Art and theatre with Aborigines and Dario Fo

The Sunday Times talks to artist and theatre buff Giuseppe Schembri Bonaci about his various projects

Art is a method that some people use to understand the world and express their feelings or thoughts about it.

This became clearer to me on meeting the artist Giuseppe Schembri Bonaci who is also a keen theatre lover. In fact his love for theatre led him and is still leading him through a richer and vaster artistic journey, and on account of this deep interest has met a number of important figures in the theatre world.

Schembri Bonaci studied art and icon art under Adolf Ovchinnikov and Vladimir Moroz at the Grabar Institute, Moscow, and stained glass in Lyon. He held exhibitions in Paris (where he is based), Lyon, Stuttgart, Malta, Moscow, Milan, and Canberra.

The artist's Stuttgart exhibition included works inspired by the Pietà theme and variations of it. He has portrayed the anguish of the spiritual sacrifice, and concepts and details such as the eyes of the Madonna that are related to the Pietà as a sacrifice.

The German poet Engelbert Paulus has written a series of poems that reflect the paintings. The disjointed structure of the poems (each line containing an average of one to five words, without punctuation) very well mirrors the forms in the works.

Schembri Bonaci has a fascination with aboriginal art and was surprised to have come across that kind of art which is still alive in Australia, where the tribe's art has remained the same for generations. This artist travels to Australia for two to three months yearly for an exchange project he is carrying out together with the Gunbalanian tribe in Northern Territory State. He also had a personal exhibition of aboriginal works at the Mediterranean Conference Centre last December.

Schembri Bonaci is currently working on two projects, one of which is a theatrical event in Gunbalanya with the local tribe as actors. He is taking Italian playwright and Nobel Prize winner Dario Fo's production How Johannn Discovered America (produced in 2002 of which there also is an animated film with the entertainer Fiorello as Johann) and adding an aboriginal and Maltese touch to it, naming it How Gahan Discovered America in Aboriginal Land Thinking it Was India.

In his second project, he will combine his passion for theatre and dance with visual art in a joint exhibition to be held both in Malta and Milan. He is collaborating with Dario Fo, whom Schembri Bonaci met about 10 to 12 years ago in Milan.

Fo, who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1997, is a prolific playwright, actor, mime artist, and director, known for his satirical plays. He will be showing visual art works that convey his experiences with theatre and that will include the essence of Commedia dell'Arte. Through his colourful and expressive works full of emotion for this exhibition, Fo is exploiting how theatre can be merged into painting.

Schembri Bonaci, who is heavily influenced by prehistoric art, will be presenting 15 works in oil and pigment on a dance theme. He generally uses natural media such as wood, and in these works he will convey his liking for prehistoric cave art in the tones that he uses, particularly yellow ochres. He studied prehistoric art in Lascaux and Altamira.

Throughout his artistic life, Schembri Bonaci has taken part in a number of theatrical events. He participated in Peter Stein's workshop festival in Moscow to which a number of theatre directors were invited to discuss Stein's production of Hamlet, which according to Bonaci is the most difficult task in theatre, and other Shakespearean plays as well as Chekov's The Cherry Orchard.

An upcoming major event on Schembri Bonaci's schedule is the direction of the premiere performance of Il Naso di Tycho, as part of the annual theatre/art festival Il Giardino delle Esperidi - a state production - to be held in Lombardy in the first two weeks of July. Michele Losi is directing the entire festival.

Tycho is a 17th century astronomer and together with his group, Bonaci will portray man's relationship with the universe through Tycho's theories in the form of scenographic installations. The Maltese actor Joseph Scicluna, who wrote Il Naso di Tycho, is now residing in Italy and has appeared on Italian television stations. He will be participating in the production along with Cinzia Airoldi, Tania Corradini, Giulietta Debernardi, Anna Fascendini, Felix Fermeglia, Monica Parmagnani, Filippo Ughi, Roberta Vigna, and Alessandra.

The artist's next solo exhibition entitled Anubis the Grey and Nothingness, inspired by the concept of nothingness and the Egyptian god of the underworld (Anubis). The three subjects are connected: grey is a colour that is created by mixing black and white. The two extreme colours signify the two worlds between which there is Anubis who is the god that chooses who is to pass from one world to another. The existence of nothingness has been questioned since time immemorial and is an issue on which a number of philosophers have given their theories.

Schembri Bonaci said that this art exhibition is his contribution to this discussion that has been going on for years. The artist finds physics intriguing and had the opportunity of meeting the physicist Antonio Sparzani, the author of many books on modern physics, and professor of the subject at the Milan University. Sparzani will be at the exhibition to explain the artist's works through a philosophical/physical approach.

Speaking with Schembri Bonaci has widened my perspective on the purpose of art and how it can be used in such abstract forms on a vast range of aspects. Bonaci is an artist with many interests and artistic experiences. He has a different approach to art - his works are not the usual lansdcape or portrait but a philosophical, physical, theatrical discussion.