Artpaper Venice 2022

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DA . NCE ZfinMalta, introducing audiences to bold and current contemporary dance productions of a world-class standard

G A L L ERY Lily Agius talks about her role in the Maltese art scene for over a decade

IN F OCU S Sarah Chircop puts Malta’s vast and various artistic work in context

VENICE 2022

+ CHARLIE CAUCHI

Malta’s National Pavilion. Photo by Massimo Penzo >> Interviews Pg. 12.

“Well, murder can be art too”

FEATURE Gabriel Caruana: An icon and institution of the art scene in Malta REVIEW The contemporary art scene in Malta ARCHITECTURE Towards a truly sustainable approach to built heritage DESIGN SORĠI: outdoor furniture for public spaces made from recycled construction waste & SAW: from commercial spaces to domestic furniture THEATRE The Manoel Theatre: Malta’s oldest theatre built by The Knights of St John INTERVIEW Adrian Abela: the artist from Fgura who moved to Los Angeles & Lily Agius: Malta-based art gallerist from London ART SPACE Valletta Contemporary in the capital city DIGITAL ART Training a machine-learning algorithm to experience what makes humans create art

A line uttered by Brandon, John Dall’s character in Alfred Hitchcock’s 1948 thriller Rope may seem like an odd point of departure to discuss Malta’s upcoming national pavilion at La Biennale di Venezia. But if we scratch beneath the surface, there’s an undeniable link. >> Interview with the team behind Malta’s National Pavilion, commissioned by Arts Council Malta (ACM), pg. 12 M A R G E R I TA P U L È

Charlene Galea, I am the Billboard (2020) Public action. Photo by Etienne Farrell

“The trite clash between the sacred, the mundane, the sexual and the commercial is particularly intense in Malta, essentially a sun-bleached city-state that is nothing if not condensed. The country has, as have many post-colonies, endured a replacement of its culture with alien sustenance and a persistent incursion into cultural, intellectual, personal and metaphorical space.

The subsequent vacuum persists and is felt instinctively by artists who articulate the loss through radical actions bringing together the popular, the current, the surreal and the personal…” >> Feature, pg. 37

Malta Pavilion at La Biennale Arte 2022 Diplomazija astuta 23 April 27 November 2022 Arsenale, Venice Commissioned by Arts Council Malta

CURATORS: Keith Sciberras (MT) and Jeffrey Uslip (NY) Artists: Giuseppe Schembri Bonaci (MT), Arcangelo Sassolino (IT) and the composition of renowned Maltese conductor and musician Brian Schembri (MT) PATRONS: DMM.com, Lisa and Thomas Blumenthal, Umberta Gnutti Beretta, Giuseppe Fortuna, Lino Dainese, Rino Mastrotto, Paolo Kauffmann, Silvia and Stefano Gris, Piero Atchugarry, Massimo Cocco, Massimo Giammetta, Sabina and Marco Rosa, Manuela and Carlo Bonetti, Lauria and Cristian Zanussi WITH THE SUPPORT OF: Department of Art and Art History, University of Malta, TETIS Institute Genova, Fondazione Gruppo Pittini, Marcon Srl, C+Partners, Midsea Books Ltd, Valfer Spa, C.E.I.A. Spa, Telwin Spa, MTA Spa, IZI Group, Matherika Group, En Joy, Energia, Ailis Srl, OMER Srl, Ecobeton Srl, La Barchessa di Villa Pisani by Agena Srl, Malta Tourism Authority, Bank of Valletta

maltapavilion2022.com

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Welcome / Team / Inside Venice 2022

Editor Charlie Cauchi Managing Director & Sales Lily Agius (+356) 9929 2488 Graphic Designer Nicholas Cutajar Contributors Nicole Bearman Aaron Bezzina Konrad Buhagiar Charlie Cauchi Sarah Chircop Angelo Dalli Joanna Delia Romina Delia Anne Dingli Richard England Charlene Galea Erica Giusta Nikki Petroni Margerita Pulè Selina Scerri Elisa Von Brockdorff

Supported by Architecture Project Arts Council Malta ArtzID BAS Malta Creative Science and Arts Institute Malta Tourism Authority Manoel Theatre No. 43 People & Skin .

S.A.W. Tico Tico Zfin Malta Art Galleries Christine X Gallery Gallery 111 Lily Agius Gallery Marie5 Society of Arts Valletta Contemporary Printer Print on paper, Units B1-B2, Manorway Business Park, Kent, DA10 0PP, United Kingdom

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rtpaper is excited to join you at the world’s most prestigious, large-scale international art event. And with Venice as our venue for the next few months.

What’s not to love?!

in Malta, creating a unique space to highlight its contemporary art scene. We hope that the contributions featured in this edition can give you a taste of the exciting artistic work being produced on our island at present.

Large-This edition of Artpaper is dedicated to Malta’s National Pavilion; this year, a collaboration entitled Diplomazjia astuta.

Malta may be tiny, but by developing an issue in tandem with our national Pavilion, we intend to show how varied the artists and the types of work being made are. Each has their own distinct concerns, styles, practices. Moreover, being from a small place, they also face several challenges particular to this island, specifically isolation and insularity. Hence, a Venice edition of our magazine seemed an essential intervention, exposing local artists to the global community.

Malta’s Pavilion, commissioned by Arts Council Malta, is curated by an international team led

by Keith Sciberras (Malta) and Jeffrey Uslip (US).

It features a collaboration between artists Arcangelo Sassolino (Italy), Giuseppe Schembri Bonaci (Malta) and composer Brian Schembri (Malta). It is overseen by project managers Nikki Petroni (Malta) and Esther Flury(Switzerland/USA).

Be that as it may, the magazine Artpaper remains a primary site for discourse surrounding the arts

Elsewhere we also highlight Malta’s art infrastructure, featuring galleries and museums found in Malta, as well as curators and art organizations galvanizing our vibrant artistic community.

INTERVIEWS

ARCHITECTURE

12. The team behind the Malta Pavilion to talk through the genesis of Diplomazija astuta

10. Konrad Buhagiar receives the President’s Award for Architecture at the MASP Awards

20. Establishing Malta’s presence at La Biennale di Venezia with Romina Delia

11. Erica Giusta discusses sustainable approaches to built heritage

24. Interview with Maltese art dealer and promotor Lily Agius 31. Joanna Delia meets LA-based Maltese artist Adrian Abela

DANCE 09. Artistic Director Paolo Mangiola talks .

ZfinMalta

REVIEWS 26. Valletta Contemporary, Malta’s premier space for contemporary art 28. Sarah Chircop sheds light on Malta’s contemporary art scene 36. Selina Scerri and Angel Dalli bring art and technology together in this immersive work 37. Margerita Pulè ​​Artistexamines art interventions by Maltese artists and collectives

SPOTLIGHT 20. A highlight of exhibitions and events in Malta 22. A selection of galleries in Malta and Gozo 38. Gabriel Caruana: an icon and institution of the art scene in Malta

DESIGN 34. Outdoor furniture collection for public spaces made from recycled construction waste .

by SORGI 35. Designer collections for the home with SAW

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Art News / On the Scene Venice 2022

ON the SCENE. “...bridging the island’s past, present and future”

REVIEWS

FEATURE

INTERVIEW / Q&A

DESIGN

ART SALES

SPOTLIGHT

COMMENT / OPINION

ART NEWS

ARCHITECTURE

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Pjanci

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Julien Vinet’s Pjanci (paztizzi trays) is a visual ode to the Mediterranean underdogs: the bodies that stretch dough with lard and cheese to feed thousands of islanders. The paztizz, Malta’s favourite grease-doused street food, has come to represent more than a delectable face stuffer but an idiosyncratic symbol that bridges the is. land’s past, present and future. Pjanci trays act as the vessel of transformation for the paztizz, just as it holds and transforms the raw pastries in village core ovens into the hot treats enjoyed by all.

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Screen Print Exhibition Alexandra Aquilina is a screen printer and creative from Malta-based in Berlin. Her work is concept-driven and inspired by her traditional Maltese/Mediterranean upbringing and fascination with the dichotomies of femininity and womanhood in this context. She finds solace and excitement in reclaiming these images by reinterpreting these notions through a modern lens. She is currently working on her first solo show as part of . the MUZA (National Museum of Fine Arts, Malta) artistic program, which will tackle these concepts through printed and sculptural works. Her work has been exhibited in Athens, Malta and Berlin and forms part of the Maltese National Collection at Spazju Kreattiv.

Cheesecake From The Heavens, available from Lily Agius Gallery

Blackened from uncountable years of oven heat in unseen industrial kitchens, the . . steel-clad pjanci form hypnotic patterns in rust. Placed side by side, the pjanci are given a new way to be seen, in rough cut beauty beyond functionality. .

Pjanci was first exhibited at a site-specific group show at Green Shutters Studio, in Floriana, Malta. For more information about exhibiting at Green Shutters Studio or use of the space as an art studio call +356 9929 2488.

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Parallel Realities United Emirates-based Maltese artist Adrian Scicluna is holding a solo exhibition at Lily Agius Gallery, 54 cathedral Street Sliema, Malta, from the 8th until the 30th of April, with a preshow opening event on the 7th of April. The exhibition includes sculptures, paintings and limited edition prints from a mix of collections created over the last few years in Malta before the artists moved to Abu Dhabi last year.

The work discusses his interest in notions of presence, physicality, tactility, and materiality within our digital era.

For more information, visit www.artsy.net/artist/adrian-scicluna or contact the gallery on +356 9929 2488.

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Art News Venice 2022

AARON BEZZINA

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Double Catapult: Aaron Bezzina

ho would have thought that right in the middle of the pandemic (August/ September 2021), I would manage to go to New York and produce an installation, a Double Catapult to be precise? It wasn’t easy to get there, as the only way I could travel to the United States was to ‘quarantine’ for 14 days in a country outside the Schengen zone, and yet, at the boarder there was still the chance I could be sent back. Nevertheless, I decided to stay in Istanbul and, after 14 days and another negative PCR test, flew to New York and was admitted in.

I participated in a group show entitled UN/MUTE-1002 at the ACFNY and Undercurrent, which was a result of a three-month online residency where ten artists from Europe were paired with artists residing in the US. This project manifested in several

different themes, but my colleague, Kyle Hittmeier and I worked on the very aspect of having to attend a collaborative residency virtually and how two people are projected apart once the internet connection is cut. Kyle produced a video installation, Andromeda (2021), working in tandem with my Double Catapult (2021), both reflecting our scenario. Most of the other artists opted to work on digital artworks, but I was certain that a physical, sculptural object doesn’t have a substitute in the digital realm, so I persisted in going there and building the installation myself and succeeded.

UN/MUTE-1002 was curated by Daina Mattis and Melinda Wang and exhibited in two venues, the ACFNY in Manhattan and Undercurrent in Brooklyn. My project was supported by Art Council Malta.

CHARLENE GALEA

SOBER BLACKOUT

Who is guilty for ‘our’ mental health?

And isn’t it that the destruction of the environment around us affects the destructive side of our mental state? This performance sets itself in a clubbing environment, one that we are so familiar with, complete with pumping music and the consumption of alcohol. However, our superego may be overloaded with issues in our everyday life, and one may find themselves looping into a black hole blackout. What happens in the blackout (if you remember anything)? And what happens after? A 30-minute honest confessional monologue to the ‘Dear Therapist’ - the audience is itself the therapist. Will the audience find time to digest their life matters too? Ritualistic movements inspired by the traditional Tarantella are used to cleanse and regenerate the freedom of the mind and acceptance of the body. The performance draws the viewer in a fantasy of collages such as The double vulva straight up and other paintings using calming pastel tones opposing loud angry text such as Not a feminist when I am high. It was originally performed in Malta between 2 and 4 of February 2022 and will have its first international outing on 14 May in the Performance Bar, Rotterdam.

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Al Sidr Environment Film Festival: In Conversation The second edition of Al Sidr Environmental Film Festival was held at the art and cultural centre, Manarat Al Saadiyat, Abu Dhabi, UAE, from 24 to 27 February 2022.

The theme, Oasis Paradox set out to reflect regional environmental issues. The festival explored the ambivalence that comes with tackling the climate crisis as well as various environmental and social issues.

During one of the events on 26 February, Maltese visual artist Adrian Scicluna held a discussion with filmmaker and New York University Professor Alexis Gambis and mediated by Artistic Director Dr Nezar Andary before opening to the floor. They examined how Scicluna’s paintings resonate with Gambis’ award-winning fiction film Son of Monarchs. “The main thread throughout my work curated here tonight is a portrayal of the self within social constructs. I perceive constructs as influencing human patterns of behaviour. This is played out analogically in the form of flora and fauna (specifically butterflies), but paradoxically an estrangement from nature.” explains Scicluna.

