Last October, as tutors in the Faculty of the Built Environment we presented to students of architecture the brief for their first design workshop of the year:
‘Foreigners Everywhere’, the theme of the, then upcoming, Biennale Arte in Venice. We wanted students to unpack the theme chosen by the designated Brazilian curator Adriano Pedrosa, investigate his self-declared interest in the artwork by French feminist collective Claire Fontaine and the title of the work which had inspired it. The theme encapsulated our zeitgeist. With it, came an opportunity to understand what role we - architects, artists, curators - were to play within our changing world…. Months later, I find myself walking along the canals of Venice.
>> Review, pg. 18
Whispers from the Corners of her Mind
“Being that my photography has always been an outlet for me - a form of therapy and an attempt to find understanding; During my visit to Australia in 2020, I was grappling with personal struggles while witnessing the devastation of the bushfires. The world seemed to be burning around me, which in some obscure way paralleled the internal chaos that I was experiencing.”
>> Interview with photographic artist Sahhara, pg. 25
C Contents / Highlights
June - October 2024
Initiated during the infamous pandemic, the project invited individuals to share their deepest thoughts and desires via an anonymous online platform.
“This leads me to make the first semantic association that the theme allows for: in this biennial, foreigners are a symbol of transience, displacement and otherness; they come to signify a disruptor, a change in narrative, a harbinger of a time of shift.”
PAGE 18
A visual arts project and exhibition that focuses on community collaboration by
“This project is possibly the one that I consider being the most relevant in my career, due to the impact and the links that have been generated between the painting and the collaboration with children and young people living in the shelter. The mural is a celebration of family and life…”
PAGE 08
A street art project by Pep Walls titled ‘Reach for the Stars’
“His rebellion against figurative art drove him to produce the abstract elements and characteristics he is known for today. His need to delve into the ‘autonomy of painting as an independent object’ catapulted his creativity into new and unexplored horizons.”
PAGE 10
The Eye & the Symbol: The Permanent Collection is currently being exhibited at the Victor Pasmore Gallery
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Lily Agius
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Nicholas Cutajar
Writers + Contributors
Andrew Borg Wirth
Gabriel Buttigieg
Maria Luisa Catrambone
Liotta
Joanna Delia
Hannah Dowling
Pep Walls
The Biennale Arte 2024 in Venice as seen by Andrew Borg Wirth
“I feel pushed to try to capture the raw, unfiltered emotions that are so part of the human experience, sometimes through more minimal portraiture, and sometimes through larger story set-ups. My work is almost always reflecting themes and experiences that are personal to me.”
PAGE 25
Artists Featured CO-MA
Matthew Attard
Jamie Barbara
Aaron Bezzina
Keith Bonnici
Austin Camilleri
Florinda Camilleri
Ed Dingli
Maia Martinha
Justyna Olszewska
Pattara
Sahhara
Arcangelo Sassolino
Ritty Tacsum
Outi Tuomaala
Julian Vassallo
Pep Walls
Isaac Warrington
An interview with Sahhara – a nomad Scottish-Maltese photographer,
“And I am sick of not seeing enough anger and angry, sexual violence, and bloody victims and degraded, helpless, desperate, abused limp figures in the works of artists in Malta. Of course, it’s not up to me, or to anyone else to tell artists what to do, but the lack of reflections on frustrating realities by the local artistic community and the absence of reactions explosive or not, to social ills is astounding.”
PAGE 29
Dr Joanna Delia and Maria Louisa Liotta Catrambone discuss Art and Gender Based Violence
Museums + Galleries
2B Gallery
Christine X Art Gallery
Lily Agius Gallery
Luginsland of Art
Malta Society of Arts
Malta Postal Museum & Arts Hub
MICAS
Omenaart Foundation
Spajzu Kreattiv
The Malta Society of Arts
The Victor Pasmore Gallery
Valletta Contemporary
Supported by
AP Valletta
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Chemimart
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Teatru Manoel
VeeGeeBee Art Supplies
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News / Malta / Exhibitions
June - October 2024
MagiC Carpets
Beyond What Drifts Us Apart
Beyond What Drifts Us Apart is an interdisciplinary, site-specific project developed and curated by Elyse Tonna. The multi-year researchbased project attempts to uncover the less dominant narratives associated with the environments surrounding historic coastal towers and the consequent relationships between the impacted landscapes and non-human communities. In 2024, the project centres within and around the Dwejra Tower in Gozo, Malta. Artists have been invited to develop reactionary works in response to the site and a curatorial framework which overlaps aspects related to ecological thinking, frontiers and post-fossil fuel narratives.
Beyond What Drifts Us Apart is a collaboration with the Istanbul-based Mahalla Festival organised by the cultural organisation Diyalog, including site-specific artistic interventions, artists residencies and community-oriented activities, and is part of the MagiC Carpets Platform, co-funded by the European Union’s Creative Europe program. The MagiC Carpets Platform brings together 21 European cultural organisations, coordinated by Kaunas Biennial in Lithuania, offering opportunities for emerging artists to explore little-known areas and to create - together with local communities - new works that bring to light regional particularities and traditions.
The artist-in-residence runs until the 24th of July, and the exhibition will be open from the 20th to the 28th of July. Participating Artists are Keit Bonnici (MT), Maia Martinha (PT), Jamie Barbara (MT), Justyna Olszewska (PL), Florinda Camilleri (MT), Isaac Warrington (MT) with guest Gegwigija. Cofunded by the European Union’s Creative Europe programme, and Arts Council Malta. For more information visit https://www.unfinishedartspace.org/projects/magiccarpets
DISCLOSURE
BY RITTY TACSUM AT THE MALTA SOCIETY OF ARTS
Experimental photographer and multimedia artist Ritty Tacsum is set to make a return to Malta with her latest visual arts project, ‘Disclosure’. This marks Tacsum’s first solo show in Malta since the 2019 exhibition, titled ‘Where I Lay Down’.
‘Disclosure’ is a visual arts project that focuses on community collaboration. Initiated by Ritty Tacsum, during the infamous pandemic, the project invited individuals to share their deepest thoughts and desires vis an anonymous online platform, set up by the artist, in 2020. The project received hundreds of anonymous submissions, which in turn, became the foundation for Tacsum’s collection. Out of these disclosed confessions, ‘a few’ and were selected and transformed into visual ‘tableaus’.
Thus, the success of ‘Disclosure’ hinges on the active participation of the community. The personal stories, deep seethed desires, fantasies and emotions shared by participants were crucial to the project’s process, implementation, and ultimate success. This collaborative effort between the artist and the community has resulted in a moving collection of visual art pieces that reflect a collective consciousness, yet which are unmistakably interpreted and represented in the artist’s unique style and haunting aesthetic.
Ritty Tacsum (b.1990) is a Maltabased experimental photographer and multimedia artist known for her multi-layered storytelling and narrative-driven work. Her
art frequently explores themes of memory, context, time, and place, with a notable emphasis on architectural elements and surreal settings. Tacsum’s work often features masked anamorphic or androgynous figures, creating a sense of mystery and introspection. Disclosure is curated by Lisa Gwen, 25 July to 14 August 2024.
https://artsmalta.org/event/ disclosure-an-exhibition-by-rittytacsum/. For more information contact info@rittytacsum.com or visit www.rittytacsum.com
MALTA
Empty Gold Man Black
Photo by Paweł Ławreszuk
‘SPACE & TIME’ - ‘ART & LEGACY’
LuginsLand of Art closes its door for the next phase of restoration with the last educational panel ‘Art & Legacy’.
On the 31st of May, LuginsLand of Art invited an audience for the last Educational Panel, and closing event of the exhibition ‘Space & Time’‘Art & Legacy’. The visitors had a unique opportunity to take part in a curatorial exhibition tour followed by the talk on the significance of artistic legacy and its preservation in shaping collective memory. Facilitated by Cultural Manager of LuginsLand of Art, Maria Galea, it was the last event before LuginsLand of Art closes its door for the next phase of the restoration process.
