleclass consumer indifference with the ideological conditions of artistic production: the fact that the artwork is itself an object of consumption?

As a political cartoonist and a fine artist, Burlò plays with humour. According to the artist, the medium of humour allows us to process the harsh realities of the world around us – or, in his words “a little bit of sugar helps the medicine go down.” However, parody does more than help us swallow the red pill – it performs a self-reflexive critique, calling Portrait of the artist in his studio Photo by Kathrine Maj

OPEN FROM 12PM EVERY DAY

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Exhibition / Romania / Brâncusi December 2023 - February 2024 ROMANIA

The exhibition Brâncusi: Romanian Sources and Universal Perspectives aims to illustrate the particularity of the artist who managed to create pure forms, free of any influence. By reaching in and extracting the essence of beings and objects, Brâncusi crossed geographical, historical and formal borders and, today, remains an artist who defies all labels.

H

is work was enriched both by his own biographical experiences and by his natural curiosity to continually discover new horizons: he would leave Romania at the age of twenty-eight, on a pilgrimage across Europe, led by the mirage of Paris’s artistic life. Nevertheless, his Romanian heritage would be present in his mind, serving as the foundation of his development as an artist over which he would layer images, shadows and lights long into his years of creative maturity.

Accordingly, the exhibition will highlight the different stages of Brâncusi’s creative career, from his works under the tutelage of the School of Fine Arts in Bucharest and his confrontation with Rodin’s sculpture to the radical decision to abandon modelling in favour of direct carving, which marks a return to primaeval arts and opens the path towards modern art.

The exhibition will benefit from exceptional loans from the National

Museum of Modern Art, Center Pompidou in Paris, Tate Modern in London, the Guggenheim Foundation, Moderna Museet in Stockholm, the National Museum of Art in Bucharest and the Museum of Art in Craiova, as well as from private collections.

One of the most important series included in the show - one on which the artist worked over the course of forty years The Kiss is a thread which runs through Brâncusi’s career. The series opens with the first Kiss carved in 1907 - a turning point in Brâncusi’s career as he adopts the direct cut technique—and gives way to a range of sculptures and numerous drawings, finally climaxing with the complex piece Borne frontière [Border Marker], completed in 1945.

Borne frontière is his only sculpture related to a historical event from his native country: moved by the events between 1940 and 1945, when Romania lost parts of its territory, Brâncusi expands the meaning of the lovers’ intimacy to incorporate a more general sense of unity and understanding, of

peace. The work will translate as a manifesto of sorts at the core of the upcoming exhibition.

Additionally, other important series will be included in the show, such as the busts of children or the busts of women (like La Muse endormie or Mlle Pogany) and the series of Bird in space, the first version of which, Maïastra, is inspired directly from Romanian folktales; along with sculptures in wood, like the Endless Column (an important element of the Monumental Ensemble in Târgu Jiu), all of which will be displayed in order to show the sculptor’s attachment to figures and narrative created to his formative years in Romania.

Moreover, a significant part of Brâncusi’s work was devoted to photography, to which he applied himself with passion.

An important set of photographs from public and private collections will be displayed in order to complete the portrait of this great artist of the 20th century.

For Romanian and international guests

- as Timisoara is the 2023 European Capital of Culture - the exhibition represents a special opportunity to discover and admire the works by the artist who managed to wield the cultural heritage of his country in the most subtle of ways, imbuing it with universal values. In one of his workshop notes, probably written at an old age, Brâncusi shares his vision of a world without borders, in which all the natural elements - from beings and plants to geological phenomena - contribute to the harmony of creation: “My homeland, my family. It’s the earth that turns, the breath of wind, the floating clouds, the river flowing, the scorching fire, the green grass — the dry grass — dust, snow.” This note expresses the cosmogonic conception which is at the centre of Brâncusi’s work when seen as a whole, and which the exhibition hopes to convey.

Brâncusi: Romanian Sources and Universal Perspectives, runs until the 28th of January 2024, at Timisoara National Art Museum in Romania.

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Photo by Catalin Georgescu, www.catalingeorgescu.com

Brâncusi: Romanian Sources and Universal Perspectives

Exhibition / UAE /Louvre Abu Dhabi December 2023 - February 2024 UAE

Picturing the Cosmos

ATELIER BRÜCKNER DESIGNS CHILDREN’S MUSEUM Louvre Abu Dhabi. Picturing the Cosmos, Ground Floor: Cosmos Gallery. Photo by Daniel Stauch

T

he Louvre Abu Dhabi is presenting the exhibition Picturing the Cosmos until June 2025. It was designed

by Atelier Brückner for the children’s museum, a separate building within the iconic architecture of French architect Jean Nouvel. Through original objects, works of art and artefacts, children and young people are given access to the cosmos: playfully, scientifically, immersively – a curated experience over three floors.