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Dance / Malta / ZfinMalta Venice 2022

The country’s first

NATIONAL DANCE COMPANY .

In 2014 the establishment of ZfinMalta, the country’s first National Dance Company, was pivotal in connecting Malta’s dance artists with their . international peers while providing a space to develop professionally. In this time, ZfinMalta has introduced audiences to new ways of thinking about contemporary dance through bold, current productions of a world-class standard. The company is now in the middle of its eighth season, with Malta’s theatres back to full capacity. Artistic Director Paolo Mangiola talks about the company’s mission and his experience of leading a dance company through a protracted period of closed theatres and borders.

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. aolo Mangiola joined ZfinMalta in its third season and has been instrumental in establishing its place in the international dance community. Notably, he has embedded a spirit of collaboration, engaging choreographers, set and costume designers, composers, and visual artists from Malta and internationally, and partnering with other theatre, opera, music, and the visual arts practitioners. Mangiola’s vision for the company is supported by his own outstanding credentials and profile as a choreographer, dance educator and performer, from dancing for Wayne McGregor, Deborah Hay, Martin Creed, and Mauro Bigonzetti, to creating works for the Royal Ballet, Tanztheater Nürnberg, and Balletto di Roma, and choreography performed in the UK, the US, and across Europe.

When did you take up. the role of Artistic Director for ZfinMalta and what was your vision for the company?

I took the leadership of the company in 2017, following the company’s first three seasons. It was an exhilarating time for Malta’s contemporary art scene, in the lead up to the European Capital of Culture in 2018, and the appointment came as a beautiful surprise. At the time, I was the youngest director leading a national dance company in Europe, and it was an opportunity to shape a relatively new, fully government-funded dance company. My vision was, and still is, to foster a culture supporting contemporary dance in Malta through relevant and intelligent dance works which inspire and move audiences. I have set out to commission and present multidisciplinary, challenging, and unique works, providing an enriching

gramme tailored for young students and professionals and participatory projects for a broader audience.

experience for everyone involved – audiences and collaborators.

What have been some key . milestones in your journey with ZfinMalta and fulfilling that vision?

In these past five years we have performed works for different settings and different audiences. We have produced a durational piece of six hours, which was also intergenerational, created works for younger audiences, and opened the Valletta 2018 Capital of Culture. In addition, we made two beautiful films and created an online series on the making of choreography. I have the privilege of working with a fantastic team of people whose incredible dedication and professional skills have made all this possible.

What does it mean to be a repertory dance company?

A repertory company provides a platform for choreographers, artists, and experts from different fields to meet, create and present new and existing dance works which are relevant and current. For me a repertory company is a tool that allows spectators to experience the richness of contemporary dance and its universe through different voices. We work with

artists and choreographers whose ability to capture the spirit of our time is in their DNA. Their work is beautifully crafted and expressed through the expertise of our ten full-time dancers who move from one choreographic signature to another.

Every artist engaged with the company is asked to share their ideas and methodology generously with the dancers and to communicate in a way that is accessible to all our audiences, regardless of whether they are experienced dance spectators or attending for the first time. The goal is always an evening of diverse dance, of the highest calibre, here in Malta and abroad.

What is the role of a National Dance Company? And where do you see the company and your work on the international dance scene?

The role of a National Dance Company is multi-faceted. First and foremost, it is to provide Maltese audiences with the highest quality dance performances and to allow everyone to experience the transformative power of dance through intelligent and well-curated programmes. This includes accessibility through diverse activities, which show how dance can be a part of everyone’s lives. As well as live performances, we have an outreach pro-

What artistic trends do you see happening in dance right now? What excites you?

It’s hard to speak of trends as dance in the west is very influenced by our recent history, and in the big breakthrough of postmodernism, we all flirted with those ideas until now. To think of trends is to consider the exposure first, and there are a lot of young makers creating interesting works who don’t have the resources to present it. This is once again where a repertory company comes into play. I am excited by work that speaks to me and challenges my understanding of its creation. As a curator and choreographer, I see a lot of dance, and I try to navigate that scene both in the mainstream and on the periphery where artists are experimenting with movement. This is what excites me, artists who are not afraid to break with convention and explore new methods of creation, challenging the codes of ballet and other practices.

What .legacy would you like to leave with ZfinMalta as Artistic Director?

I would love for the company to become a firmly established cultural hub in the Mediterranean. A place where artists feel able to take risks and a company that is loved by the broadest possible audience.

I believe we have laid the groundwork for this to happen, so I can only hope that when the time comes, my leadership will leave a legacy for the next generation to build on this foundation. .

For ZfinMalta’s full repertoire and season programme – www.zfinmalta.org

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Art News Venice 2022

KONRAD BUHAGIAR RECEIVES THE PRESIDENT’S AWARD FOR ARCHITECTURE AT THE MASP AWARDS FOR 2021 has been the Chairman of the Heritage Advisory Committee and the Valletta Rehabilitation Committee. Konrad is also the chief editor behind AP’s A Printed Thing and Founding Myths of Architecture.

AP Valletta’s executive director and founding partner, Konrad Buhagiar received the President’s Award prize during the 2021 Malta Architecture and Spatial Planning (MASP) Awards Ceremony.

AP Valletta’s vast portfolio includes prestigious projects such as the Barrakka Lift, Dock No.1, Valletta Waterfront, Kenuna tower, the new St Johns’ Cathedral Museum and Caravaggio Centre, the restoration of St Paul’s Anglican Cathedral and the restoration and refurbishment of the Manoel Theatre, which also won the Restoration Award.

The prestigious award aims to celebrate Buhagiar’s outstanding years of service and achievements related to architecture and spatial planning and his dedication to creating meaningful and timeless architecture in Malta.

“My work is actually the effort of a whole team of architects, engineers, interior architects and historians led by my partner David Felice and myself. It is the product of the coordinated effort of a multitude of skills and the combination of a group of minds working in a synchronised pace”, said Konrad. He also added, “AP Valletta is a large family; there are 50 of us.

Nevertheless, we share a common vision which we believe contributes positively to the transformation that the urban fabric of the islands must necessarily undergo.”

The jury commented, “Perit Buhagiar is a well-known and respected professional

who has contributed to the education, theory and practice of architecture.

Through his work and writings, he is well versed in architectural research and in the promotion and advancement of architecture which has contributed to raising awareness in the built environment.

His interest and work in the conservation of buildings were noted, together with his inspirational design capability. His contribution throughout the years is

considered to be outstanding.”

Buhagiar has been responsible for numerous restoration and rehabilitation works in historic buildings and urban sites. He has lectured at the University of Malta and, among the others, at the Canterbury University College of Creative Arts, U.K., and the New York University, USA. In addition, he published numerous historical and academic articles. He

The Malta Architecture and Spatial Planning (MASP) Awards are held annually by the Planning Authority and serve to give recognition to architects, interior designers, university students and any person who would have made an outstanding contribution over the years through research, education, theory and practice of architecture and the built environment.

The 2021 MASP Awards Ceremony Night was held 26 February 2022 at Hilton Hotel in St. Julian’s.

ABOUT TEATRU MANOEL Commissioned over 290 years ago by Grand Master António Manoel de Vilhena, the ‘Manoel’, as it is affectionately known, is reputed to be the third-oldest working theatre in Europe. In 2014, CNN included Teatru Manoel in the world’s top 15 most spectacular theatres, and it is today one of the significant historic working theatres to visit.

Designed by Romano Carapecchia, Francesco Zerafa and Antonio Azzopardi built the theatre in only ten months by incorporating three houses together. Teatru Manoel is now a Grade 1 Listed building and remains one of the finest examples of baroque architecture. Originally called Teatro Pubblico, it was changed to Teatro Reale (‘Theatre Royal’) in 1812 and renamed Teatru Manoel in 1866.

In the 1800s it went under extensive renovation as it was enlarged and remodelled to modify the auditorium.

However, when the Royal Opera House opened, the theatre fell into disrepair and occasionally served as a doss house for the homeless who rented out the stalls for a few pennies a night. It enjoyed a brief revival in the 1900s but was then utilised as a cinema. In 1923, it was the venue for the first public performance of the National Anthem, only to close again during World War II when the theatre served as emergency accommodation for victims of heavy bombardments.

The Manoel is Malta’s national theatre and provides a platform for producers and artists to grow and freely express their creativity through dialogue with a diverse audience that enables mutual cultural enrichment. The Theatre hosts an annual season of concerts, opera, drama, musicals, dance shows as well as an extensive learning and participation programme.

Photo by Dmitry Ishkhanov

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Architecture Venice 2022 ERICA GIUSTA

TOWARDS A TRULY SUSTAINABLE APPROACH TO BUILT HERITAGE: LEONORA CARRINGTON’S LESSON In contrast with other historical centres in continental Europe, Valletta strives to retain its character as a laboratory where opportunities for change and exchange find tangible expressions. In line with its history as a symbol of Mediterranean identities, the city must continue to aspire to evolve and to react to complex challenges such as climate change, parasitic touristic trends and superficial consumerism. All this while guaranteeing its remarkable resourcefulness and cultural richness.

By following Carrington’s ideas about the importance of imagination, respect and integrity, Valletta could embark on a new journey exploring different modes

of coexistence that remain innovative yet faithful to the city’s character and people.

In the words of Kozo Kadowaki, curator of the Japanese Pavilion at the Venice Architecture Biennal 2021, “your actions are not yours alone.

Any act, however trivial, sits atop an accumulation of countless acts that arose from your interactions with someone else. Therefore it can never be said that what you do belongs solely to you.” This mantra complements the exhibition’s theme as a timely reminder while auguring well for a world in constant evolution and renewal.

Photo by Luis-Rodriguez-Lopez

The magical world generated by Leonora Carrington over half a century ago in The Milk of Dreams offers a great perspective on the importance of imagination; in the personal sphere and the artistic and scientific disciplines.

Venice Art Biennal curator Cecilia Alemani states that “life is constantly re-envisioned through the prism of the imagination, where everyone can change, be transformed, become something or someone else”. Architecture can undoubtedly borrow a lot from this notion. However, for the practice of architecture to contribute to social and urban transformations in a meaningful way, it should be aware of the value of many diverse elements, from memory to innovation, from aesthetics to function, combining them with rigour and originality.

The complex magic required to combine all the elements to produce a just, healthy and beautiful built environment would not work without imagination. So isn’t our role

as architects to constantly re-envision the built environment through the prism of the imagination? Now more than ever.

The major crises that we are currently facing (Ukrainian war, Covid-19, climate change etc.) are a harsh reminder of the importance of imagination to adapt and survive. Architecture, being so entangled with the ordinary, every day, and the extraordinary, the moment of crisis, is at its forefront. The swift transformation of structures, even heritage structures, required by the pandemic is just one example of imaginative adaptation steered by moments of unprecedented global change.

Valletta is a case study of great imaginative adaptation throughout the centuries: shifting from a military fortress, a bulwark of Christianity, to a thriving business centre open to the Mediterranean. Its more recent transition from British colony outpost to capital of a young, independent state generated a dynamic setting, perfect for testing new ideas.

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Interview /Malta’s National Pavilion Venice 2022

CHARLIE CAUCHI

Photos by Massimo Penzo

A MEDITERRANEAN MERAVIGLIA:

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MALTA’S NATIONAL PAVILION This year’s Malta Pavilion, Diplomazjia astuta, has been quite the journey and no small achievement, to say the least. It is curated by an international team led by Keith Sciberras (Malta) and Jeffrey Uslip (US). It features a collaboration between artists Arcangelo Sassolino (Italy), Giuseppe Schembri Bonaci (Malta) and composer Brian Schembri (Malta). It is overseen by project managers Nikki Petroni (Malta) and Esther Flury(Switzerland/USA).

Charlie Cauchi met with some of the team behind the pavilion to talk through the genesis of this daring installation and what to expect from this trans-national team.

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Interview /Malta’s National Pavilion Venice 2022 Continued

“Well, murder can be art too”

A year after his arrival, Caravaggio was initiated into the order and commissioned to create what would become one of his most significant works and the largest canvas of his career: The Beheading of St John the Baptist. Some suggest that his masterpiece is an admission of the artist’s own guilt.

The painting itself is preoccupied with a violent act – a brutal execution. More importantly, if you look close enough, you will note that the name “Fra Michelangelo” is scrawled in the blood that drips down the martyr’s neck. It is one of the only paintings that the artist signed himself. Graffiti, Seicento style.