Raffaella Zammit, The director of the Gabriel Caruana Foundation, started the panel sharing insights on the preserving legacy of the artist and her father Gabriel Caruana. She also pointed out the initiatives of the foundation and their impact on the local community, as well as the future plans and goals following her father’s artistic vision.
Artist Austin Camilleri discussed his
artwork exhibited at the Space & Time exhibition and the impact of art and architecture on our history and identity. He discussed the role of the public in preserving historical narratives as well as sharing his personal experience of contributing to the legacy of Maltese art.
The session was continued by Gaston Camilleri, leading architect at Villa Luginsland, who talked about his approach to the restoration process of the Villa and the significance of its artistic heritage. He also mentioned challenges encountered during the process and the role of architects in preserving cultural sites.
Candlelight Concerts
Fever, the live-entertainment discovery platform known for helping millions of people find the best experiences in their cities, is once again bringing Candlelight Concerts to Malta. The Candlelight concerts will present performances at the iconic hotel The Phoenicia Malta with musical programs including tributes to contemporary artists like Queen as well as shows dedicated to movie soundtracks.
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.
Candlelight Concerts is known for to taking classical performances out of their usual concert halls and into unique venues that form part of each city’s cultural heritage. Launched in 2019, they have already been held in unique locations, including the Atomium (Brussels), Tour Eiffel (Paris), Burj Al Arab Jumeirah (Dubai), and others across America, Oceania, Europe, the Middle East and Asia.
A Tribute to Queen takes place on July 25th at 7pm with string quartet Omnia String; The Best of Hans Zimmer is also on the 25th of July, at 9pm, with string quartet Cordia String, both at The Phoenicia Malta. Tickets are available on the Fever platform starting at €33.
“Reach the stars”
A STREET ART PROJECT BY PEP WALLS
Pep Walls, a Barcelona-based street artist, curated a street art exhibition titled “Outside In” happening in Strait Street last summer - coorganinsed with Malta-based artist Julien Vinet – and this summer he has started work on a large mural in Balluta Bay, as part of by the Malta International Arts Festival.
The mural has been painted in two parts, with the lower part being created together with the children and young people living in the residency and the upper part being painted by Pep Walls using a lifting platform. The children are participating in the creative process since the mural aims to communicate their ambitions and concerns: family, mental health and ambitions for the future. The aim of this project is to give the boys and girls a voice and to create a distinctive and welcoming home.
The artist concludes, “This project is possibly the one that I consider being the most relevant in my career, due to the impact and the links that have been generated between the painting and the collaboration with children and young people living in the shelter. The mural is a celebration of family and life. It’s an invitation to dream and to persevere to achieve our highest aspirations. And above all it’s an experience that I will always remember as I am sure will all those who have participated.”
www.pepwalls.com
LIGHT, SHADOW & SHAPE
An exhibition by Outi Tuomaala opens at the MPM Arts Hub in Valletta
Step into the world of Outi Tuomaala’s photography and experience the beauty of light, shadow, and shape, until the 11th of July. Currently based in Belgium, Outi has spent more than half of her life abroad exploring several countries. Inspired by her time in Morocco, from 2012 to 2014, Outi’s work captures the essence of her surroundings, transforming everyday scenes into mesmerising black and white compositions. Through her lens she explores geometric shapes, abstractions, and the interplay of light and shadows, inviting viewers to slow down, observe, and appreciate the beauty of simplicity.
Malta Postal Museum & Arts Hub, 135, Archbishop Street, Valletta www.maltapostalmuseum.com
MALTA
Photo by Nicole Quek
Photo by Brian Grech
Will there be another Malta Design Week?
08 Association, known for organising popular design events such as Malta Design Week (MDW), is excited to announce a new leadership team for its Executive Committee.
Originally set up by Chris Briffa, Albert Delia and Justin Schembri in 2011, the non-profit voluntary organisation is dedicated to increasing public appreciation and understanding of design through collaboration with design practitioners, policymakers and organisations that recognise design as a force for good.
After successfully hosting Malta Design Week in 2011 and 2014, as well as other design-related events over the years, the
founding members have handed itover to a new team: Karolina Rostkowska, an entrepreneur in the creative sector, Maria Galea cultural strategist, curator and art advisor and Elyse Tonna, curator and design architect.
“Malta Design Week was always a curious exploration of every imaginable design discipline. We aim to build upon that mission with an emphasis on experimentation, innovation, and the development of expertise and talent. We will continue to highlight the importance of design in our everyday lives and once again make space for emerging and established design talent”, states Karolina Rostkowska, the new President of 808 Association.
The 808 Association will work closely
with industry insiders to understand their needs, which in turn will facilitate the planning and implementation of design-related activities effectively. These include multidisciplinary events such as exhibitions, creative incubators, performances, lectures, networking events, public meetings, conferences and fairs.
The new team behind the 808 Association brings a blend of skills and fresh perspectives, which will help broaden the existing vision of the organisation. They aim to advance their mission by continuing the renowned Malta Design Week and introducing Malta Art Week, the new event focusing on integrating local and international stakeholders from the art world.
The industry practitioners
and partners who believe that design is a necessity to shape our collective future are encouraged to reach out to the 808 Association to discuss collaboration.
808 Association
Email: info@maltadesignweek.com
Website: www.maltadesignweek.com
Instagram: maltadesignweek
Facebook: maltadesignwk
Photo by Sean Mallia
News / Malta / Exhibitions
June - October 2024
V The Eye & the Symbol
ictor Pasmore (19081998) is regarded as one of the most influential figures in the modern art movement of the 20th century both locally and internationally. His rebellion against figurative art drove him to produce the abstract elements and characteristics he is known for today. His need to delve into the ‘autonomy of painting as an independent object’ catapulted his creativity into new and unexplored horizons. As a result, it was during this time that hecreated some of his most celebrated works.
Some of these pieces are currently displayed at the Victor Pasmore Gallery in Valletta, for The Eye & the Symbol, The Permanent Collection. This collection is made up of familiar and never-seenbefore paintings the artist completed during the three decades he spent living in Malta. The Eye & the Symbol takes spectators on a journey that examines Pasmore’s relationship with Malta through the various elements, mediums
The Permanent
Collection
at the Victor Pasmore Gallery
and materials he used. Moreover, the works displayed at the gallery effectively outline Pasmore’s artistic metamorphosis along with his penchant for symbolism and metaphors – an infatuation which was undoubtedly influenced by his close proximity to Malta’s neolithic past.
Victor Pasmore and his wife Wendy chose Malta as their home in 1966 while looking for a holiday home in a warm, sunny and English-speaking place. The Maltese islands were suggested to
Nghaddu z-Zmien . .
An exhibition of paintings by Patarra & Ed Dingli
The whole culture is telling you to hurry, while the art tells to take your time. Always listen to the art.
A Portuguese artist living in Malta and a Maltese artist living in Portugal will interpret the culture and countries where they are currently based.
‘Nghaddu z-Zmien’ is an exhibition
of paintings by Patarra & Ed Dingli, curated by Andrew Borg Wirth at the Malta Society of Arts, Palazzo de La Salle, Valletta, from the 27th of June until the 18th of July.
As both countries face a wave of homogenisation in the wake of globalisation, the artists explore the everyday nuances of quotidian culture which give a country and a people their identity, and try to find their place within it all.
them during the 1965 Venice Biennale, followed by unsuccessful visits to Ibiza and Mallorca. Their relocation to the secluded town of Gudja, along with the change of scenery and friendships, heralded Pasmore’s artistic explorations into a new direction – his craving to develop new art forms and rediscover light and colour was satiated by the changes the move brought with it. While living in Malta, Pasmore used the many hardware stores around the island from which he regularly sourced materials to
A rooftop concert at the Catholic Institute in Floriana will take place on Sunday 7th July, featuring Maltese and Portuguese talent Mariele Zammit, Joe Debono, Acácio Barbosa and Rachelle Deguara. Tickets from Showshappening.
