The difficult role of the contemporary artist
First cultural event to be hosted at Fort St Angelo
An exhibition of contemporary art, entitled Crossings - A Contemporary View, was opened last Friday at the historic Fort St Angelo in Vittoriosa.
Dedicated to the "poetry of movement of people", information and ideas in the modern world, Crossings explores, through the medium of artistic installations, including video art projections, the difficult role of the contemporary artist as a figure unshackled by the constraints of political, cultural and ideological divides.
Organised by the Superintendence of Cultural Heritage, it is being hosted within the three main vaults of the fort's 16th century cavalier and within part of the 19th century British barrack's buildings.
The exhibition is the first cultural event to be hosted at Fort St Angelo since the government's decision in 2005 to entrust part of the fort to the Superintendence of Cultural Heritage. Since then, extensive works have been undertaken with the assistance of the Ministry for Tourism and Culture and the Cottonera Waterfront Group to start the rehabilitation process of this national monument.
The fort has been cleared of about 100 tonnes of refuse and vegetation that had accumulated within its historic buildings over the last few decades.
Plans for Fort St Angelo include the restoration of the historic fortress, the opening of the monument to the public on a regular basis, and the removal of damaging and unsightly constructions erected within the fort over the past decades.
These measures are intended to recover one of Malta's greatest architectural monuments from the state of neglect and abandonment in which it has been allowed to descend.
The decision by the superintendence to host the Crossings exhibition at Fort St Angelo was motivated primarily by a desire to create an opportunity for the public to visit this monument, a spokesman explained.
Even at this early stage of rehabilitation, with so much of the damage inflicted to the fortress still highly visible, visitors will appreciate the stark beauty of the military establishment and the splendid vistas of the Grand Harbour that can be enjoyed from within it, he added.
This rather spartan and geometric setting provided by Fort St Angelo's military architecture offers a striking backdrop to the artistic installations forming the Crossings exhibition.
Crossings includes work by 11 contemporary artists hailing from Cyprus, Egypt, France, Greece, Israel, Turkey, and Germany. Two Maltese artists, Vince Briffa and Pierre Portelli, will also be taking part.
The exhibition is open until July 26, Mondays to Saturdays from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. It will then tour two other European venues, namely Espace Camille Claudel, in Amiens, France, and the medieval castle of Colossi, in Cyprus.
Crossings is a Culture 2000 EU project organised by an international partnership of cultural operators, including the Superintendence in Malta, the Pierides Foundation of Cyprus, the University of Picardie Jules Verne of France, the Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche of Italy and the Foundation of the Hellenic World, in Greece.
The curators are Yiannis Toumazis, director of the Pierides Foundation, and Andri Michael, of the University of Amiens.