This deep red drop of blood sparked the imagination of artist Arcangelo Sassolino. It is in this blood that this journey begins.

A line uttered by Brandon, John Dall’s character in Alfred Hitchcock’s 1948 thriller Rope may seem like an odd point of departure to discuss Malta’s upcoming national pavilion at the La Biennale di Venezia. But if we scratch beneath the surface, there’s an undeniable link.

It was a murder that first brought Michelangelo Merisi, or Caravaggio, as he is more widely known, to Malta. He descended upon the capital Valletta in the early 1600s, a disgraced fugitive. The Southern Italian encountered a fortified landscape, newly constructed only 40 years prior. Valletta was the seat of power for the Order of Knights Hospitaller of St. John of Jerusalem. It may have been a modern city back then, but its geometrical streets were a backdrop for insurmountable violence and gore. Its golden limestone walls were drenched in blood.

Arcangelo Sassolino. Photo by Agostino Osio

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Fortuna Critica ennale di Venezia. The surrealist drawings featured in her book The Milk of Dreams depict a magical world of transformation and change. La Biennale di Venezia curator Cecilia Alemani, drawn to the otherworldliness of Carrington’s work, has explained elsewhere that this year’s edition is “a deliberate rethinking of man’s centrality in the history of art and contemporary culture.” In many respects, Diplomazjia astuta is rooted in a similar narrative. Sciberras notes that likewise, the Malta Pavilion is preoccupied with utilising the history of art to speak a contemporary language: “It is a project of contemporary aesthetics.

The entire team’s work is a collective intellectual effort, using contemporary mediums to capture the aura of Caravaggio’s work.”

February 2022, only two months to the opening of the Biennal, and it is my turn to wander through the grid layout that makes up Valletta. I am on my way to meet Professor Keith Sciberras, co-curator of the Malta Pavilion. The cacophony of a modern-day crusade accompanies me - bloodshed has been replaced by a heady mix of consumerism and culture. On my way to the Valletta Campus of the University of Malta (UoM), I walk past St John’s Co-Cathedral, the Baptist’s permanent residence. A handful of tourists sit opposite, sipping their espressos at Cafe Caravaggio. The iconoclast may have left, but he still looms large over the city. How, I wonder, will his work be incorporated into our national pavilion?

As a core component of the team, Keith brings with him extensive knowledge of Caravaggio. His main research area is, after all, the Seicento. However, it would be rather simplistic and do him a great disservice to think of him only as such. “The role of the art historian includes so many things: curating, formal analysis, art theory, technical art theory, art history, mathematics, materiality, contextuality. This all bridges stylistic periods, so I obviously can’t simply say that I am Seicento scholar without saying that I am an art scholar and an art historian first and foremost.”

Sciberras is especially interested in how art can bridge one period to the other, and Diplomazjia astuta is the perfect vehicle to do just that. As he explains, he is “particularly concerned with the way contemporary artworks engage with the past, how artists of the past have featured or will feature as artists of reference in other works; in what we call the fortuna critica. The fortuna critica concerns the way artists referred to earlier artists and their works.

This notion is anchored in this pavilion.” Here, Keith reiterates that the artists have “created an installation that departs from Caravaggio and does not mimic his work.”

While the work does not emulate the Beheading, we can say that there are many parallels to the period that the artist found himself working in. The 17th century was a time of exciting discovery, often cited as an unprecedented age of wonder. Many, like Caravaggio, were challenging classical perceptions from an intellectual, artistic and scientific standpoint. Flash forward hundreds of years later, and the artists involved in this year’s pavilion could be said to be doing the same: using innovative techniques to reflect on the past in order to challenge, understand and explain the present. As a result, the pavilion becomes, in and of itself, a site of wonder.

Or, as Sciberras succinctly puts it: “The work is a meraviglia”.

The curator expands upon this notion of wonderment, explaining that the piece is not merely decorative but rather something almost otherworldy that leaves the. spectator astonished. “Like our own Ggantija Temples in Gozo [a megalithic temple complex from the Neolithic] or the Egyptian Pyramids, this is a work of wonder. We want our audience to question the mechanics of the piece. In terms of its construction and what it does, a meraviglia has occurred. It’s a brilliant dialogue between science, mathematics, engineering, and art.”

Caravaggio’s masterpiece, therefore, can be said to extend outside the confines of the canvas and the co-cathedral to create a new body of work, one that can best describe as ethereal. “We are trying to capture the aura of this work,” explains Sciberras. “An aura is something powerful and personal that a work of art transmits.”

Before we delve into the metaphysical aspect of this work further, Keith provides more insight into how the idea for the pavilion came about. >>

Keith is quick to answer my question.

This installation is not about Caravaggio, he explains, but about re-situating him in a contemporary framework. The work is in dialogue with Caravaggio’s Beheading, deliberately redefining it through contemporary art aesthetics and practices.

The British-Mexican born artist Leonora Carrington is the inspiration behind the title of this year’s edition of the La Bi-

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Interview /Malta’s National Pavilion Venice 2022 Continued

A scholar, an artist and a curator walk into an oratory…

At first glance, the three artists may seem to form an unlikely collaboration; however, they share many artistic concerns and connections. “This has been a mesmerising collaboration, “Giuseppe explains. He has worked with Brian before, and “obviously enough, we have had a beautifully turbulent ‘collaboration’ for over half a century,” he adds with a smile, reminding me that they are, in fact, siblings. “Whereas I have been working with Arcangelo for a little less than a year, but the chemistry worked out excellently. The three of us, consciously enough and at the same time unawarely so, are underlining rhythms, pauses, intervals, silences, beats, and waves. Each in his way but essentially complementing the dissonance and harmony ensuing, without, however, ever confronting the result.”

The core team had been working on this monumental piece for over three years.

It was initiated by Sassolino and Uslip.

The artist and curator approached Professor Sciberras to discuss the concept, given his expertise and links to the subject matter. “They had this beautiful idea that played on the drop of blood featured in Caravaggio’s masterpiece.”

Keith was immediately intrigued, “but we weren’t initially sure where the project could go.” So a logical first step was for them to visit the Oratory of the Decollato, the home of The Beheading of St. John the Baptist.

The oratory, constructed in 1602, was founded by the Confraternita della Misericordia (also known as the Compagnia or Società della Misericordia). It has served many functions throughout history: as a place of meditation and devotion; for instruction for the novices of the Order; and for formal procedures such as investitures, as well as defrocking (as an aside, this is the same place Caravaggio was himself defrocked in absentia, for being a “foul and rotten member” of the Order. And only six months after becoming a knight).

It soon became evident to Sciberras, Sassolino and Uslip that if their project were to grow, it would have to do so outside of the confines of this sacred space.

“It was at that point that we realised that Malta’s Pavilion is the same size as the oratory,” Sciberras explained, adding that this serendipity pushed them to focus on a project that could be transported to the Arsenale.

Once the decision was made to focus on a bid for the national pavilion, the three recognised that they needed to expand their concept and their team. Keith elaborates: “It was at this stage that we acknowledged the fact that we needed a contemporary art theorist, someone who works with a textual based art

So, what is the result?

form. And I couldn’t think of anyone better than Giuseppe Schembri Bonaci. I was already working on a project with him, and I was sure he would be a valuable part of a project that had, at its core, contemporary aesthetics of the Mediterranean. We also realised that the project could benefit from a percussive score and needed a musician, and that’s when Brian Schembri came into the mix. So technically, we have a Seicento scholar, a contemporary art curator, two contemporary artists, an art theorist and a conductor.”

Giuseppe is the first to admit, however, that Keith is the linchpin in this collaboration. “I rarely participate in group ac-

tivities,” he candidly explains, “but I was persuaded and roped in by Keith. He succeeded in building up a team, each having his and her particular function, and which together, I must say, evolved into quite an exciting venture.” Brian was also hesitant, claiming that he initially thought he was to consult on the score: “I just thought I was to give them some feedback on some musical aspects for this magnificent project and naturally, discussions ensued. Unsurprisingly, as a result, ideas kept coming back to me, and little by little, I was brought on board to compose a score according to the ideas that were coming out from our discussions.”

Esther Flury

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Chapel with a lower case “c” The work, according to Keith, is multi-layered and experiential: “We are working on a project that will provide a space for reflective immersion, so it’s not just about what one sees but about what one feels. The pavilion is a space for reflection.” There are also explicit references to injustices throughout the work, epitomised by the drop of blood of the martyr who dies unjustly. “We call it a chapel with a small “c”. A sacred space that goes beyond religions.”

Arcangelo utilises extremely modern media to convey this. His work uses a mixture of induction technology, electrical systems, steel and water to create the kinetic structure that forms the backbone of the pavilion. In addition, the installation takes into consideration environmental concerns. “In terms of the way it functions,” adds Sciberras, “we are making sure that the project is entirely covered by green energy, and that has been part of our remit from day one.”

just one of the means, but the means whereby truths are concealed, to be unconcealed, manifested.” To achieve this, he delved into the multi-cultural richness of the Mediterranean languages: Aramaic, Hebrew, Latin, Greek, Arabic, all with sound expertise provided

by Dr Rev. Edgar Vella, and Dr Rev Paul Sciberras, to name a few.”

Samuel Beckett has also heavily influenced the artist’s work, and interestingly enough, there is a connection between Beckett and Carravagio. Giuseppe tells me he discovered this when he first encountered Beckett as a student. “While the author was in Malta, he was suffering from eyesight problems. In a letter he writes to Josette Hayden, he tells her that his eyesight was improved after a visit to the Beheading of Saint John.

This may be a little dramatic, but I find his experience in Malta a fascinating point in his life and work, and he used

his experience in Malta to develop his ‘spewing of words’ approach.”

Words are not the only form of language integral to the pavilion. Music is just as important. Brian created a project-specific score to accompany the installation. He refers to this as “percussive because there will be no definite pitch musical notes heard. There is going to be a particular sound production and there is going to be a visual element that goes with the sound being produced.” Arcangelo’s sculpture has been elevated to a unique instrument with Brian’s expertise.

It was up to Schembri to find a way to musically organise the visual and a sonorous effects emanated by Archangelo’s work into a score. “As discussions developed, I understood that Caravaggio’s masterpiece was the central theme intertwined with Giuseppe’s engraving.

From these different pieces of information, I had to come up with some sort of musical connection. I needed something to grasp at, something which could help me lay a foundation for further development of my musical ideas.

I understood that the number seven was an important aspect of this project because there are seven characters in Caravaggio’s Beheading of St John, and the installation is based on this number as well.”

Scibberas outlines another component of the pavilion that many may not be aware of, and that is its educational programme: “The educational aspect of this pavilion is also extraordinary. Several groups are being immersed very directly and very profoundly into the mechanics of international contemporary art.” >>

Ordinarily, the baroque seduces us with folds of fabric, theatrically rippling into the darkness. But here, the luscious language of textile is replaced by the coolness of steel, a medium favoured

by Arcangelo and one worked on by Giuseppe. Giuseppe talks about his part in the process, with his task being to “challenge” the metal that forms this installation, constructed by Arcangelo. As he puts it: “I was given a sort of aesthetic blank-cheque, and to which after several meetings, versions, bozzettos, preparatory work, I came up with a fascinating final solution, modestly enough I am so excited about, that encapsulates the whole structure into one of spirituality and modernity. Metal and language.”

Language is essential to Giuseppe, using it to unite all these metallic points.

The artist and theorist wanted to reinforce the idea that “language is not

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Interview /Malta’s National Pavilion Venice 2022 Continued

FORWARD LOOKING To learn more about the programme, I spoke to Dr Nikki Petroni, part of the Department of Art and Art History at the University of Malta. Nikki works alongside Esther Flury to manage the pavilion, but the educational programme falls under her remit. I asked Nikki how she came to form part of the team.

Her role, she informs me, can be seen as somewhat of a natural progression to a long-standing collaboration. UoM alumni herself, she was initially one of Giuseppe’s students, reading for her PhD under his supervision. “We have since worked on multiple projects together. Keith was also one of my professors, and now we are colleagues.”

She explains that the educational programme targets a variety of individuals. For Nikki, one of the most exciting aspects of the programme is a study unit geared toward 25 students reading for a BA

Nikki Petroni

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within the Department of Art and Art History. “This is the first time this unit will have a contemporary art focus. The students on this unit will also spend time at the Biennal, completely immersing themselves in a world of international contemporary art.”