A project supported by the Archbishop’s Delegate for Culture, Uber, Rubicon, Frendo Advisory, APS Bank, Stretta Beer, Attard & Co and iLab Photo.
Follow the artists and curator on Instagram for more updates: @eddingles @patarra_ @aborgwirth
create his abstract works.
While there have been multiple attempts to explore Malta’s influence on Pasmore’s art, such observations contradict Pasmore’s tireless quest for the independence of painting. Pasmore continuously sought to present his art as an unrestricted creation that was not bound by a sense of place and time, however, it’s possible that being so close to Malta’s primitive and ancient past may have subconsciously awakened untapped aspects in the artist’s mind, creating a quasi-nostalgic abstraction of place, space and time within Pasmore’s later work.
The Victor Pasmore Gallery is be open from Tuesdays to Thursdays between 10am and 5pm (last entry at 4pm) Fridays between 2pm and 7pm (last entry at 6pm) and Saturdays between 10am and 3pm (last entry at 2pm). Tickets can be purchased at the door. The Victor Pasmore Gallery is located at APS House, 275, St Paul Street, Valletta.
Photo by Lisa Attard
News / Malta / Exhibtion
June - October 2024
MALTA
MERCURY RISING
VAn Urban Transformation by Zaha Hadid Architects: The intersection of art, architecture, and community through the lens of one of the most groundbreaking architectural firms of our time.
PHOTOGRAPHY BY JULIAN VASSALLO
alletta Contemporary recently hosted “Mercury Rising”, an exhibition showcasing the profound impact of Zaha Hadid Architects on the urban landscape of St Julian’s. The exhibition ran from the 24th of May to the 13th of July, highlighting the architectural innovation and community transformation brought about by the Mercury Towers.
Mercury Towers stands as an architectural impression, transcending conventional boundaries and redefining the skyline with its avant-garde design. Its presence has catalysed a metamorphosis of the surrounding landscape, breathing new life into the neighbourhood, making it a more welcoming environment for families and the community. Through a lens of innovation, Mercury Towers emerges as a beacon of progress and community cohesion.
The exhibition featured sevocative black-and-white large-format analogue photography by Julian Vassallo. His series, “Mercury Rising,” documents the transformation of one of Malta’s most fast-paced and commodified urban areas. Vassallo’s contemplative and demanding medium contrasts with the rapid urban changes, allowing viewers to suspend preconceived notions and abstract the architectural qualities of Mercury Tower, leading to a deeper understanding of its transformative impact.
“The series of photographs taken at different stages of the construction of Mercury Towers follows their assertion on the existing built environment by scrutinizing some of their most tangible
qualities, such as their engineered detailing and complex forms,” says Vassallo. “As a result of the process, unexpected and personal images emerge, constantly surpassing their
origins similarly to the ‘authentically poetic image’ theorized by G. Bachelard, emerging from a form of difficult transcendence of knowledge.”
Zaha Hadid Architects, the visionary force behind the Mercury project, are also contributors to this exhibition, providing insight into the design and development of Mercury Tower. As lead architects, their innovative approach has not only reshaped the skyline but also fostered a sense of community and progress in St Julian’s.
The artists Malta International Contemporary Art Space (MICAS) will host
The 2024-2026 artistic programme at MICAS
Malta’s first-ever museum dedicated to contemporary art – Malta International Contemporary Art Space (MICAS) –opens its doors to the public in October 2024 with an inaugural programme that begins with visionary Portuguese artist Joana Vasconcelos. In addition to Vasconcelos – recently commissioned to outfit the stage for Christian Dior’s 2023-2024 Paris Fashion Week show – future exhibitions will feature works from Milton Avery, and Reggie Burrows Hodges.
A two-year schedule includes five diverse exhibitions that feature international artists and Malta’s celebrated artists. Against the backdrop of the restored 17th century Ospizio fortress, visitors
will encounter a multifaceted campus that comprises indoor gallery spaces, outdoor sculpture gardens, and a café.
“We are proud that our programme establishes an identity for Malta Contemporary in a crowded global art scene while reaffirming our artistic independence,” said Phyllis Muscat, MICAS CEO and Chair of the Board. “This sets MICAS apart from other government-funded cultural organisations and aligns us with international not-for-profit museums.”
November 2024: Ray Pitre
To celebrate the inauguration of a major newly commissioned sculpture by the celebrated Maltese artist Ray Pitre (b. Malta, 1940), a display of drawings, paintings and a smaller sculpture by Pitre relating to this outdoor sculpture is planned for the museum’s fourth floor space, access to all this work will be free of charge.
February 2026 – June 2026: Reggie Burrows Hodges
May 2025 – August 2025: Malta in Focus
In its second exhibition, Malta Contemporary will present a curated exhibition featuring leading Maltabased contemporary artists. Selected and installed around the concept of imagined space, the exhibition will include artists from across generations and media to illustrate the richness of contemporary Maltese practice. It will also mark the beginning of regular exhibitions within the programme that explore and showcase Malta-based artists. Artists featured will include Caesar Attard, Austin Camilleri and Anton Grech, amongst others. Malta in Focus will be a manifestation of Malta Contemporary’s commitment to celebrate Maltese art at its highest form, bringing it to a wider international stage and contextualising it within the overall exhibition programme.
October 2025 – January 2026: Milton Avery and his Influence on Contemporary art
Considered one of America’s greatest 20th century colourists, the New York Times wrote: “Only Matisse – to whose art he owed much, of course – produced a greater achievement in this respect.”
A pillar of the Malta International Contemporary Art Museum programme will be to present the work of global artists who have earned recognition for their singular approach to creating art. African American painter Reggie Burrows Hodges (b. 1965, Compton, California) pursues a strong visual narrative in his works, which explore questions of identity, community and memory.
July 2026 – September 2026: Group Exhibition Exploring Malta’s Geographical Position
This group exhibition will come together around a common theme that intermingles the work of artists across neighbouring countries and continents and will interrogate and celebrate Malta’s unique geographical and historical perspective. In addition to showcasing the work of Maltese artists, the exhibition will focus on art from countries situated nearest to and bordering the Mediterranean – many of which played a significant role in Malta’s rich history.
For more information and updates visit https://micas.art
Joana Vasconcelos, Tree of Life, 2023. Photo by Didier Plowy
Exhibition / Malta / Sassolino / Frascati Café Bar
June - October 2024
SCONFINAMENTI
An exhibition by Arcangelo Sassolino at the newly established University of Malta Gallery of Art
Majestic yet brutalist, heavy yet fragile, graceful yet provocative; the nature of a paradox essentially underlines the contradictory nature of a statement and the conflicting nature of an artwork, with elements that adhere to its understanding. In this respect, the coherent play of paradoxes and the pushing of traditional boundaries in the artistic practice of Arcangelo Sassolino (b. 1967) are at the helm of this understanding, whereby such works offer an intriguing dialogue between traditionality and modernity, the past and the present, the elegance, and the brutality.
By nature, Sassolino’s practice is deeply rooted in mechanisation and the use of industrial-brutalist materials. When contextualising his practice, it evidently emerges as a direct result of industrialisation, where mechanisation and technological advancement became prevalent. Sassolino’s artistic practice bears an interesting position within this context, for Sassolino alters the form of his brutalist materials. By placing enforced mechanised pressure on these materials, namely metal, steel, and concrete, Sassolino aims to ‘push the material past its physical limitations, allowing it to take on a new voice, a new form’ and thus gives ‘a new chance to sculpture.’ As a result, he manipulates his materials
and succeeds in transforming them into elegant creations, as seen in his series of concrete and glass hanging sculptures currently exhibited in an exhibition entitled SCONFINAMENTI at the University of Malta’s Valletta Campus. Sassolino uses mechanisation as a way of extending the life of matter beyond the creative act.