Each floor is designed differently: the ground floor is dark and magical like a starry sky, the upper floor is technical and bright like a spaceship, and the basement, where Mars can be explored, is completely bathed in orange. The young museum visitors immerse themselves in worlds of experience and conquer their own knowledge: They scan their barcode wristband, answer questions and receive information according to their age group and chosen language (English, French or Arabic).

The interactive journey - Picturing the Cosmos - starts with the Cosmos Gallery on the ground floor of the Louvre Abu Dhabi Children’s Museum. Here it is all about man’s view of the heavens.

Contemplate, Narrate, Measure are the three ways in which mankind appropriates the cosmos. The objects on display illustrate this. There are measuring instruments, including an astrolabe (North Africa, 1726/27) and a sextant (Europe, 19th century),

as well as works of art: a 2200-yearold Egyptian stele depicting a starry sky and a Hellenistic terracotta bowl showing a solar chariot, both on loan from the Louvre in Paris. A celestial globe dated 1750 comes from the Bibliothèque National de France. The children can explore its constellations at a media station. The object labels are designed differently according to the subject area. They open like little doors to another world, can be slid open or turned over like a book.

Futuristic-looking binoculars point the young museum visitors towards celestial bodies and constellations projected onto the surrounding walls - including an aeroplane and shooting stars. The information on the display quenches their thirst for knowledge. Finally, in the centre of the room, a black box offers an immersive experience: projected stars, planets and the Milky Way, mirrored several times, convey a feeling of infinity.

meteorites. At the “Create your own image of the sky” media table, they discover how colouring makes telescope images easier to read and can create their own image by adjusting the colour. The “Spacewalk through Infinity” also offers a playful experience: the artistically designed room installation works with backlit globes and mirrored walls. The abstract celestial bodies change colour as soon as the young museum visitors approach them.

Finally, visitors can reach the Mars Station by lift. It is located in the basement of the museum. Everything here is bathed in orange light. First, the children learn about the requirements for exploring this planet. At the “Mission Desk”, with its interactive RFID station, they can find out what missions will be possible on Mars in the future. They can then choose which of these missions they would like to carry out in the adjacent outdoor area.

The outdoor area is designed as a training ground. Here, children can playfully explore the Martian landscape with hills, obstacles, and an integrated trampoline. Analogue stations provide information about life on Mars: there is a Mars construction camp, a rover mission where rocks are collected for research purposes, and a plant station where the question is whether and how plants can be grown on Mars. The Martian landscape becomes a spatial experience: large-scale printed views surround the outer walls of the play area.

The way back to earth is through a space tunnel. The long, illuminated corridor leads to the galleries of the Louvre Abu Dhabi. Here you can continue your visit to the museum.

Picturing the Cosmos was developed by the Louvre Abu Dhabi in partnership with the Mubadala Investment Company, the UAE Space Agency, and the Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Centre.

With the support of France Museums, the museum has received major loans from the Bibliothèque Nationale de France, the Musée des Arts Décoratifs, the Musée du Louvre, the Musée d’Orsay, the Musée du Quai Branly Jacques Chirac, the Musée Guimet and the Centre Pompidou. There are also loans from the Department of Culture and Tourism - Abu Dhabi (Natural History Museum Abu Dhabi), the UAE Space Agency and the Sharjah Museums Authority (Sharjah Maritime Museum).

Atelier Brückner, as general planner, was responsible for the design of the exhibition and the overall concept.

With 130 employees, Atelier Brückner is one of the world’s leading exhibition designers. The company has offices in Stuttgart and Seoul. It creates narrative spaces for museums, brand and visitor centres. The focus is on communicating content emotionally – as a lasting experience.

Museum exhibitions for children are an important part of Atelier Brückner’s work. The Children Rainbow Land at the Shanghai Science and Technology Museum and the Junior Museum at the Rautenstrauch-Joest-Museum in Cologne opened in 2010. Between 2016 and 2019, the Nobel Foundation presented several exhibitions for children, designed by Atelier Brückner, in Dubai. One of Atelier Brückner’s current major projects is the Grand Egyptian Museum in Giza, which includes a 3,500 square metres children’s museum. Recently the Future Heroes children’s museum opened at the Museum of the Future in Dubai.

The staircase, with its impressive lighting, is the prelude to your own expedition into space. The first floor, entitled “explore”, resembles a spaceship. The focus here is on space travel and related research experiments. Recorded films from an Emirati spacecraft complete the experience. The attraction is an original astronaut’s suit from the UAE Space Agency, which pulls visitors into space from the entrance.

Various research stations invite you to experiment: Children can investigate the weight and magnetism of artificial Louvre Abu Dhabi. Architecture: Jean Nouvel. Photo by Daniel Stauch

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