Not only does this degree credit provide them with the opportunity to learn about the broader narrative of the Biennal, but they will also have the chance to interact with the key individuals that form Malta’s Pavilion. “So, for example,” Nikki expands, “Jeffrey Uslip will be able to impart his vast experience of curation in the USA and Europe through a series of seminars. And they are also visiting Arcangelo’s studio in Vicenza. So, these students aren’t just going to the Biennal. They will see what happens behind the scenes and the studios of one of the biggest contemporary artists in Italy.”

A group of curatorial assistants made up of recent UoM graduate and undergraduate students are also being offered the chance to form an integral part of the team, spending time working at the pavilion. Nikki points out that the opportunities for these students are immense: “First of all, from a professional point of view, they are being exposed to the highest level of contemporary art practise, curation and management, from both an international and national perspective.” Besides this, there is also the ability to network in a very international context, where they get to meet curators, gallerists, spectators. As she sees it, “while at the pavilion, these assistants are our ambassadors. They must present our pavilion to anyone who asks about it.”

In addition, 14 Erasmus students from the UoM and the Malta College of Arts, Science and Technology are also participating in the programme.

Jeffrey Uslip. Photo by Wesley Law

However, what most excites Nikki is that the scale of the opportunities offered to Maltese students is continuously increasing. “This is beautiful to witness. I remember being so happy when I was a BA student because there was a tiny gallery that gave me a little job. I remember being so proud because I was in an actual gallery.” I ask her how it feels to have gone from there to forming part of the curatorial team for Malta’s National Pavilion. “Everyone starts somewhere small. Not that many years ago, though, it was so limited, but I am still so grateful for that little opportunity.”

However, Nikki is part of a movement helping to turn those “little opportunities” into something more impactful:” I feel that the scope of what we are doing is also very long term. I hope that many of these students will continue to study further. However, the most significant impact will be on the university programme itself. Thanks to the pavilion, the contemporary art section within the Department of Art and Art History is continuing to grow, adding to the dedicated work under Giuseppe’s coordination over the past few years.”

It would be remiss to think that the programme only caters for those in academia. Nikki maintains that the general public is also a key demographic: “Our outreach also expands outside of academia, both in Malta and Venice, through a series of satellite events that will run concurrently throughout the Biennal.”

This progressive way of thinking encapsulates the spirit of Diplomazjia astuta. I may have started out contemplating death and destruction, but this work defies us to consider the very essence of our being. Sciberras is also interested in what happens beyond this year’s offering, “ pushing the boundaries of what a pavilion can do and where it can go.” Through Diplomazjia astute, he set out to help create something different: “I am hoping that together we can show a way for future pavilions.”

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Spotlight /Arts Council Malta Venice 2022

ed the Tuvalu National Pavilion in 2015.

After an absence of 17 years, Malta was about to proudly return to the Biennale with its National Pavilion located in a central location in the Arsenale.” “We had made sure the location was central as we wanted all the visitors of the Biennale to literally pass through our pavilion. Over 600,000 visitors at every edition and over 6000 international press.”

Establishing Malta’s Presence at La Biennale di Venezia Arts Council Malta (ACM) is the commissioning body responsible for Malta’s Pavilion. Artpaper talks to Dr Romina Delia, Internationalisation Executive at ACM, about the Council’s commitment to establishing Malta’s presence at this prestigious event and her role as Project Leader of the Malta Pavilion at La Biennale di Venezia.

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a Biennale di Venezia was founded in 1895 by the city of Venice. It was conceived during the height of the Great Universal Exhibition, a cultural phenomenon that took continental Europe by storm after England’s Crystal Palace Exhibition in 1851. Yet, despite its longevity, Malta features very sparingly within the landscape of the Biennale’s history.

In 1958, seven Maltese artists - Antoine Camilleri, Carmenu Mangion, Frank Portelli, Emvin Cremona, Hugo Carbonaro, Josef Kalleya and Oliver Agius – featured in a special exhibition at the 29th edition of the Biennale. Malta reemerged 41-years later with a commissioned show curated by the late Adrian Bartolo. A curator at the National Museum of Fine

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Arts, Bartolo selected artists Vince Briffa, Norbert Attard and Ray Pitrè to showcase work reflecting the philosophical concept of time.

A few months later, Dr Delia coordinated an international open call for curatorial proposals, presided over by a jury composed of local and international curators.

Artist-curators Bettina Hutschek (Germany) and Raphael Vella (Malta) represented Malta in 2017 with their playfully poetic Homo Melitensis: An Incomplete Inventory in 19 Chapters. The pavilion interpreted and defined the notion of “Malteseness”, cleverly weaving together an eclectic mix of Maltese artists and an array of local artefacts.

As its first foray into the Biennale in many years, Dr Delia recalls having to start from scratch: “I had no one in Malta to guide me, as the curator Adrian Bartolo and project manager Dennis Vella, who formed the team in 1999, had both passed away. So, I reached out to any entity I thought could assist.” She approached a mixture of public and private entities such as Malta Enterprise, Malta Tourism Authority, Heritage Malta, BOV, the Valletta Cultural Agency, and the Malta Presidency of the Council of the EU in 2017.

Dr Delia maintains that the success of delivering such a project is thanks to the constant support of its collaborators.

Dr Delia explains that in 2015, plans were set for Malta to have a more permanent presence at the Biennale. “I was asked to commission and project lead on behalf of ACM, the return of the Malta Pavilion. For the past seven years, this has formed part of my portfolio as the Internationalisation Executive at Arts Council Malta, falling within the strategy department of the Council.”

The 2017 edition holds a special place in Dr Delia’s heart. As she explains: “most artists participating were relatively young to be participating at the Biennale, and having them, there was amazing. It was the opportunity of a lifetime. I was like, ‘wow- these are Malta’s future, and they are here at this international art event absorbing all!’. I had tears in my eyes.”

In 2015, Dr Delia set up initial meetings with the Biennale organisers to re-introduce Malta’s participation in the 57th edition in 2017. “After viewing several sites, we decided to choose the space that host-

Yet another ambitious collaboration followed Malta’s 2017 offering. The 58th Biennale in 2019 featured Malta’s entry, Maleth / Haven / Port - Heterotopias of Evocation, a pavilion curated by historian

Hesperia Iliadou (Cyprus), whose curatorial inspiration was Homer’s Odyssey. It included newly commissioned work by artists Vince Briffa (Malta), Trevor Borg (Malta) and Klitsa Antoniou (Cyprus).

Their work examined Malta’s unique position in the central Mediterranean, providing a contemporary reinterpretation of our timeless need of seeking Haven, most strongly experienced in times of crisis.

Like vessels within a sea, the artworks come together, inviting the audience to participate in an intuitively playful dialogue, traversing the exhibition in a curiosity-driven voyage of self-reflection This year, Dr Delia informs us that the 2022 Malta Pavilion, Diplomazjia astuta brings several individuals together: “Each curatorial team member has a solid track record. Even though the project might have seemed like a highly ambitious one on paper, the whole team has now proven that sometimes even what appears to be an impossible project can become a reality if people put faith and trust in each other. When people do their utmost to understand each other and put all their resources together- magic happens!”

Over the years, Dr Delia has worked tirelessly to bring each pavilion to fruition: “I am with the curatorial team every step of their journey, which is quite a roller-coaster ride, I must say, especially when dealing with curators, artists and other principal actors based in different parts of the world. I feel my role is to pull all the strings together, ensuring that the project is delivered successfully.” In addition, she works hand in hand with the directors, administrators and communications team at ACM and at La Biennale di Venezia headquarters, “without whose constant support and advice I would have never managed to get through each Biennale.”

Even though the work is challenging, Dr Delia maintains it is still a process she finds fascinating and rewarding. “Exploring each other’s cultures, attitudes, traditions, politics, histories, contacts, whilst learning to trust and understand each other and building something together” is part of this exciting journey.

Spotlight / Art Galleries / Malta Venice 2022

established branch, holds regular exhibitions by upcoming and established local Maltese, European and African artists.

Christine X Art Gallery, 17, Tigne Street, Sliema, Malta.

W: www.christinexcurated.com

LILY AGIUS GALLERY London-born Lily Agius opened her eponymous gallery in Sliema, Malta, a decade ago to promote both Maltese and international artists. She is also the founder of Artpaper, a magazine that documents creative life on the island.

For more information on art and the gallery contact info@lilyagiusgallery.com and view www.artsy.net/lily-agius-gallery

CHRISTINE X ART GALLERY Established in 2004, Christine X Art Gallery has fast gained a reputation for exhibiting a manifold of works by emerging and established artists from its Sliema-based shop and other venues, including museums and art centres locally and abroad. Since its inception, the gallery has embraced maintaining a deep devotion to the artists it represents. It seeks to nurture new talent by offering artists a dynamic, inclusive platform through which they can be introduced to local and global clients. Christine X Curated, a newly

MARIE GALLERY 5 Founded in 2016, Marie Gallery 5 launched with a goal to represent the most promising artists and exhibit their work both locally and internationally. The key initiative was to provide opportunities to artists entering the global art market. Maria Galea founded the gallery on the principle that galleries are a voice for artists, giving them exposure and credibility, ultimately enhancing their careers. It is described as “one of a very few private art galleries – completely dedicated to showcasing some of the finest contemporary art in Malta.” Having represented local artists in international art fairs in New York, Miami and Dubai, the gallery has established itself as a space dedicated to cultivating and promoting local artists through a new lens. The gallery offers several curatorial services which enable collaborations with corporate and hospitality companies. The latest collaboration has been that of the Iniala Harbour House Hotel in Valletta, whereby the gallery curated all the spaces within the hotel representing over 18 artists, now part of the

permanent and private collection. Born out of personal aspiration to give new opportunities to artists, whilst increasing awareness of the value of art to the market. Today the gallery continues its journey to promote, connect and showcase curated works to its clients and new art lovers, enjoying the experience of owning and investing in art.

W: www.mariegallery5.com

ART GALLERIES OF THE MALTA SOCIETY OF ARTS The Art Galleries of the Malta Society of Arts (MSA) are housed on the upper floor of Palazzo de La Salle, one of the first grand palaces to be built in Valletta at the end of the sixteenth century. The four inter-linked rooms are equipped with state-of-the-art lighting facilities and offer an uninterrupted programme of monthly exhibitions open to the public all year round. In addition, the MSA issues regular calls for artists to submit exhibition proposals, which an independent Arts Advisory Board reviews. During the past century and a half, the Society has sponsored many of Malta’s best-known artists through bursaries and prizes. At the time when Malta’s Modern Art movements were flourishing, the Society was associated with many high-profile artists such as Antonio Sciortino, Anton Inglott, Ganni Bonnici, Willie and Vincent Apap, Emvin Cremona and Carmelo Mangion.

Many local and internationally well-known artists, sculptors, photographers, and installation artists have exhibited at the MSA in recent years.

W: www.artsmalta.org

VALLETTA CONTEMPORARY Valletta Contemporary (VC) is Malta’s premier space for contemporary art. This gallery prompts and gives home to Malta’s diverse cultural community, championing contemporary art as a catalyst for discussion, social cohesion, and cultural discovery. The META Foundation runs the independent exhibition space and art gallery, and since its opening in 2018, has become the anchor for a new cultural quarter in Malta’s capital, Valletta.

Located at the lower east end of the city – on the periphery and away from the main centre – VC has been an agent of regeneration and activity to a lesser-known part of the city.

15, 16, 17, Triq l-Vant (East Street), Valletta. VLT1253, Malta T: +356 2123 4141 M: +356 79041051 W: www.vallettacontemporary.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ vallettacontemporary__malta/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ vallettacontemporary

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Spotlight / Events / Malta Venice 2022

Exhibition highlights in Malta

03 . 03.22

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Until 30 June 2022

Until 8 May 2022

SOMETHING ABOUT YOU, A TEN-YEAR SURVEY EXHIBITION

PERSPECTIVES II

Blitz presents Something About You, an exhibition of work

by Marinella Senatore, curated by Sara Dolfi Agostini.

Over the years, Senatore has developed a methodology that delves into practices of non-hierarchical learning and participatory art, exploring forms of resistance, vernacular and popular culture, dance, music and activism, with the intention of rethinking the political nature of communal action and reconciling individuals and collective bodies, often considered dichotomic entities in capitalist culture.

Blitz, 68 St Lucia Street, Valletta. www.blitzvalletta.com

22 . 04.22

This is Tomas Hed’s second solo exhibition at Arthall and a continuation of his Perspectives on the human condition. Focusing on what we are made of - mud, blood and dreams- he will present a series of paintings that reflect our limitations and, at the same time, our will to overreach them, consciously or unconsciously.

Femininity, human rationality, sanity, individuality, mortality, animality: these are some of the issues moulded onto his canvas. Most of the artworks are recent, but the exhibition will also include some paintings made in Stockholm, more than 20 years ago.