Curated by Keith Sciberras and project managed by Chiara Galea, SCONFINAMENTI is the inaugural exhibition of the newly established University of Malta Gallery of Art located at the Valletta Campus. The exhibition is the result of collaborative work that Sciberras and Sassolino have been undertaking as curator and artist for the past years. This collaboration had at its onset the project ‘Diplomazija Astuta’ (Commissioner: Arts Council Malta; Curators: Keith Sciberras & Jeffrey Uslip; Artists: Arcangelo Sassolino, Giuseppe Schembri Bonaci, Brian Schembri) that was presented as the Malta Pavilion at the 59th International Art Exhibition La Biennale di Venezia in 2022. Emerging directly from his work for ‘Diplomazija Astuta’, Sassolino is also presenting at SCONFINAMENTI a series of works on paper that dialogue with and capture the impact of his drops of molten steel that were at the heart of his impressive and monumental central installation for the Malta Pavilion (2022). Until 30 September 2024.
Discover the Perfect Venue for Your Next Art Exhibition at Frascati Café Bar
Located on the iconic Strait Street in Valletta, Frascati Café Bar is now available for art exhibitions. This unique venue offers a captivating blend of vintage charm and modern convenience, with display space across two floors that perfectly embodies the historic character of Strait Street.
Frascati Café Bar not only provides an inspiring setting for artists to showcase their work but
also offers a range of catering options and entertainment to complement any event. Whether you’re planning an intimate gathering or a grand opening, their dedicated team is here to ensure your exhibition is a success.
For more information or to book your exhibition, please contact Frascati at 7929 5029 or email dine@frascaticafe.com. Explore the perfect blend of art, culture, and hospitality at Frascati Café Bar.
MALTA
22B Gallery Teams Up with Joanna Delia for a Boundary-Breaking Collaboration
B Gallery and Dr Joanna Delia are excited to announce a monumental collaboration, launching a series of solo exhibitions featuring the incredible works of talented Maltese or Malta-based contemporary artists.
Known for its vibrant and boundarypushing exhibits, 2B Gallery brings unique and thought-provoking experiences to its visitors. Founded by cousins Bengy Borg and Josh O’Cock, who are revolutionising the art scene, 2B Gallery is dedicated to elevating the commercial contemporary art scene in Malta. This vision is realised through the fusion of Bengy’s experience in music and events with Josh’s expertise in digital marketing. This marks the beginning of something truly special.
The collaboration aims to expand the growing community of art consumers while working towards internationalising
local talent by participating in established art fairs and art weeks.
Dr Joanna Delia, an avid collector of local contemporary art and a prominent figure in the Maltese art community,
has been instrumental in promoting and expanding the local art landscape, bringing international attention to Malta’s vibrant art scene. Her artpacked home garnered over 100,000 views on the local design YouTube
channel Everhouse. She is committed to supporting living artists and being involved in creating the masterpieces of the future.
This exciting collaboration between 2B Gallery and Joanna Delia is sure to shake things up and draw even more attention to local artistic talent.
The first exhibition from this collaboration featured 12 new works by the Maltese sculptor Aaron Bezzina last May which included two editions, one of which - a contemporary take on portraiture featuring a ‘FACE/ SPLITTER’ - proved to be very popular and resulted in strong sales for the artist. Bezzina has exhibited at prestigious platforms such as The Venice Biennale and the Austrian Cultural Forum in Manhattan, and has won awards at the Larnaca Biennale, among other accolades.
June - October 2024
INSULAPHILIA
THE INAUGURAL EDITION OF THE MALTA BIENNALE 2024 HAS COME TO AN END.
A
word from Sofia Baldi Pighi, the Artistic Director of the
Together with the curatorial team, Emma Mattei, Elisa Carollo and Nigel Baldacchino, the artists and all those who have been involved in this crazy adventure, we are extremely proud of this first edition of the Malta Biennale, which has facilitated incredible critical exchange on polarising, sensitive and often taboo themes.
Heartfelt thanks go to the extraordinary artists who placed their trust in this first edition, with many of them transporting their courage and research to these islands. This biennale demonstrated that Malta is an island of dialogue and critical thinking, giving voice to the research of one of the most sensitive artists and activists within the art world, countlessly censored in various international spaces, but never within the Maltese islands.
We are so proud of being able to host an entire curatorial section dedicated to the denunciation of the Mediterranean as the cemetery of Europe, and that the voices of the artists were able to contribute to the message that “The poor treatment of migrants today will be our dishonor tomorrow.”
We wish to extend our thanks to the Malta-based and international artists who had the courage to challenge patriarchy by imagining a feminist section that would
unfold within a prominent institution of patriarchal dominance.
As curators we have always believed the Public Programme to be at the heart of Insulaphilia. Together with Emma Mattei, there has been a commitment to fostering creativity and artistic exploration designed to engage diverse audiences, whilst ensuring accessibility to all, regardless of age, background or ability, through public performances, hands-on workshops, neighbourhood gatherings, interdisciplinary masterclasses, cinema programming and journeys across the Mediterranean sea.
Here are some of the international guests and local cultural activators that came together in a number of dynamic encounters: ACCLA, Alien Montesin, Art Explora, Art Workers Italia, Biennale de Photographie Mulhouse, Biennale Sur, Mirjana Batinic, Marie Briguglio, Andrew Borg Wirth, Valentina Buzzi, Rafram Chaddad, Vanessa Ciantar, Cinema Spazju Kreattiv, Centru Tbexbix, Epicure, Timmy Gambin, Liam Gauci, Marcia Grima, Image Threads, Karmagenn, Franco La Cecla, Larnaca Biennale, MADE Program, MCAST, Parasite, Rethinking Lampedusa, Rivoluzione delle Seppie, Ritmu Roots Music Festival, Virgilio Sieni, Zugraga, Michael Taussig, Tarzna, Tetuhi, The School of Winds and Waves, UNESCO - WHIPIC, Sam Vassallo, Orientale University.
https://maltabiennale.art
Unleash Your Creativity with Creative-Cables’ Innovative Lighting Solutions at Lingonberries
Creative-Cables, a brand synonymous with innovative and customizable lighting solutions, is thrilled to announce the availability of its latest product line, Filé, at Lingonberries in Birkirkara. Perfect for creative and artistic individuals, Filé offers endless design possibilities, allowing customers to tailor their lighting to their unique tastes and needs.
Filé is the epitome of versatile lighting, designed to bring both functionality and aesthetic appeal to any space. Utilising String Lights cables, the system provides an ingenious way to illuminate walls and ceilings. Customers can choose from complete kits that enable them to create stunning visual effects with ease. The Filé Wiggle Kit System, for instance,
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MALTA
Review / Biennale Arte 2024 / Venice
June - October 2024
VENICE
ANDREW BORG WIRTH
Charting new territories, everywhere
The Biennale Arte 2024 in Venice.
Last October, as tutors in the Faculty of the Built Environment we presented to students of architecture the brief for their first design workshop of the year: ‘Foreigners Everywhere’, the theme of the, then upcoming, Biennale Arte in Venice. We wanted students to unpack the theme chosen by the designated Brazilian curator Adriano Pedrosa, investigate his self-declared interest in the artwork by French feminist collective Claire Fontaine and the title of the work which had inspired it. The theme encapsulated our zeitgeist. With it, came an opportunity to understand what role we - architects, artists, curators - were to play within our changing world.
In anticipation of the Venice Biennale Arte opening a few months later, the students speculated on sites across Malta, presenting their own musings on the status of the foreigner and how it came to form their own architectural nous. Effectively proposing pavilions across Malta’s landscape, this exercise was a new way to intersect with a contemporary conversation.
