There may be hope yet for us in Brussels. The man currently testing that is Czech artist David Cerny, whose installation Entropa was unveiled at the European Council building in the EU capital last Tuesday. Entropa looks like a giant jigsaw puzzle in the shape of Europe. Each country is represented by something that expresses, as the brochure puts it, the 'playful analysis of national stereotypes' and the 'original characteristics of individual identities'. Entropa is a celebration of unity in diversity.

Not least since it is also the collaborative effort of 27 artists, one from each country. Our own champion is Alexander Caruana, a well-established figure who the brochure describes as having exhibited widely in Frankfurt, Barcelona, and elsewhere. One to watch for next year's National Merit awards, shall we say. He has quite literally put Malta on the map and done us proud. Caruana, God bless, is due back home in a day or two. At the very least, we should organise a welcoming party at the airport, and I expect the chairman of the Arts Council to be there.

It's a national shame that Caruana, although well known in specialist circles, is not recognised enough at home. Why is it that he has to travel to Spain and Canada to show his works? Can't we find it in our hearts to support our national and native artists, not least by providing space and resources for local exhibitions? Not to mention the bizarre twist that, even as our artists are banished from their homeland, we import Italian architects to design our gates.

Then again, we know the saying about prophets and their own land. Such as Edward Debono's recent and creative request for an iconic building to house his 'Palace of Thinking', which has so far fallen on deaf ears. It may already be too late actually, since Debono, in his own words, had previous offers from Latvia, among other places. Our loss is their gain, no doubt.

But back to Entropa. The Malta part of the jigsaw is in fact very interesting. It shows a tiny elephant superimposed on a map of the island; in the installation, the elephant is positioned behind a magnifying glass. (The reference is of course to the prehistoric dwarf elephants of Għar Dalam.) As Caruana puts it, the figure seeks to 'find the essence of nature essence as well as your own essence in it'. All very fascinating, for at least two reasons.

First, the exhibit shows the high esteem that Malta is held in European and international circles. The Bulgarian entry for Entropa is a Turkish squat toilet (described as 'intentionally primitive and vulgar, faecally pubertal' - an example of horrendous, decadent contemporary art if there ever was one), 'France' has the banner 'On Strike' strung across it, and Britain, in a cruel stab at British Euroscepticism, is altogether missing.

Malta, on the other hand, is tacitly praised in the installation as a place where fossils of Europe's past abound. We are old, very old, dear Chevalley (sorry, Czerny), and you will look to us for your history lessons. To my knowledge Caruana hasn't commented to the press yet, but I imagine he must have been torn between the elephant and the temples, or even St Paul. Which made me reflect on the national debate, two years ago now, on what to put on the euro coin. Truth is we are spoilt for choice, and this is what really sets us apart.

There is a second, more anthropologically profound, point to be made. It has to do with the magnifying glass. The elephant may be small (as Caruana says, 'a small, perhaps negligible, lump of rock'), but it turns out on closer scrutiny to be no less complete than its non-extinct cousins - it has a trunk, legs, a tail, and so on. And so are we. We have a government, a language, singers, and the rest.

What's more, we're relevant. Our government mediates the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, our language is of officially-recognised pan-European importance, our singers bring the Swedes home - you get the picture. We even export potatoes to Holland, and there are plans to build cultural bridges between Europe and the Arab world. I spent a lovely two weeks on Lampedusa and Linosa last spring, which were made lovelier by comparing scales with the natives. Our bulge is not only bigger, it's been around more.

Malta, then, is the nanotechnology of nationalism. Not only is there nothing shameful about that, it is actually quite tremendous to be a fully functional scale model. At least on this count we can be Switzerland in the Mediterranean - we sure know how to produce miniatures. Maybe that's what Alfred Sant meant many moons ago, but of course we were too distracted, nay foolish, to understand him. Again, prophets in their native land. History will yet vindicate Sant.

I also see a practical side to Entropa. By portraying our very own dwarf Elephas falconeri, Caruana is effectively also publicising our national heritage. Just imagine how many thousands of people will follow up their artistic encounter in Brussels with a browse through the internet, and quite possibly with a trip down the travel agents. The usual complaint is that the Eurovision Song Contest is all good publicity and bad art - well, here's good publicity and good art. I think the Minister for Culture and the Arts might want to join that party in Luqa on Tuesday.

I wish to end this piece with a plea. The prestigious Grootgrap gallery in Rotterdam has scheduled an exhibition of Caruana's works for the week of June 1 to 6 of this year. Since the dates coincide with the local council and EP elections, it means he might not manage to make it to the booth. Considering that he will be representing Malta abroad, this singular case of democratic deficit would cause great harm to the image and reputation of our country. Surely early voting arrangements are in order.

mafalzon@hotmail.com

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