Arthall, 8 Triq Agius de Soldanis, Victoria, Gozo. www.arthallgozo.com

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Until 13 May 2022

Until 19 May 2022

ANTHROPO SANS FUTURE

IL-HAJJA: MARIO AGIUS

The pandemic has had artists shifting attention and understanding of the world around us. The selection of artworks for this exhibition shows this untimely influence of humans on climate and the environment, questioning how humanity plays a part in the ecological downfall, which finds society guilty of robbing future generations of their short-term economic gain. The exhibition is held at the Christine X Art Gallery and features Chris de Souza Jensen, Darren Tanti, Kevin Attard, Mario Abela and Rupert Cefai.

Gozitan sculptor Mario Agius launches his solo exhibition Il-Hajja. This series of works creates connections between our natural world and human existence. Mario studied sculpture and design with the late Maltese artists Anton Agius and Harry Alden and furthered his studies in the UK with sculptor Ian Norbury.

Malta Society of Arts, Valletta Palazzo de La Salle, 219 Republic Street, Valletta, Malta. www.artsmalta.org

Christine X Art Gallery, 17, Tigne Street, Sliema, Malta. www.christinexcurated.com

29 . 04.22

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MY WALKS WITH HUGO: ROBERTA ZAMMIT CUTAJAR SOLO EXHIBITION

SEA SUNSET MOON – VARIATIONS ON SOLITUDE

The thought of this exhibition came to Roberta on walks with Hugo, her old rescue dog. In awe of her surroundings, Roberta would rush back home, eager to put it all on canvas.

Hugo and his furry friends were always part of her walks and are included in many of her works. Roberta is donating a portion of the proceeds of her exhibition to these loving animals. Roberta would meet a friend with her dog whose daughter was very ill and sadly passed to a better world. Her journey had a profound effect on Roberta and so many. This exhibition is dedicated to her memory.

Contained within the experience of solitude are two opposed ways of experiencing the world. Solitude is synonymous with melancholia, abandonment and pain, but on the other hand, solitude is also an invitation for self-reflection. This collective exhibition seeks to find an answer, however tentative, to this question on what it truly means to be alone at a time where our routines have been forcibly changed. Artists include Paul Scerri, Norbert Francis Attard, Katie Sims, Glen Calleja, Anna Calleja, Chelsea Muscat, Sarah Bonaci, b’esejs ta’ Ruth Bianco u Michael Zammit. Curated by Gabriel Zammit.

Until 13 May 2022

Gallery 23, 23 Idmejda Street, Balzan www.gallery23malta.com

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Until 8 May 2022

Space A, Spazju Kreattiv, St James Cavalier, Castille Place, Valletta, Malta www.kreattivita.org

20 . 05.22

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Until 10 June 2022

Until 10 June 2022

JENI CARUANA SOLO EXHIBITION

ATROPHIA

Jeni Caruana has a deep fascination with how humans move, breathe and interact. Over the years, she has drawn thousands of models and habitually sketched people around her. Most of the works in this collection were created over the last two years from online Zoom sessions, which replaced life drawing sessions when lockdown started in early 2020. Yet, Jeni kept inspired and able to reach out beyond the physical walls of her studio and the psychological barriers of isolation. The last two years have been an incredibly creative time for her, an inspiring and strangely liberating journey that has resulted in many new works that have surprised and thrilled her.

During his regular visits to Wied Qirda in Zebbug (Malta) and after a period of heavy storms, the artist Rupert Cefai couldn’t help but notice the destructive effect water had on this environment. Although water is a necessity for life, like everything else, too much of it also has its downfall. This destructive process has inspired the artist to produce a body of abstract works, exhibited in this solo exhibition titled Atrophia at Christine X Art Gallery.

Christine X Art Gallery, 17, Tigne Street, Sliema, Malta. www.christinexcurated.com

Gallery 23, 23 Idmejda Street, Balzan www.gallery23malta.com

26 . 05.22

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Until 29 May 2022

Until 8 July 2022

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UCUH TAR-RABA’

OBLITERATED CHILDHOOD

Ghar id-Dud, on the Sliema promenade Malta – and Gozo’s – agricultural landscape is characterised by the small-scale farmer. With land being challenging to acquire or being subdivided into awkwardly small plots over several generations, our islands’ farms are uniquely small. Nevertheless, your average consumer is far removed the origin of the food they buy. A photography exhibition, organised by Friends of the Earth Malta (FoEM), introduces visitors to the stories of 10 Maltese farmers. The exhibition is illustrated by intimate portraits of the farmers by photojournalist Darrin Zammit Lupi and reveals some of the faces behind Maltese produce.

Curated and managed by Samira Damato.

In the midst of war, Dereje Shiferaw cannot bear to see any more children being traumatised. He believes not only in stopping wars but also in deactivating child soldiers’ memories of the brutal war and the trauma of violence. Children are the nexus of humanity and must be kept safe. They must never be used to obliterate peace. He believes he needs to keep his crying eyes open, together with the eyes of his neighbours, allowing tears to do something for humanity, even if their eyes get blinded. This solo exhibition features figurative paintings

by Ethiopian artist Dereje Shiferaw.

Christine X Art Gallery, 17, Tigne Street, Sliema, Malta. www.christinexcurated.com

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

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Interview /Malta / Lily Agius Gallery Venice 2022

CHARLIE CAUCHI

SUPPORTING LOCAL TALENT Lily Agius established the Lily Agius Gallery in 2011 and is the founder of Artpaper. Although she has been a fixture on the Maltese art scene for over a decade, she shows no signs of slowing down. Lily talks work, art and her exciting plans for the future.

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he coastal town of Sliema is one of Malta’s busiest shopping districts. It is also home to the Lily Agius Gallery, founded in 2011 by the eponymous curator. A graduate of the History of Art and Design at Manchester Metropolitan and History of Art at the University of Malta, Lily presented her first exhibition in 2004 with the British photographer Charlie Roff.

In the early years of her career, she found a mentor in Professor Dennis Vella, a figure who contributed significantly to promoting Maltese art, both historical and contemporary. Vella, who passed away in 2009, was the curator at the National Museum of Fine Art and formed an integral part of the Faculty of Art at the University of Malta. Lily cites him as the one who inspired her to take Maltese work seriously.

It was his artist studio visits, she explains, that motivated her to explore Maltese art and artists. “Malta’s art-scene is indebted to him.

Without him, so much local work would have been lost or underappreciated. But it wasn’t just his knowledge and passion for art that was inspirational. He also gave me the confidence to pursue my own career in contemporary art.”

With a hunger for curation but no gallery of her own, Lily sought out numerous spaces to bring art to the public arena. “In the early days, I exhibited various artists’ work in different locations, mainly hotel lobbies. This proved to be successful, but it wasn’t sustainable, and I knew I could do more.”

Having spent her formative years in London, she gained invaluable knowledge about arts and culture. “I could see a difference between how the arts were regarded in the UK and Malta. In London, art and culture was part of my everyday life. It ran in parallel to everything I did.” However, when she moved back to Malta, she soon discovered that that wasn’t necessarily the case in the country that she had now decided to call home. “So,” she adds candidly, “I thought to myself, well, I just have to find a way to expose intelligent and good art made by those people here that I believe are true artists.”

Photo by Elisa Von Brockdorff

Art business seemed to come naturally to Lily, but she recognised that she wanted more agency over her curatorial practice. By her late twenties, she made a bold move and decided to open her own gallery. “Having my own space allowed gave me a certain freedom to experiment with formats. And more importantly, to build my own programmes around my own timeframes.”

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In 2006 she also became editor of Manic!, a local lifestyle magazine that formed part of The Malta Independent. “When I joined the magazine, my first instinct was to add a section dedicated to local art.” But just one section in a magazine wouldn’t cut it, and in 2017, Lily had launched Artpaper, a publication dedicated solely to the Maltese and international art-scene. Her drive to do so, she maintains, was instinctual: “Anyone who works in the arts is just driven to do so by an inexplicable unconscious calling. I have made it my mission to be the instrument for the voice of true artists. Without art promoters and patrons, like myself, contemporary artists would have no way to express themselves or be heard at all. Especially in the Maltese context.”

Of course, working in the arts in Malta hasn’t always been plane sailing. When she first moved to the island, many of the more established artists that she had been surrounded by when she was a student were reaching the end of their careers. “All those late modern sculptors and painters weren’t producing as much work and the local market seemed to be flooded with so many watercolour landscape paintings.” In addition, she maintains that the passing of sculptors such as Gianni Pace and Anton Agius, had left Malta bereft of great works of bold mediums like wood and stone.

However, she acknowledges that there has been a resurgence in contemporary art over the years: “We have witnessed this in both performance and visual art.

We have always had talented artists exhibiting and performing in Malta, with groups like START, who were active in the late 90s, and practitioners like Jimmy Grima, whose theatrical performances are coupled with stunning set design.”

Lily is adamant that there is an abundance of talent on the Maltese islands, and she has been privileged enough to work with several of them: “Over the years I have worked with many different characters”.

At the beginning of her career, she started out by presenting a mix of work, which mostly appealed to the current tastes of the time. “But,” she hastens to add, “tastes have changed. And so have mine.”

“Artists create a world that is beyond the ordinary. To me, they are demigods. Their vision of the world is what’s important to me – anything is possible. What upsets me is having a genius left behind because their contemporaries don’t allow them to express themselves and have an imprint on the world, which is what I truly believe matters the most.”

She is very selective, choosing to represent a mixture of artists that are Maltese and international. These include Maltese and Malta-based artists Lon Kirkop, COMA, Christian Palmer, John-Paul Azzopardi, Stephanie Galea, Alexandra Aquilina, Elisa Von Brockdorff, Adrian Scicluna and Goxwa – most of whom she gave debut shows. With regards to international names, Lily has worked with New York based artists Pat Kurs and Skye Ferrante, J Roldan, who is based in Columbia and London, and Naoya Inose from Japan.

“I have found artists at international art fairs, galleries, and of course recommendations from other collectors and artists are key.”

It’s her easy nature that she credits as the reason for her ability to work with artists: “I think that over the years I have proved

to be easy to work with and I think that this has helped me keep long relationships with my artists and to be able to meet new ones.” Respect also plays an important role in maintaining these relationships. However, it is a quality that she feels that those on the Maltese art-scene must work harder for. She explains that “while being an artist was a respectable career in Malta two generations ago, it is sometimes now considered to be a hobby.

There is a lot of work to be done still to change this perception.”

Luckily, Lily believes that this is changing.

She sees that there is a generation that was lucky enough to discover contemporary art outside of the Maltese islands.

Many of those “that studied the arts or have an interest in art, are now using their buying power locally to support the arts,

thereby making the careers of a number of artists possible.”

In 2022 her ethos remains the same: Lily is adamant that galleries like hers should offer the public time and space to step away from their everyday. Lily hopes that since Lily Agius Gallery first opened its doors 11 years ago, she has been able to provide customers with a gallery where they can come “to perhaps self-reflect, and just think, feel and reconnect.” Above all, she wants the gallery to continually provide support and exposure to well deserved talent. “I also hope that my publication has brought contemporary art to the Maltese community, giving people insight into what is happening both locally and away from our shores.”

Her next step is to expand this internationalization further, and she is working towards creating a pop-up gallery in London, where she will curate a unique selection of work by Maltese artists. “It’s time to help the artists I have been working with locally to penetrate a city with one of the most vibrant and vital contemporary art scenes in the world.”

For more information contact the gallery by email info@lilyagiusgallery. com or call +356 99292488. View the gallery online via: www.artsy.net/ lily-agius-gallery. Visit the gallery at 54 Cathedral Street, Sliema, Malta.

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Review /Gallery / Valletta Contemporary Venice 2022

VALLETTA CONTEMPORARY:

Siphoning the currents of a global art world into Malta’s capital

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alletta Contemporary (VC) is Malta’s premier space for contemporary art. This gallery prompts and gives home to Malta’s diverse cultural community, championing contemporary art as a catalyst for discussion, social cohesion, and cultural discovery. The META Foundation runs the independent exhibition space and art gallery, and since its opening in 2018, has become the anchor for a new cultural quarter in Malta’s capital, Valletta. Located at the lower east end of the city – on the periphery and away from the main centre – VC has been an agent of regeneration and activity to a lesser-known part of the city.