Months later, I find myself walking along the canals of Venice. I cannot help but forge connections between what the students in Malta did and what I have come to Venice to see.
The perspective of foreigners referred to in this year’s Venice Biennale is one that positions them in a different realm
to the common tourist - foreigners are here complexified. They possess various specific imperatives, departing from the foreigner as the typical holiday-maker leisurely spending time in a foreign country. This leads me to make the first semantic association that the theme allows for: in this biennial, foreigners are a symbol of transience, displacement and otherness; they come to signify a disruptor, a change in narrative, a harbinger of a time of shift. Pedrosa’s biennial [I started at the Arsenale] walks you through veils of a foreign experience, until it allows the nations and their pavilions to make statements.
The didactic experience of this biennial is immediate; in the sense that there is an overwhelming textural departure
Senegal Pavilion. Photo by Andrea Avezzù
ANDREW BORG WIRTH is a curator and architect with an interdisciplinary practice. www.andrewborgwirth.com
from what we have come to expectsomething that immediately captures my attention. Whilst the screens, videoworks and projectors that are typically ubiquitous to any art exhibition of this scale do eventually appear, in this year’s central pavilion, textile is first permitted to have its radical moment. Not only is this a clear statement by the curator but also a strong emblematic tool of healing; one that, perhaps, the world, at a time of increasing hostilities,
the growth of right-wing movements and surmounting conflict, needs more than ever. After all, textile art is an act of mending; it is a laborious, intensive process which creates irreversible bonds. It requires a deep investment and sensitivity to different materials, to create a united whole.
As the main curator of the Venice Biennale does in every edition, Pedrosa lays artworks of the central pavilion
across the two locations - the Arsenale, previously a Venetian shipyard, and the Giardini, a public garden hosting permanently built pavilions. Multifold foreign-ness is exhibited within the spaces of the central pavilion. I like that multiple elements of the archetype are investigated, albeit in different, not always equal, volumes. With Omar Mismar’s ‘Two unidentified lovers in a mirror, 2023’, in mosaic, there is the sense of a renegotiated historicism that
this biennial seeks out.
I find significance in the works of Nour Jaouda, Dana Awartani and Anna Zemánková, to name a few. They create and impose woven and textural experiences that are intricate yet simultaneously soothing - solemn, even. I find it fascinating that contemporary art finds itself in close encounters with so much posthumous art in this biennial - whilst Jaouda and Awartni are living
French Pavilion. Attila cataracte […], Julien Creuzet. Photo by Jacopo La Forgia
Review / Biennale Arte 2024 / Venice
June - October 2024
artists, the work of Zemánková is being shown after her passing. Not only is Pedrosa ushering in a space for the foreigner today, he is also proposing it as part of a lineage across time. His Nucleo Storico - an archive showcasing work by artists who are no longer alive - does something important. Not only does it elevate voices from Latin America, Africa, the Middle East and Asia - which the whole event aims to celebrate - but also from the Italian diaspora. This, I find interesting because it challenges nationalistic ideologies spreading across the world right now, and Italy in particular.
As I move beyond the central pavilion, I wish to claim, as an aside (albeit on a related note), that I find the idea of a national pavilion to be quite outdated. I think it establishes the very borders that biennials like this year’s in Venice
are precisely out to challenge. Thus, it has been a curious experience for me, making my way around each country’s statement. Somehow, most pavilions that occupy spaces in the Arsenale, resonate more than the built ones within the Giardini. National and political imbalances in terms of budget, press exposure and attention create, as they always do, a different energy around different national pavilions. The fact that Foreigners Everywhere does not rethink the 1851-style Great Exhibition format of nation-divided representations, to me, feels like a missed opportunity of sorts. For an interest in art at the fringes - where cultures intersect and bleed - the names presented at the front of each pavilion assert a certain dominance which is, at best, a bit passé.
Some pavilions however, rose above
and rethought this reality. A particular pavilion that I find to be very intriguing is the Dutch pavilion, which runs in parallel with a live-streamed event in Lusanga, in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Titled ‘The International Celebration of Blasphemy and The Sacred’, it presents, within the Giardini, earth sculptures made from the last remaining patches of untouched forest in Congo. Co-relatedly, the artist collective responsible for the pavilion’s creation, requested the temporary return of Balot - a sculpture made in 1931 - from the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts to Lusanga. The sculpture was installed within the White Cube, which is a museum built upon the former Unilever plantation after the community reestablished their ownership of it through ritual and spiritual encounter. This sculpture has sacred foundations, protecting the community from the
plantain regime - in this sense, the pavilion really emerges as an encounter with beauty, a renegotiation of histories. Whilst it does not erase the story, it reframes it to create a spirit of resolution.
Three other pavilions catch my eye within the Giardini: those of the United Kingdom, the United States and France. Each is experiential in a different way, using moving image, sound and sculpture to create immersive environments. I feel most moved by Ghana-born John Akomfrah’s ‘Listening All Night To The Rain’ for the United Kingdom, which proposes water as a container of memory. The artist, together with curator Tarini Malik, uses film in fascinating ways to invert the geography of the pavilion, taking audiences from the basement up to the higher floors - a kind of spatial poem encapsulating foreign-ness. The work
The United States Pavilion. Photo by Matteo de Mayda
of Jeffrey Gibson for the United States is a feast of colour with statements woven across the site about native cultures whilst the pavilion by Julien Creuzet for France suspends highly tactile works from its ceiling, juxtaposed with striking video works. It feels like a new ecology, a humanless environment, despite the effects of human intervention being continuously alluded to.
At the Arsenale, I am overwhelmed by the power of the first-ever pavilions for Benin and Senegal. ‘Everything Precious Is Fragile’, curated by Azu Nwagbogu, is clever not only in discussing complex notions of postcolonial identity but also because it does so within a critique of
the artworld and Venice itself. Chloe Quenum’s ‘L’heure Blue’ recreates a window from Venice’s Arsenale and positions a number of glass sculptures ahead of it, reminding us about Venice’s own complicated past, issues of slavery and the commodification of cultures.
Ishola Akpo’s ‘Traces of Queen IV’ sits powerfully alongside it. FrancoSenegalese artist Alioune Diagne creates a large overwhelming painterly work using small calligraphic interventions. He presents a mural featuring scenes in a puzzle-like configuration, humbling in its presence.
Disappointingly, I had to miss out on the Egyptian and German pavilions, the
queues for which were just too long for a trip as short as mine. The pavilion of the Holy See is the one I wished to visit most; but its accessibility was limited and spaces fully booked. Having read extensively about the narrative, the location and the curatorial ambition of the Holy See’s project, I might even convince myself to come to Venice again. Securing a visit to this pavilion at a women’s prison on the island of Giudecca sounds like a moving curatorial experience.
The repeated neon statement ‘Foreigners Everywhere’ in different languages across Claire Fontaine’s titling artwork, which is suspended above the water of
the old arsenal, creates this beautifully abstracted puddle of light; blurring the boundaries between different languages completely. The Italian pavilion in the Arsenale ‘Due Qui/To Hear’ - intelligently crossing ‘Two Here’ with ‘To Hear’creates an immersive experience and introspective journey through sound and space by artist Massimo Bartolini. In both Fontaine’s and Bartoline’s theses, abstraction holds power. Perhaps what I enjoy most - amongst all the statements of this biennial - are these opportunities for quiet poetry, moments of abstraction and open-endedness that depart from conventional use of language and inspire individual contemplation.