PALIMPSESTS OF THE HISTORICAL AND CONTEMPORARY The gallery’s physical space was conceived, designed, and realised by its director – artist and architect Norbert Francis Attard. Built within a 400-year-old for-

Pristine Paradise by Nadine Baldow

mer warehouse, the space merges past with present, with contemporary interiors juxtaposing sleek, crisp materiality against the original features of its vaulted Valletta property. This layering of history speaks to the gallery’s philosophy and its approach to the exhibition of contemporary art. Its exhibitions and events are mettled in their intention to interrogate cultural contexts, to provoke unconventional readings, and to jolt the typical experience of seeing art in three-dimensional space.

Carlos Coronas

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A VESSEL FOR TRANSMUTATION The architecture of the gallery becomes an agent to the transformative power of the art it carries. In its inaugural exhibition, The Dreamed Territories (2018), Car-

los Coronas’ large-scale, angular light sculptures were brought into the space as luminescent ecosystems. A year later in Nadine Baldow’s Pristine Paradise (2019), the gallery became an incubator for absurd scenarios, with foreign organisms occupying everyday objects, including fridges, washing-machines and cooking facilities.

An artificial kind of nature occupied the space within the gallery walls, overrun by deforming and corroding fungus-like organisms. The double-height main atrium offered new dimension to the work of Mareo Rodrigues in Portals (2021), whose solo show included interventions that were site-specific to the gallery’s historic fabric. His luminescent fractures dominated the gallery’s internal spaces, creating a tension positioned as a constant force of repulsion and attraction – as an uninhabitable, endless space.

CONTEMPORARY FRAMING AND RECOGNITION Valletta Contemporary showcases the work of influential contemporary artists through a dynamic, and internationally facing temporary exhibition programme that runs throughout the year. VC’s regular collective shows act as indexes to the gallery’s discursive and curatorial aspirations, each including works from contemporary artists who have had a catalytic impact on the progression of art theory and practice throughout the world.

Electromorphologies (2018), curated by Vince Briffa, brought together the work of Peter Campus, David Hall, Mona Hatoum, Gary Hill, Joan Jonas, Bruce Nauman, Paul Sharits, Steina and Woody Vasulka, and Bill Viola in a show that recognised pioneering video art and its language. Afternminimalism (2019), curated by Norbert Francis Attard and Francesca Mangion, included works by Brian Eno, Liam Gillick and Damien Hirst amongst others in its revisitation of minimalism, framing the movement from a methodological rather than a thematic perspective. Non Aligned Networks (2019), curated by Yasemin Keskintepe included a cohort of artists interrogating the Internet as a boundless repository of information and a site for global data exchange.

COLLABORATION AND OUTREACH VC collaborates extensively with local and international organisations and collectors, running regular outreach programmes and diverse educational and knowledge-sharing initiatives. Each aims at establishing a meaningful connection between the local community and contemporary art. The gallery also runs a thriving education programme, whose spirit holds parallel with director Norbert Francis Attard’s residency programme, Gozo Contemporary (launched in 2001), an endeavour that introduces artists and creative practitioners to Gozo’s offering as an inspiring creative environment with opportunities for exploration and discovery within a Mediterranean setting.

Non-Aligned Networks showing work by Yuri Pattison

CONTINUITY AND LEADERSHIP VC’s leadership at the helm of Norbert Francis Attard is channelled through the META Foundation, an advisory and administrative body that provides the policy guidelines and support required to run a world-class gallery. The META Foundation is committed to making waves within the art community, offering notable Maltese artists a forum to present and discuss their work. The META Foundation also focuses on the internationalisation of the gallery through a regular programme of international contemporary artists, showcasing both established names and emerging artists from around the world.

EDITIONS AND PUBLICATIONS Aside from its diverse programme of exhibitions, the gallery has run an ongoing initiative to support selected local and international contemporary artists through commissioning the production of contemporary art pieces. VC Editions comes together as a collaboration with artists that works to showcase their exhibited works beyond the lifetime of their respective shows. Structured as a small-scale version of the traditional gallery-artist representation format, artworks are chosen by the gallery in consultation with the artist and reproduced in numbered editions, each made available for sale exclusively through VC gallery. Editions are sold in VC’s gallery shop, designed to support VC’s mission and the work of emerging artists and designers. VC also publishes an annual programme catalogue, which covers in-depth coverage of each of the year’s shows, including curatorial essays and artist interviews.

Valletta Contemporary, 15-17, Triq l-Vant (East Street), Valletta. VLT1253, Malta. T: +356 2123 4141; M: +356 7904 1051;W: www.vallettacontemporary. com; Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/vallettacontemporary__malta/; Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/vallettacontemporary

Electromorphologies showing Mona Hatoum video

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Review /Maltese Artists Venice 2022

SARAH CHIRCOP

Thriving in Uncertainty We are living uncertain times, just as so many did before us. Uncertainty is no new agent to the human condition, and yet it makes us feel as if the stable grounding of the past is disintegrating into a swamp of unknowable futures. How dreadfully exciting.

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he 59th International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia is titled The Milk of Dreams, a concept conceived and organised in a period of enormous instability and uncertainty. However, curator Cecilia Alemani established that this year’s Biennal; “is not an exhibition about the pandemic, but it inevitably registers the upheavals of our era. In times like this, as the history of La Biennale di Venezia clearly shows, art and artists can help us imagine new modes of coexistence and infinite new possibilities of transformation.”

Whilst Malta participates with a pavilion titled Diplomazija astuta, primarily focussed on re-articulating Caravaggio’s seminal altarpiece The Beheading of St John the Baptist (1608), I feel it is essential to put into context the island’s vast and various output of artistic work during this time of such instability and uncertainty. Artists and creatives have continued to question and challenge the micro and macro worlds around them, all in an attempt to re-imagine new modes of co-existing and transforming.

Born out of the pandemic’s upheaval and the digital age, Ryan Falzon is one of the island’s leading contemporary painters. In his Botanika series back in 2020 and his current exhibition Friends with Plants, Falzon’s work concerns plants and our personal experiences of isolation. Whilst we transitioned from the forced slow pace of life to the grim perspective of catastrophic death rates and the crippling uncertainty of a pandemic that was only ever meant to last a few weeks, plants kept filling and cluttering our indoor spaces, giving much-needed hope, tranquillity and growth to those who share space with them. His paintings Friends with Plants by Ryan Falzon

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tions, employing Malta, an island state in the Mediterranean Sea with a long colonial past, as an artistic case-study.” The final three-day exhibition with performative interventions explored how territories, lands and spaces are formed and what conflicting interests influence these delineations. This collaborative project was released by Maren Richter and Klaus Schafler from the Grammar of Urgencies Collective, Greta Muscat Azzopardi, and Margerita Pulè from Unfinished Art Space.

present us with these narratives and stills that we can all relate to; “here I am, here I am not, am I being missed, are you being missed. Friends With Plants is about isolation, the need for company and the tranquillity of solitude.”

Also concerned with the human condition but confronting it differently, Gabriel Buttigieg’s drawings and paintings explore primordial, tribal, Mediterranean and Grecian, myths and legends, conceptualising them in a contemporary context.

His current exhibition Four Seasons: A Reflection of Archetypal Imagery, invites us to stand still and deliberate on all that makes humanity unique. His work depicts the underbelly and shadow of the human race in the same glorious, paradoxical manner in which he represents the sublime, offering “a possibility to ponder on meanings and interpretations of what it means to be alive, fully cognisant and sensitive to life.”

and artists who shared their work from their own living room straight to ours.

The Lockdown Festival was created by Zoe Camilleri, Keit Bonnici, Niels Plotard and Vegard Flatoey, professional artists themselves who worked to each other’s strengths and started a festival feeling of community and purpose that touched on a global scale. The festival went on to win a European Citizen’s Prize.

Strength in numbers prevails, as can also be seen in the year-long project Debatable Land(s), which saw the participation of 53 collaborators who were part of debates and exhibitions around the island. Debatable Land(s) can be described as “an experimental spatial installation, and the first chapter of a year-long project dealing with mechanisms of space appropriation and their historical and current devia-

With the first lockdown hitting our shores in March 2020, four artists-friends were quick to react to the pandemic and the isolation it brought artists and audiences by organising a live-streaming festival featuring local and international musicians

Showing this month in Malta, Pulè from Unfinished Art Space, in collaboration with Elise Billiard, curated The Ordinary Lives of Women, an exhibition focusing on recognising the value of everyday women and women’s contribution to humanity. The group show explored how ‘ordinary’ women have been pushed to extraordinary acts when their rights and lives, and those of their societies, have come under threat. When circumstances dictate, women emerge from their traditional domestic roles to adopt a revolutionary stance – “a Feminism of the ordinary.”

Charlie Cauchi is one of the artists to participate in this exhibition. Her work explores the peep show booth, something of a relic of the past, as she transports us to 1960s Soho using an intimate form of address associated with the peep show. Her work explores notions of agency, alliance, and reliance concerning the female body.

Soho has been the subject of her research for a few years, having given us the exhibition Scheherazade back in 2020, and also currently working on a feature documentary exploring the Maltese connection to the Vice trade in Soho. All her work falls under the umbrella of Latitude 36; her socially engaged transmedia project focuses on Maltese individuals and community groups located in different parts of the world and their tales of what it means to leave home. Seeking new insight into the Maltese emigration experience and to promote discussion, all her work aims to creatively engender new perspectives on issues of migration, memory and identity.

Cauchi is also involved in the organisation of Rosa Kwir; an experimental, virtual and physical archive revolving

The Ten Minute Rule, part of Latitude 36 at Blitz, Valletta (2018). Photo by Darren Agius

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Review /Maltese Artists Venice 2022 Continued

ity, female masculinity and butch lesbians concerning my own country.”

The island also saw the creation of the very different and otherworldly SURA. An interdisciplinary and collaborative project, SURA looked at ‘dolls’ as coveted objects which are universally present across continents, cultures and times. Accompanied by voices and stories, each doll was an attempt at making sense of the human need to create objects in our own likeness. Dolls lie somewhere between the inanimate and the living and each one spoke of belonging and ostracization, of spiritual parents and guardians.

around alternative notions of masculinity – bringing together stories of trans men, non-binary and LBQI masculine-presenting people in Malta. Rosa Kwir, title of which was inspired by a story dating back to 1774 when Rosa Mifsud, a 17 year old intersex person, petitioned for a change in sex from female to male, is the brainchild of artist Romeo Roxman Gatt, whose research into trans and lesbian histories highlighted the lack of representation in a Maltese context; “I’ve rarely come across references to trans men, gender non-conforming people, non-binary people in books. There is hardly any discourse or visual representations of trans masculin-

to of today’s choices and a suggestion for tomorrow’s actions. Every piece is made of recycled construction waste and tells the story of the building that inspired it, contributing to the need for tangible solutions to the sheer amount of discarded materials that keeps accumulating on the island while promoting circularity and raising awareness on environmental issues within a larger audience.

is about how the unpredictability of uncertainty can allow for transitions and become fertile ground for meaningful change and lasting transformation. And like Carrington’s Milk of Dreams, we must continue to re-envision through the prism of the imagination. Let us live in a world where everyone can change and be transformed. Let us thrive in uncertainty.

We are living in uncertain times. But this is not an article about the pandemic. It

In the world of photography, Zvezdan Reljic persists with the production of his FOTOBOOK, a monthly magazine presenting the works of local and international photographers. With no style or visual language connecting these photographs, FOTOBOOK serves as a way for us to discover photographers who present photographs that are original, untouched by commercial pressures or unnecessary retouching.

Anna Horvath .from AHA Objects, also gave us SORGI, an ongoing research project about opportunities for circularity in Malta, whose first outcome was an outdoor furniture collection for public spaces, highly critical of the booming construction industry. Six benches inspired by six buildings affected by the local construction frenzy stand both as a memenSORGI by Anna Horvath

STRADA STRETTA, VALLETTA T: + 356 2122 0449

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Interview /Los Angeles/ Adrian Abela Venice 2022

JOANNA DELIA

If God was an Octopus AND OTHER STORIES FROM THE ARTIST FROM FGURA WHO MOVED TO LOS ANGELES

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that are not necessarily everyone’s cup of tea. It takes a lot of discipline to make extra-terrestrial, extra-national, extra-social, and extra-corporeal observations. To shed all constraints taught by time spent in society while studying, interpreting and criticising this same society.

drian Abela is, in my opinion, the master of perspective. A visual poet.

In simple words, he is a skilled and brilliant interpreter, able to communicate what makes the Maltese, and people in general, tick. And what should make them tick but doesn’t.

Abela Performs quasi miracles in his skill at removing filters and inventing, applying or discovering others. His work is a testament to his being so in tune with our collective consciousness it almost seems omnipotent at times. It is almost as though he can see and explore extra dimensions. To my knowledge, there are very few people as capable as Abela at exploring the fantastical aspects of the intricate web, which is Malta’s ‘culture’. It is almost impossible to interpret his worldview better than he does himself - and in this, he takes on the epitome of the role of the artist.