Greta Schödl. Photo by Marco Zorzanello
Malta Pavilion. Photo by Andrea Avezzù
Benin Pavilion. Photo by Andrea Avezzù
Review / Biennale Arte 2024 / Venice
VENICE
June - October 2024 Continued
The concept of foreign-ness is an opportunity to transport viewers to another, not necessarily real, place. This poetic fiction is an opportunity to inform our prospective futures, allowing for space for interpretation, intervention and continuous deliberation. I sense this as soon as I see the works by Greta Schödl in the central pavilion. Her ‘Marmo’, written with subtle gold leafing across pieces of raw extracted marble, is a welcome fragment of abstract, visual poetry. It echoes - at least for me - the kind of spirit embedded in the work of artist Matthew Attard within the Maltese Pavilion. ‘I Will Follow the Ship’ has emerged as a winning pavilion on many journalists’ lists and I think it is because it finds poetic licence in the traces of the foreigner. In sharing territory with the eye-tracking device, his work is a negotiation between two real-life foreigners who forge a way through codependence. His work finds agency in this kind of negotiation, and this has been communicated well by Malta’s whole team in Venice. Acknowledging the role of the disruptor, the peripheral, the foreigner in Malta informs us better not only of who we are, but who we are becoming. This acknowledgement feels more urgent currently - something which, I believe, art emerging in the wake of the assassination of investigative journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia has an obligation to reckon with. Malta’s pavilion, this year, doesn’t present politically-loaded statements, but rather finds solace in anonymity and poetry. The young, inspiring and talented team strikes a chord in the way it ushers the history of ship graffiti into contemporary idiom. It allows technology not to take over but inform the artist and his audiences. It celebrates the imprint of the anonymous and creates space for them to continue leaving their mark.
Months have passed since the students presented their work at the end of their design workshop borrowing the Venice Biennale’s title, and the world is in only a worse place than it was last October. The absence of
two countries in particular reads as an admission of grievances that the artworld is increasingly - although not specifically at this event in Venicemore critical of. An armed Italian guard stands near a closed Israeli pavilion, blocked with a statement calling for a ceasefire. The Russian pavilion - closed once more as the illegal occupation of Ukraine continues - has been borrowed by Bolivia, a country whose lithium resources are of growing interest for global superpowers.
The Venice Biennale becomes a wayfinding path to a place that is at once disconcerting, but also hopeful. The artwork seems to chart a new territory, built on old narratives but forging a new way. The everywhere that this biennial speaks of, reconciles with common injustices, discriminations and pasts, but proposes - or at least tries to propose - a new way of contesting them. As foreign-ness continues to rear new heads, we need more opportunities to encounter each other. The current biennial offers one such chance. Whilst not all of it is substantial, the sum of its parts holds an urgent message.
With special thanks to Lily Agius and Maria Theuma.
Claire Fontaine. Photo by Marco Zorzanello
Omar Misma.
Photo by Marco Zorzanello
Interview
/ Photography / Sahhara
June - October 2024
Whispers from the Corners of her Mind
Artpaper talks with Sahhara – a nomad ScottishMaltese photographer, after her debut exhibition in Malta
You spend a lot of your time travelling. What are you after in terms of your visual world and how does this reflect in your work?
I have reflected a lot on the reasons why I have travelled so much during my adult years. My therapist once suggested I was running away. I think that might have been true to at that time but I think there is more to it than that. I know I have a thirst for connection and I want to experience everything. I’d say my creativity and exploration are intertwined with the diverse experiences and people I encounter wherever I am. I used to say that the people in my images became conduits for that which I struggled to release myself. Moving from place to place, I have found so much beauty in the people and places I’ve made contact with and grown so much through it. The importance and power of moments of connection allow us to move through all the more challenging moments in our lives and really I think photoshoots are first and foremost this to me; moments of deeper connection.
I feel pushed to try to capture the raw, unfiltered emotions that are so part of the human experience; sometimes through more minimal portraiture, and
sometimes through larger story setups. My work is almost always reflecting themes and experiences that are personal to me.
You recently had your first exhibition in Malta titled ‘Tethered’. How would you describe this collection of work and the time spent shooting this series?
Being that my photography has always been an outlet for me - a form of therapy and an attempt to find understanding; during my visit to Australia in 2020, I was grappling with personal struggles while witnessing the devastation of the bushfires. The world seemed to be burning around me, which in some obscure way paralleled the internal chaos that I was experiencing.
“Tethered” grew into a collection that tries to express the experience of being a woman, and explores the complex relationships between us. It begins to capture pain, loneliness, the erosion of personal identity, desperation, societal pressure, and the shared experiences that tether women together. Shooting this series was both challenging and cathartic, and I’m deeply grateful to the models whose courage brought these images to life.
You have also been photographed, suspended by hooks pierced through your skin. Can you discuss this experience – and why you felt to do this?
This practice, known as flesh hook suspension, was a profound experience for me. It is an act that is both physically intense and emotionally liberating. I enjoy piercing as an experience for many reasons, and find beauty in transforming suffering into a form of art and personal growth. It is an exploration of the limits
of the body and mind, and a way to find strength and resilience in vulnerability.
Pain is such a unique and personal experience. There is something in pushing the limits of my own body that feels enlightening and connective to me. I am interested in exploring the human condition, and these rituals are part of that.
www.onlythedark.com www.lilyagiusgallery.com
“The importance and power of moments of connection allow us to move through all the more challenging moments in our lives”
Exhibition / Interview / Society of Arts
June - October 2024
MALTA
Clay / Craft / Concept: Contemporary ceramics ancient histories
ARTPAPER chats with GABRIEL ZAMMIT, the Programmes and Initiatives Officer at the Malta Society of Arts about their upcoming ceramic exhibition
This exhibition is titled Clay / Craft / Concept: Contemporary ceramics ancient histories. What are the main ideas behind the project? The main aim of this exhibition is to investigate different ways of making with clay. Clay / Craft / Concept will create a dialogue between sculptural and functional clay objects by bringing together a large (36) and eclectic group of artists, all of whom think and create differently.
At its most basic the question that we are asking is ‘what is the difference, if any, between a sculpture and a beautifully crafted but functional object, such as a mug or a vase?’ Or in other words, we’re conceptualising the blurred line between craft-practice and fine-art thinking.
The one element that holds everything together is materiality. The clay and its different uses, and I am allowing narratives between objects and across the exhibition to form organically. So I included artists that work with porcelain, self drying clay, terracotta, found objects etc but also different
methods such as wheel throwing, hand building, 3d printing, installation etc.
How did Clay / Craft / Concept come about?
Clay / Craft / Concept started from a conversation with my friend and collaborator Vince Briffa. We were chatting about how craft-oriented artistic practice has been completely repositioned overseas, and is taken as seriously as any other fine-art practice. So you have young artists graduating from art-school making pots, mugs, tapestries, books etc. and they are taken as seriously as anyone else. Functionality is no longer seen as a hindrance to the manifestation of artistic excellence, and the boundary line between craft and fine-art has been blurred, if not entirely done away with.
Some of the most well-known contemporary artists, in fact, describe themselves as potters and craftspeopleGrayson Perry, for example, who makes these wonderfully irreverent pots and jars, or Edmund de Waal, who uses his installations of ethereal porcelain vases to investigate personal and collective
histories - and craft ceramics has been embedded firmly into the network of contemporary thinking.
Over the past couple of years I’ve noticed a new trend of makers emerging into the craft-sphere here in Malta, producing work that is really excellent, and so it felt like the right time to build a project that attempts to shed new light on this developing facet of our cultural world.
Of course it is crucial to mention that all of this (in Malta and abroad) is only possible because of pioneers like Annie Albers and Ruth Asawa, who really pushed the possibilities of craft in the latter half of the 20th C.as part of the Bauhaus, and Black Mountain College movements.
Clay / Craft / Concept looks to this rich history for inspiration. I think we’ve only just begun to scratch the surface of the crafts here in Malta, and they are still seen as either traditional or purely functional, and while neither of these perspectives is wrong, I think there is a lot more to be said.
This is a Malta Society of Arts Initiative, how does this show connect to the Society, it’s past, present and future?
The Society has long been a stronghold for supporting crafts. In the past the Society’s committee would advocate for and endorse craftspeople or companies. Farsons Brewery, for example, was awarded the Gold Medal award in 1929 for their skill in brewing beer, as well as Scicluna and Co. in 1903 for building handmade pianos in Malta, and Pirotta and Sons in 1965 for their artistic craftsmanship in silver. The Society’s annual exhibition always aims to develop on a historical aspect of the institution, while being aware of what is happening in the present and at the same time keeping an eye to the future.
Nowadays we still have a school with nearly a thousand students and we are also the only institution that offers courses in crafts such as lacemaking. The Society, therefore, is the perfect platform for this kind of exhibition
because it will be supporting a new wave of craftspeople and positioning them within a wider historical narrative.
At the same time we work with dozens of artists and have a rich exhibition programme, so Clay / Craft / Concept flows naturally from the Society’s mission to support excellence in art and the crafts, and in this case actually merges the two.
What about the curatorial dimension, how does this fit into your own practice?
In my curatorial practice I am interested in boundaries, edges and limits, the demarcation lines that establish who we are as human beings, and how we understand the world. I investigate the transgression of these limits in the exhibitions I curate, looking for moments that bring the foundations of our humanity to light. So in the past I’ve curated exhibitions that look at the experience of the uncanny, or of solitude, for example, because these emotional states force us to face who we are deep underneath the everyday human chatter, and renegotiate the limits of how we think and feel.
Clay / Craft / Concept falls along the same axis in a general sense because it is looking into a conceptual boundary line between craft and fine art. It is a boundary line that is indicative of the way we think and create as human beings. I don’t want to overconceptualise this, but I’m exploring the playful transgression of stepping back and forth across a border.
Can you tell us a little bit about what we will see in the exhibition design?
Initially I started out thinking this would be a rather serious and sombre exhibition, the galleries here at the Society are quite intimidating, and the history of the building itself prompts seriousness, as does the fact that this is an MSA initiative.
But as I started selecting artists and doing studio visits I began to realise what an androgynous and playful material clay is. It can be extremely sober - as in the beautiful chalices from the Etruscan period - but it can also be fun and quirky - as in the wobbly creations of Eleanor Meredith or Sofia Kuzmenko + Matthew Mamo, the duo behind THISS Clay - so I felt that the exhibition had to strike a middle ground between the two extremes, and what we (Tom van Malderen is doing exhibition design) settled on was an exhibition language that is quiet, understated and serious, but overlaid with an arrangement of objects that is maximalist and eclectic, driven by a consideration of what looks and feels good.
You are also including ancient artefacts in the exhibition. Could you tell me a little more about this?
I brought these artefacts into the show as anchor points. They allude to and connect with an ancient tradition that has been traced back at least 28,000 years. The oldest pieces in the show are
from the neolithic period here in Malta, so c. 5200 - 2500 bc. while the newest have been created specifically for this show. I love the idea of a neolithic man or woman cupping their hand around a small mug, just like we do nowadays, and perhaps will always continue to do. There is something vulnerable and strangely human to this and I wanted to bring that element into the show.
Another reason that I wanted to include this work, in fact, is that these objects have a strange aura because of how they are looked at and treated. They started out as utilitarian vessels but are now completely insulated from the touch of any hand by museum glass and handling protocols. Effectively they have changed, therefore, from craft ceramics into sculptural ceramics.
Can you give us a teaser about who we’ll be seeing in the show, as well as any other collaborations or collateral events connected to this?
I’ve already mentioned that there are going to be museum pieces from
across history but you can also expect to see artists like Nico Conti, Ioulia Chante, also known as Babau Ceramics and, as previously mentioned Sofia Kuzmenko + Matthew Mamo as THISS
of Arts. This exhibition is a Malta Society Initiative and is curated by Gabriel Zammit. Gabriel Zammit is the Programmes and Initiatives Officer at the Malta Society of Arts and maintains a curatorial and writing practice. Gabriel is also a part time casual lecturer with the department of Education and the department of Digital Arts at the University of Malta.
22 August at the Malta Society
Burghild Eichheim, Rider, 3 Sounds, White painted clay, Undated
IFeature /Art / Violence against women
June - October 2024
DR JOANNA DELIA AND MARIA LOUISA LIOTTA CATRAMBONE
Where are the angry birds? ART AND GENDER BASED VIOLENCE
am sick of seeing ‘artists’ paint flowers.
I am sick of seeing ‘artists’ paint landscapes.
I am sick of seeing ‘artists’ make art about discovering who they are, about their identity this and identity that…
And I am sick of not seeing enough anger and angry, sexual violence, and bloody victims and degraded, helpless, desperate, abused limp figures in the works of artists in Malta. Of course, it’s not up to me, or to anyone else to tell artists what to do, but the lack of reflections on frustrating realities by the local artistic community and the absence of reactions explosive or not, to social ills is astounding.
Malta is full of invisible women. Women who have to hide their pregnancies when they have foetuses growing inside them. Women who have to travel to have terminations which will save their life. Women who were deprived of financial independence because society expected them to stay home, clean, and paint flowers.
Women who are trapped, are invisible to the police and to justice, women who suffer physical and emotional abuse and cannot run away because neither the geography nor the tongues of their mothers, would allow it. Trapped until death - whether this comes by way of murder, or old age.
So they paint landscapes. Or oranges. Or orchids. As do their sisters. To calm down.
I asked Maria Louisa Liotta Catrambone, a criminologist with extensive hands-on experience with a human rights NGO, to give us the low-down on the statistics.
A 2018 analysis of prevalence data from 2000-2018 across 161 countries and areas, conducted by WHO on behalf of the UN Interagency working group on violence against women, found that worldwide, nearly 1 in 3 of women have been subjected to intimate partner violence (marital rape, femicide), sexual
Art has constituted the megaphone of important messages turned to the entire society, a vessel and tool for expression and rebellion against a male dominant.
violence and harassment (rape, forced sexual acts, unwanted sexual advances, child sexual abuse, forced marriage), human trafficking (slavery, sexual exploitation), female genital mutilation and child marriage.
A number that however increases if we consider, and we can’t not do it, emotional and psychological abuse, street harassment, stalking and cyberharassment. Even when there is no physical violence, abusive language or actions can be very damaging.
Violence against women and girls is a human rights violation that continues to be an obstacle to achieving equality, development, and peace. The immediate and long-term physical, sexual, and mental consequences for women and girls can be devastating, including death.
Malta remembers the tragic horror of femicide through the names of its victims – Mary Saliba, Rose Casaletto, Angela Debono, Carmen Micallef, Gemma Fonk, Diane Gerada, Sylvia King,
Jane Vella, Maria Buhagiar, Vanessa Grech and her 17 month old daughter Ailey, Rachel Muscat, Pauline Tanti, Josette Scicluna, Patricia Attard, Doris Schembri, Lyudmila Nykytiuk, Theresa Vella, Caroline Magri, Eleanor Mangion, Maria Carmela Fenech, Antonia Micallef, Shannon Mak, Yvette Gajda, Margaret Mifsud, Charlene Farrugia, Meryem Bugeja, Silvana Muscat, Catherine Agius, Paulina Dembraska, Christine Sammut, Irena Abadzhieva, Karen Cheatle, Lourdes Agius, Marija Lourdes, Daphne Caruana Galizia, Angele Bonnici, Chantelle Chetcuti, Rita Ellul, and Bernice Cassar.