Abela studied architecture and civil engineering in Malta and Milan, then moved to California to study for an MFA in sculpture at UCLA. He currently lives and works in Los Angeles.

He applied what is probably a lot of effort to answer the most pressing questions in his mind. In the mind of the average Maltese boy - questions such as what is this God everyone is so obsessed with?

Why do we spend money on looking for this black oil but not on saving drowning people? Why do we award citizenship to machines and not to our brothers? Why do the people pretend they can’t control the sprawl of concrete as if it were alive and proper weed? Why do we think we’re special?

On trying to analyse his work, one almost feels as though Abela can transport his mind to inhabit ‘God’s overseeing eye and sees the earth in a crystal ball of sorts zooming in and out of the most intimate details that make up anthropological systems across time. It’s as though he

can zoom in and out with his fingers and study why what is what, and when it happened - while understanding that even if he did have this crystal ball to play with, he might still be far off or outright wrong.

In my mind, this skill results in mesmerising interpretations and interpretations

“I am aware that my work is very much influenced by growing up Catholic in a post-independence state searching for its identity. Growing up, I was very aware of the close marriage between organised religion, or so-called spirituality and politics. Later on, the Maltese government itself, on one occasion, convinced the population to invest unheard of amounts of tax money at the time in oil exploration by calling the well ‘Madonna of the Oil’, as if the newfound wealth was a miracle. In my sculptural work, I attempt to explore the parallels and contradictions with African Migration to Continental Europe through Maltese territorial waters.” . .

The work Il-Madonna taz-zejt explored the bizarrely maliciously over-funded oil exploration efforts when compared to search and rescue efforts in Maltese territorial waters. Oil symbolism is everywhere - large black round paintings, with subtle iridescent paint details of maps and de-

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Interview /Los Angeles/ Adrian Abela Venice 2022 Continued

pictions of boats laden with the desperate which are about to capsize and those on it drown and perish in the darkness and the silence.

The work Bahar, which was shown as part of last year’s Mediterranea 19 Young Artists Biennal, reimagined God as an octopus, or octopi or, rather, proposed the octopus as a map for perceiving reality.

“The octopus is presented as a model for creation/consciousness and proposes a framework from which we can interact with the world. Mirrored in the neuronal distribution of the octopus, Malta is being presented as the first limb to self-realise its position in the system, turning revelation into political action. The drawings were produced to accompany a series of lectures and performances, which were unable to be held due to the pandemic.

One of these performances was called Declaration of Dependence.”

The octopus features in drawings, illustrations, and reinterpretations of religious symbols. Many are reminiscent of the overwhelming display of religious memorabilia that would have adorned the walls throughout Abela’s childhood. Marble Tombstones feature paintings from actual photos of some of those buried at Malta’s most mystical cemetery - but the faces sport tentacles. The case is made with spiritual and metaphysical evidence - scientific and architectural drawings prove to the gullible that it is just as likely that God was an octopus.

In the group show at Malta Contemporary Art (MCA) in 2018, Desert Island, curated

by Mark Mangion, through his work Department for Martian Transportation, Abela is melancholic about the rape of the rock (being both Malta and planet earth) on which he was born, the ravaging of its landscape and the nonsensical greed of its inhabitants.

“On the island in the Mediterranean Sea where past lives grow as buildings, where no minerals and no water exist anymore, (some) humans found a way to sell nationalities for rhizomes to go to the continent.”

In this show, his sculptural installations look somewhat like a small expo of different harvests - harvests of souls, physical and metaphysical resources. The yield of a nation desperate to prove that despite being resource-less, with some imagination, and ruthless disregard for beauty, one can always find ways to profit.

FOREWOR(L)D was the solo show Abela had in LA at Make Room Gallery. He took inspiration from a plaster mould he made of wall etchings/graffiti taken from a limestone wall on the Laferla cross. From here, he could look down and observe life.

Abela contemplates the legal issues governing the rights or, lack thereof, of a person to inhabit a particular corner of the planet.

“Current political discourse draws you to think about surfaces, edges, and identi-

ties. Holding the panel from the wall that was watching over the edge of land that I am identified by in all government documents feels unreal, not many can go on a hill and see the perimeter of the parameters of what others identify them by. To see the boundary for your privileges and responsibilities by standing on a spot and rotating 360 degrees.”

If art is the foremost diplomatic tool - Abela would make a stellar ambassador for anything Maltese, whatever that may mean.

Abela is the kind of artist whose work pays tribute to the art consumer’s intellect, unlike many Malta based socalled artists who pretty much insult the audience’s level of comprehension. Despite all efforts to brainwash him to accept and conform, he questions and forces the audience to do the same.

When I see his work, it’s as if I exhale. I understand that understanding is not vital. I reconcile with the humility that comes with accepting the existence of realms and dimensions we will never be able to see. Of anything we cannot and will never understand.

So, what’s next?

“I am most excited currently about a series of paintings and clothing which I had started in 2015 and continued exploring in Gozo during my visit this year; hopefully, I could spend some months there in 2023. I am also spending time on growing ‘Church End State’, which is my non-art practice that helps me fund some of my art by selling functional and non-functional objects. I have been helping college artists with Public Artworks in the US and proposing some of my own too. I am publishing an essay about art and labour with some paintings at an Auto Body Shop later this year and keeping up with my practice at the studio. I also wish I could give the Declaration of Dependence lectures in Malta someday and be more involved with the community there because I feel like there is so much potential that is unseen or wilfully ignored. Work from the show as part of the Mediterranean Biannual for young artists School of Waters in San Marino will also be shown in Naples in June of this year. Bahar will be shown on the island of Procida, which is this year Italy’s capital of culture.”

And I cannot wait to experience what he prophesizes to conjure next.

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Design /SORGI Venice 2022

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. he project’s name, SORGI, is derived from the Maltese verb ‘Sorga’, which means an anchoring ship or a tired person in the act of sitting; curiously, the term was borrowed from the Italian verb that means the exact . opposite, to arise. In this context, SORGI is intended as an invitation to sit down, literally, and observe the ever-changing Maltese built landscape from a different perspective. .

SORGI is an ongoing research project about opportunities for circularity in Malta, whose first outcome is an outdoor furniture collection for public spaces, highly critical of the booming construction industry. Six benches inspired by six buildings affected by the local construction frenzy will stand both as a memento of today’s choices and a suggestion for tomorrow’s actions. All pieces are made of recycled construction waste, mainly limestone, encouraging people to question the island’s developments and their impact on the environment, from a social and historical perspective too.

Several materials were considered and tested, including fragments of glass, recycled concrete and marble offcuts: all valuable resources currently being dumped in landfill sites at already at their total capacity. Local suppliers of marble and glass offered their offcuts, while several individuals proposed construction waste from their private projects. Limestone was eventually chosen for several pieces because of its large availability, as most of the demolished structures are made of this local stone and its structural and aesthetic qualities. The choice of materials was also significantly informed by the buildings inspiring the collection.

The prototyping and production phases involved collaborations with local craftsmen and focused on utilising traditional production methods and local resources of natural origins whenever possible – natural pigments, for example, were tested as a way to add colour and to create extraordinary textures enhancing the ‘uniqueness’ of each bench.

Every piece tells the story of the building that inspired it and, through an interactive label, invites the user to delve into

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SORGI An outdoor furniture collection for public spaces made from recycled construction waste

an online database of information about Maltese architectures that were (or will be) swept away by the construction frenzy: Ta’ Rita (Ghar Lapsi), Roxy Cinema (Birkirkara), Sun City Palais (Marsaskala), Marsa seafront, Twin 19th Century houses (Spinola Bay), Dolores (Zejtun).

With structurally simple . solutions and site-specific designs, SORGI turns construction waste into interactive outdoor furniture for Maltese public spaces, providing practical solutions for the alternative use of the sheer amount of discarded materials that keeps accumulating on the island while promoting circularity and raising awareness on environmental issues within a larger audience.

What’s next?

LUXEMBOURG .

SORGI is one of the three start-ups that has been selected to participate in the Circular by Design Challenge in Luxembourg! They are taking part in a coaching program to develop the business further with designs created explicitly for Luxembourg City’s public spaces (& homes).

They are halfway through the sustainable coaching program, conducted research with all players of the construction industry there, visited Luxembourg and planned the implementation of the project.

NEW YORK ECO Solidarity will be presented at WantedDesign Manhattan 2022 exhibition at Javits Center in New York, May 1517, 2022, as part of NYCxDESIGN (New York Design Festival). The continuation of ECO Solidarity at CLOSEUP 2021, a two-day trade event presented by the International Contemporary Furniture Fair (ICFF) and WantedDesign Manhattan, will be a physical exhibition . where we introduce SORGI. MALTA DEVELOPMENT There are some exciting plans with different entities and developers for new pieces for Malta’s public spaces and developments in the hospitality industry.

Supported by Malta Arts Council www.sorgi.mt

Design /SAW Venice 2022

From Commercial Spaces to Domestic Furniture

THE EVOLUTION OF SAW

SAW’s diversification offers designer collections for the home while strengthening its position as an industry leader in the B2B commercial furniture market.

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nnovation and flexibility are two core values of the Malta-based furniture manufacturing company, SAW, which opened its doors in 1991 to introduce locally-made bespoke furniture to the contract furniture industry. Designing furniture for some of the most iconic buildings in the hospitality industry, public spaces and corporate environments has gained SAW an excellent reputation for efficient production, quality artistry, technical know-how and adherence to timelines.

Among the notable brands that SAW has collaborated with are the Hilton, the Marriot, the Hyatt Regency, Starbucks and Beef Bar. By 2005, the team had expanded its operations globally to complete sev-

eral international projects. Just over 30 years after its launch, the renowned furniture producer has entered the domestic space with its new sub-brand, DARI, bringing the same high level of quality to the domestic market.

SAW has long been dedicated to sustainability, a principle that is reflected through its state-of-the-art factory in Malta designed by the renowned architect Chris Briffa and winning the 2021 Malta architecture and spatial planning award for commercial and public buildings. Natural light permeates the building, and solar panels generate energy to contribute to the efficient running of the factory.

SAW’s new factory is highly-automated, using advanced machine technology to sort, cut and assemble panels according to product shopfloor design instructions developed by the in-house production office. This system reduces waste materials and creates high-quality, durable products designed to last a lifetime. All sourced raw materials are procured from manufacturers that operate in environmentally friendly and quality-controlled environments.

The SAW factory floor consists of three primary production lines that process raw veneer, panels, and solid wood and a dedicated finishing line. The human element remains intrinsic to the company’s work, providing exceptional attention to detail throughout the production process, while the technology used in-house allows for greater efficiency in maintaining short project timelines and low carbon footprints.

Factory Image. Photo by Sean Mallia

Bedroom – Designed by A Collective

Honing the experience in furniture production and the supplier networks that SAW has built over the years, the company has recently introduced a new, fresh concept to the market through DARI, which means ‘my home’ in Maltese. The DARI collection is designed to complement today’s needs and realities, incorporating principles of design and functionality that cater to the ever-changing spatial requirements and desires of modern-day living while considering how the customer interacts with the same space.

Led by the talented Artistic Director Jennifer Apap Brown, SAW, through DARI, has collaborated with local architects to produce exclusive designer collections to include in the brand’s offering. Each designer developed a unique series of furniture items based on the customer’s needs - including the dell kitchen by Valentino Architects, the Salini bedroom by A Collective and the DRITT collection for living and dining spaces by Tom Van Malderen.

Kitchen – Sandro Valentino

ows in the dell kitchen model. dell was inspired by the chiaroscuro concept, using the natural shadows and joinery of the panels to add character to the kitchen without the need for excessive decoration. In the Salini bedroom, inspiration lies in nature. The Salini Saltpans are an archetype of the rhythm and serenity inherent to Malta’s natural landscapes, providing the inspiration for this bedroom to become a space that encourages pure relaxation and flow in the way we live.

Finally, Tom Van Malderen introduces a selection of tables and a shelving system that are modular and functional in nature.

Tom combines aspects of simplicity and complexity in his designs, resulting in furniture that takes a creative approach to the rigid lines that can be produced within the SAW factory.

For more information about SAW along with DARI and the designer collections, visit https://www.saw.com.mt/ and https://dari.mt/.