These are the names of the women killed, at the hands of a man since 1978 in Malta. But there is no corner of the world where women do not suffer any kind of violence, the latitude does not save anyone. Even more complicated is the situation of the migrant women forced to suffer unspeakable violence in refugee camps and during their dangerous migration routes. With MOAS-Migrant Offshore Aid Station, the
international humanitarian organization founded in 2013 in response to the Mediterranean maritime migration phenomenon and now dedicated to providing humanitarian aid and services to the most vulnerable people around the world, we have been direct witnesses. We have seen with our own eyes the physical and psychological wounds of women who, after spending terrible months in Libya, risked losing their lives at sea. We have heard the stories of the cruelties inflicted on Rohingya women fleeing Myanmar. And we continue to witness the violence committed in the conflict in Ukraine.
In this context the voice of women plays a very important role. Among the various instruments of protest and emancipation, art has constituted the megaphone of important messages turned to the entire society, a vessel and tool for expression and rebellion against a male dominant.
From Artemisia Gentileschi in the 1600s to Cecilia Beaux two centuries later, from Georgia Okeef to Frida Kahlo, from Clara Peet to Khathe Kollwitz, all these women have fixed in their works a representation of the female voice, a vision of the world shaped by them.
Today, in the increasingly integrated system of the art of fashion and design, we can hear the voice of women for issues of great social and political importance such as those of women inclusiveness, equity, and social and cultural rights from women artists. The issues of gender difference represented by the Kenyan Ato Malinda, the prejudices on the body of the black woman by the South African Mary Sibande, and the the sexual discrimination represented by the South African Stephanie “Kenyaa” Mzee, are precious contributions that enrich the path towards gender equality and the eradication of violence against women.
What about the local scene? What are malta based artists’ reactions to vicious murders and the delays or ineffective judicial procedures which follow them? I tried to recall
MALTA
Feature /Art / Violence against women
June - October 2024
MALTA
Continued
the instances when artists reacted. When it comes to theatre and performing arts, I must admit we have seen some realistic, visceral reactions to gender based violence. In 2013 TAC theatre staged Kenyetta Lethridge’s play Innocent Flesh with in your face interpretations of the realities of various forms of abuse, will last month 4Jays Theatre and actors Shaian Debono and Aleandro Bartolo staged Vjola, a play on domestic violence to coincide with The International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women.
The work Grace | Rofflu staged in 2009 by the Rubberbodies Collective and directed by Jimmy Grima was very powerful and explored a relationship which meandered from love to violence using dance and physical theatre.
Experimental theatre in Malta also saw the launch of Alice in Wonderless Land, DIY Theatre by Teatru Malta for ZiguZajg 2020 which explores and highlights the impact of a patriarchal society and is designed to be set up in schools to hopefully inspire teenagers to break away from the shackles of their predecessors.
Teatru Malta also staged Laringa Mekkanika (A Clockwork Orange) in 2019 - adapting a classic dark and violent tale for a teenage audience, hoping to spur discussion amidst the rising cases of reported psychological problems in these age groups, with increasing incidence of self-harm perhaps coinciding with increased exposure to a more easily available relentless bombardment with violent narratives and imagery on social media and the internet.
A simple internet search reveals a poor response to gender based violence and rape locally and one comes across a few exhibitions and works of visual arts with victimization rather than anger. And dreams of atonement rather than a call for change.
The National Commission for the Promotion of Equality organized a show for the Valletta 2018 capital of culture entitled ‘Domestic violence portrayed in original art creations’ by artist Raymond Darmanin. The works portray dreamy, floaty women escaping. No anger. No blood. No violence. The message seems to be Run Woman Run with no allusion to fury directed towards the perpetrator. We seem to be saying - Let’s not dwell on the reason for your pain. Or the mention of pain at all.
Another image which pops up is of a painting with the title The Rape of Prosperina who taking after the famous marble statue by Bernini is romanticised in work by Luca Azzopardi. Both Bernini and Azzopardi seem to want whoever looks at the image to be aroused and not infuriated.
The Catholic Church in Malta sponsored an exhibition with the Jean Anthide foundation titled (Un)silenced: celebration of self-determination, solidarity and liberation –Archdiocese of Malta and once again the focus is on the victim. No mention of a perpetrator. Artist Carol Zammit - one of the artists in the show actually shows some anger but the rest is more flowers and landscapes - the take home lesson here seems to be, take a deep breath, forgive him, forget about him. Rebuild your life. Be a silent warrior. Carry your rapists child to date. Don’t bother about your shared assets, better poor and free than secure and trapped. Paint some more grass moving in the wind with little tiny flowers. It’s calming.
But there are also many visual artists who are finally showing their anger and frustration. CO-MA has been creating powerful, manipulated, hyper-realistic charcoal drawings which are evocative and angry and dark. The mostly female subjects are being silenced and blind folded and they look furious and beautifully deranged.
Ryan Falzon’s local show We Lost The War (2017), in Berlin under the name Fritz ist Amerikanish (2020), was more about political violence, ideology, terrorism and organized crime, rather than gender based or domestic violence. But it’s angry. And anger at the systems which permit any form of institutionalized violence should be brought to light and criticised.
Charlie Chauchi’s show Sheherazade at Valletta Contemporary in 2019 revolved around depictions of abuse, debauchery, beauty and brutality in the Maltese-run soho clubs and brothels in the late half of the 20th century. The installation is immersive, velvety but provocative with confusing plays on words and nude women who vanish as you walk by them.
Artist Charlene Galea recently performed in the work titled Her Mum’s Clothes in Vienna, based on the true story of 4 mothers and the relationship with their daughters, where one of the women is forced into prostitution and violently abused by her husband. The
coat.
But possibly the most powerful works seen recently which deal with the ever present reality of gender-based violence are those by Rachelle Deguara and Emma Attard.
Rachelle’s most recent work is a textbased site-specific performance called No Place Like Home. It was part of the emerging artists’ exhibition at Spazju Kreattiv, curated by Trevor Borg and supported by Agenzija Zaghzagh, called Shifting Context II.
The artist borrows the stories of previous femicides in Malta and interpreters them, switching the gender to emphasize how society has become desensitized to cases of violence against women. Subverting the dominant mythology of the feminine as submissive, the text explores the tensions between the themes of power and subservience, constraint and liberation, subjugation and empowerment.
Her first debut performance installation was during the exhibition Debatable Lands. The artist did a performative intervention about four women who were killed because of systematic failure, and she was preparing for a protest. The sound installation narrated the stories of Daphne Caruana Galizia, Kim Borg Virtu, Miriam Pace, and Chantelle Chetcuti.
Emma Attard uses art as a tool to therapeutically scream and externalise the rawness of her experiences, rendering trauma concrete so that it can be released. The work exhibited
at the exhibition Groundwaters, curated by Gabriel Zammit at Valletta Contemporary are literally drawings ripped out of her sketchbook. They speak of the unspeakable, blowing the viewer away with their intense simplicity, dripping with fury.
Emma Attard’s drawings were, perhaps originally not meant to be seen but as Gabriel says ‘Ultimately her work typifies the aesthetic transformation of pain into emancipatory potential and as viewers, if we can get past the gut punch and the uncomfortable pull of looking at someone else’s tragedy, what is left is a fragment of utopian potential, which is indicative of the art’s power to merge the real and the imaginary in the pursuit of catharsis.’
Where are the angry birds? was first featured in December 2022.
Images: Jay Adam Stewart, BA Fine Artist, is part of the art team for the ‘Memorial Benches’ community artwork dedicated to victims of femicide and domestic violence. James Micallef Grimaud (aka. TWITCH), the artistic director, said “the project is not only a means to commemorate the lives of the women lost but also to encourage conversations about violence towards women and their resilience in our community.” The artists who participated are Jay Adam Stewart, Kristina Znakina Andonova, Saima Murtaza, Yuexin Kong, Hun Sun, Andrea Farrugia, John Schembri, Jarek Nalewajk, Aurora, Invonne Mario, Matas Statulevicius, Jackie Fritz, Marilouis Guy, Sophia Guy and Rhys Meredith.
actresses wore the actual, now deceased victim’s red