Sleek and practical designs are accentuated through a play on depth and shad-

Living & Dining – Designed by Tom Van Malderen

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Spotlight /Malta / CSAI Venice 2022

THE EMOTIONS OF THE FUTURE:

Tomorrow’s Blossoms

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which is dedicated to bring about a vision of a world where scientific and humanistic knowledge is unified and used to obtain creative solutions for society’s needs.

hat do humans experience that makes them create art?

What emotional swings do artists experience during its creation and subsequently convey to their audience?

Part of the success of Tomorrow’s Blossoms is that it combines two minds that exist on different astral levels. Dalli is a computer scientist whose encyclopaedic knowledge of AI spans most of its stages, from its very conception to the most factual current times. Whilst Scerri is a multimedia artist that has explored everything in her career from installations, pornography, flowers, and tattoos.

Tomorrow’s Blossoms is a year-long AI art project by Selina Scerri and Angelo Dalli attempting to answer these questions creatively by creating an immersive exhibition in a space that projects data dramatization.

Self-reflection and conceptual feedback are part and parcel of this artistic project.

The fact that Dalli and Scerri’s discourse seems to jump ahead of the aesthetic evidence of whatever AI has so far achieved has led to the allegation that this project is more conceptual than factual.

The project aims to extract the behaviour of natural, anthropogenic processes and human creative behaviour by collecting data from the internet and combining it with a set of analogue and digital paintings, creating a set of curated datasets to create new artwork. The overall aim is to train a machine-learning algorithm to “experience what makes humans create art” by using images that represent essential concepts in human life. Data from public photo-sharing websites like Flickr and Instagram are combined with public datasets generally used for scientific purposes, like City Scapes and Image Net.

Mapping out human emotions and making an artist draw hundreds of images of the same subject seems a tiring task. But who else other than an artist who has been struggling in this industry in a career that spans over 20 years, with all its ups and downs, can draw emotions and show the machine what it feels like when she paints?

The collaboration between artist, scientist and the AI software creates a relationship where the artist acts like a visionary, communicating her vision to a ‘doer’ who produces the actual output under direction.

It is, in essence, an immediate response to everything that has been produced until that moment, creating a closed feedback loop.

The curated datasets are processed as input into a learning algorithm explicitly designed for the project. Various techniques are being used, including multi-layer Video Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs), Generative Procedures, Neural Morphing and Styling and Transformer-based emotional detection and data dramatization orchestration. The AI out-

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So far, when exploring the artist and creativity, AI has only touched the tip of the iceberg, at the conceptual level - the brushstroke. Scerri and Dalli argue that what we are missing is what has made the artist execute that brushstroke, which means memory, emotions, and sensations other than just technical skill. put is controlled and combined with human creative processes to create data dramatizations, based on the AI interpretation of Kurt Vonnegut’s emotional arcs of storytelling.

Using technology as an extension of the mind, this project centres around expressive human, nature, artefact production

and machine interaction. In effect, Scerri is interacting and collaborating with the AI software to produce and manipulate images and videos while allowing the system to learn and have an autonomy that could be perceived as creative behaviour.

Tomorrow’s Blossoms is being created together with the recently founded Creative Science and Arts Institute (CSAI),

Tomorrow’s Blossoms and the CSAI Community Site have both been supported by grants from the Malta Arts Council in 2021 and by a private grant from 111 Art Gallery.

Feature /Malta / Outside the Gallery Context Venice 2022

MARGERITA PULÈ

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A MOVING SPOT OF SUN

n July 2017, in a shabby events hall on a busy street in central Malta, a row of what can only be described as ceramic breastmugs spurt water from their pink and protruding nipples.

The water is aimed at several basins on the floor below but misses and splashes onto the floor instead. A woman, artist and film-maker Charlie Cauchi, mops the floor, and pours buckets, refilling the source of her ‘boob-fountain’. Nearby, a dapper barman pours drinks into more titty-mugs. Later, the mugs are given away to visitors as mementos; “Drinking Milk in Malta is Fun” they say.

One afternoon in the summer of 2020, during a pandemic shutdown, drivers along Malta’s coast road witness a strange sight. A woman, performance artist Charlene Galea, dressed only in thigh-high stockings, lace lingerie and a vest-top printed with a man’s impossibly toned torso, clambers onto the empty frame of a billboard. There she poses, twisting her rump and thighs to the camera, looking seductive, as a photographer below clicks away. The breasts, usually so prominent in underwear shots, have morphed into a solid six-pack. The unseemly clash of meaty male muscle and white-as-milk lingerie is unnerving.

The trite clash between the sacred, the mundane, the sexual and the commercial is particularly intense in Malta, essentially a sun-bleached city-state that is nothing if not condensed. The country has, as have many post-colonies, endured a replacement of its culture with alien sustenance and a persistent incursion into cultural, intellectual, personal and metaphorical space. The subsequent vacuum persists and is felt instinctively by artists who articulate the loss through radical actions bringing together the popular, the current, the surreal and the personal. In his telling of his return to Nigeria after fifteen years away, Teju Cole comes across what he calls ‘a moving spot of sun’ – a rare and precious source of creative and cultural activity. In Malta, this spot of sun often comes not from larger institutions or topdown initiatives, but through the actions of individuals and small groups of creative people working independently.

Her act speaks to the commercialisation of women’s bodies but also serves as a reaction to the humdrum juxtaposing of all aspects of life that characterises the Maltese Islands. The body gives way to space and (concrete) materiality; Malta’s condensed state - overbuilt and overused – leaves little room in which to move. Private interests and commercial enterprise have milked the archipelago for all it’s got; even our airspace has been privatised to make way for advertising.

Charlene Galea, I am the Billboard (2020) Public action.

Photo by Etienne Farrell

In the summer of 2021, a man, artist Matthew Attard, stands in a nondescript country lane. He is wearing an eye-tracking device – he moves his head slowly to take in his surroundings and record the road, the fields, the rubble walls, the commemorative plaque nearby. The spot where he stands was the site of the racially-motivated murder of Lassana Cisse Souleymane, father of three from Ivory

Coast. The plaque on the wall installed by the authorities bears the ill-judged words ‘All Lives Matter’ below his name. Attard’s series of works referred to codes of silence, the normalisation of violence, and complacency in the face of misdeeds. The same authorities tell us not to let the murder define us as Maltese people and as a nation; the place of Cisse Souley-mane’s death has been expropriated and politicised. Move on is the message; no use crying over spilt milk.

Later in the same year, two young Tunisian men, artist Mohamed Ali (Dali) Aguerbi and choreographer Chakib Zidi, walk down the staircase of an uninhab-ited old house in a coastal town. They mingle with the audience, gracefully slipping in and out of outfits as they tread; pinstriped trousers give way to a silk dress and high heels, this in turn is replaced by a length of linen wrapped around the waist, hammam-style. The couple were (separately) forced to leave Tunisia because of their sexual orientation, and here in Malta, they advocate for the rights of other LGBTQ+ refugees and migrants.

They, too, follow their spot of sun; the material and spatial flow back to concepts of the relational, complex and contingent body.

It’s 2022, and two women are sitting in Pjazza Kastilja – a public space in front of the Office of the Prime Minister in Valletta. The space, they realise, is dominated by men; policemen, civil servants, delivery men, even soldiers, pass by or stand guard. The women – choreographer and

Florinda Camilleri & Abigail Agius, place matter(s) (2022) Research project & mixed media installation, exhibited The Ordinary Lives of Women (2022) at Spazju Kreattiv, curated by Elise Billiard Pisani & Margerita Pulè. Photo by Niels Plotard

artist Florinda Camilleri and visual artist Abigail Agius – sit and take in their surroundings. They plot visual, sensorial and aural maps of the space. They experiment with how their bodies interact with the surfaces around them, with the very materiality of the space. A policeman approaches and asks them what they’re doing. Security is watching from a nearby window. A man having breakfast on the roof of an adjacent hotel snaps photos of them with a zoom lens. In their search for new ways of relating to the space around them, the two artists are watched intently; the eyes around them encroach on their personal space, on their right to be there and move around as they wish.

There are others attempting to reclaim a space – a spot of sun, too many to list here; Victor Agius hammering at cement blocks near the Megalithic Temples of Ggantija in Gozo in opposition to the impending building of apartment blocks overlooking the site, Romeo Roxman Gatt building an archive of trans men and LBQI masculine presenting people in Malta, Gilbert Calleja spending nights on board a fishing vessel recording the intense work on the fishermen on board, or Kristina Borg working with residents of rapidly changing coastal towns, to name just a few. These acts of documenting, creating, and resisting are what Teju Cole calls ‘the signs of hope in a place that, like all other places on the limited earth, needs hope’.

Mohamed Ali (Dali) Aguerbi & Chakib Zidi, Dress Code (2021) Performative action, performed at Debatable Land(s), Fleeting Territories, Unfinished Art Space & Greta Muscat Azzopardi. Photo by Elisa von Brockdorff

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Feature /Malta / Modern Art Venice 2022

RICHARD ENGLAND

TenKate Ceramic collection

GABRIEL CARUANA An icon and institution of the art scene in Malta

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ince his early days, Caruana mantled a strong cultural overlay from his surrounding environment, a legacy that was to be paramount in the artistic development of his later years.

Among Caruana’s earliest artistic ventures, we find several papier-mâché masks and floats for the annual Carnival festivities – all worthy of notice for their novel boldness, colour and jocular design.

Even then, Caruana had already established the basic rule of following no rules.

His work was always a visceral rebellion against convention, with childlike enthusiasm. Caruana’s art continued to demonstrate a sense of immediacy and spontaneity, typical of the artist’s mind’s acute, observational, and impulsive power.

During the 60s, the nation’s independence and the rich influx into Malta of several intellectual arts and literary figures, Caruana’s work soared to the forefront of the local scene. His talent soon elevated him to a master of his craft. His exhibition of used tyres, magnified bus tickets and oth-

er objects trouvés at the Museum of Fine Arts, marked him as the enfant terrible of Maltese art. In addition, the presence in Malta of personalities like Victor Pasmore, Sir Basil Spence, Desmond Morris, Ernle Bradford, Nicholas Monsarrat, Nigel Dennis and A.C. Sewter was to have a strong influence on Caruana.

More than others, the art historian A.C. Sewter, former editor of Burlington and Senior Reader at Manchester University, was responsible for guiding Caruana through this development period, introducing him into the international milieu.

Sewter, and the British architect Basil Spence, were also admirers and patrons of Caruana. However, the most influential was the British abstract painter Victor Pasmore, with whom Caruana was to form a close friendship. Pasmore imparted further confidence and, as a mentor, helped develop Caruana’s approach and philosophy.

Throughout his working life, the essential core of his designs remained his ever-present love affair with Malta’s ambiences: the island’s azure seas and their scintillating subaqueous hues, together with the rich chromatic palette of local fishing boats. Yet his work also seemed inherent to re-echo dreamed presences of the island’s long past Neolithic artefacts.

It appeared that what cradled the hearts of the ancients still nagged at the modern artist of today.

Often, I had the privilege of watching Caruana’s hands tune themselves to give birth to new work. Caruana’s effortless handling of this raw material demonstrates the bond between the artist and his material. As he weaves a thought and radiates it to his hands, the mass of clay, its inner waters later dried by raging fire, becomes an offering, and the work gains a meaning: its name is ‘art’. It is as if Caruana speaks to the raw material, “clay, be patient, I can turn you into magic”.

Moulds

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Tondo by Gabriel Caruana, 2011.

Photo by Raffaella Zammit

Now firmly established as a much loved and highly esteemed iconic personality, Caruana is also acclaimed in international ceramic circles. Numerous examples of his work hang in several respected galleries and museums abroad.

I feel I must, on this notable occasion, refer to Caruana’s marriage to Mary Rose, later in life, blessed by two loving and en-ergetic daughters Raffaella and Gabriella, all paramount influences on the artist’s persona and his work.

Some years ago, I sent a letter to Caruana, which I shall quote as a closure to this oration. “Using the awe-inspiring four

King and Queen by Gabriel Caruana, 1986.

Photo from the Gabriel Caruana Archives

Oval Ceramic, 1990-1

basic elements as your tools you, Gabriel, shaman of the Arts, are able to obtain an even greater value for air than the freshness of its winds, donate to water an even greater magnitude than the gushing of its sibilant rivers, achieve for earth an even greater significance than the sunshine of its precious stones and extract from fire a luminance brighter than its radiant glow. From the baked, moulded, washed and fired material of clay you have, for many a decade, ignited the art world with a resplendent radiance. Your exuberance and extravagance of expression hold no limits. Together with echoes of the island’s cerulean sea which timelessly laps our now no longer virgin shores, there is, in your creative opus, a magical presence of a reborn spirit of all the stratified over-lays of our island’s history”.