I grew up in a city that was mouldy to say the least. Back in the 1980s, the one thing Valletta people wanted most was to live elsewhere. If my childhood friends are anything to go by, not one in 10 still live in the city.

Real cities need their pangs of loss and fair share of rot, truth be told. But they must also be able to play these off against some sort of novelty and optimism. These last two were simply not present in the Valletta of my childhood.

Which is also why it’s now such a pleasure to watch the city’s transformation. The paving and restored façades are just part of it.

People – and cars, significantly – nowadays circulate through the streets in a healthier way than I can remember. There is a sense in which the capital is the ‘natural’ place for big events. Notte Bianca has quickly become unmissable fun, and I’m sure the New Year’s Eve party will follow.

Renzo Piano’s project is crucial to all this. Contemporary architecture is the lifeblood of cities. It basically saves them from becoming pretty. Sounds mad but try using the adjective for Paris or New York and you will get my drift.

The finished thing will consign all the nonsense about the leaking roof and the bones in the basement to the annals of fuddy duddy dressed up in the borrowed robes of sophistication.

Piano’s presence in Valletta can be summed up in two words: Positively refreshing.

As is the news that the island’s local councils have signed up to a collective effort for the 2018 capital of culture venture. There are a number of reasons why this makes sense.

But I should first own up to a case history of suspicion over the whole capital of culture business.

It’s actually very easy for fundamentally good ideas (and this must surely be one) to lapse into rhetoric, tokenism, and political triumphalism. Particularly when substantial funds and grand schemes are concerned.

There are many reasons why I’ve come round to believe there’s a good chance of pulling it off to benefit. The trick is probably to keep the useless rent seekers at arm’s length and go for a cogent and long-term strategy.

Without wishing to sound patronising, the signs so far are in the right direction.

But back to the local councils. As I said, I think it’s admirable of them to have seen the good sense of joining forces.

At the same time, we really must go for Valletta, rather than Malta, as our official capital of culture. There is absolutely no contradiction in this.

First, it would have been extremely foolish for local councils to compete or show the idea their backs. Valletta happens to be Malta’s capital and also I think it’s only ‘happening’ city.

Mdina lives by its memories, ancient or recently manufactured or both. The Three Cities display strong elements of urbanity but it’s a while now since the days of dynamic maritime towns. Floriana is fascinating but quite simply isn’t Valletta.

As for the many villages granted city status by the Order, let’s leave it at that.

But all this may be beside the point. Competition is hardly the word here. Nor is it a zero-sum game in which one place’s gain is another’s loss.

A city, and especially a capital city, works by connecting and including (and, by an apparent paradox, their opposites).

Much as I relish all the affectionate fun about virile lions, ‘tfal tal-Belt’, and ‘tas-City’, there is no way in which Valletta belongs to ‘us Vallettans’. With much respect to the enterprising mayor, this is what the Floriana council got wrong on the night of December 31, 2010.

The dynamics of Valletta are such that Maltese people in general call and relate to it as ‘il-Belt’, ‘the City’ (the article is important). That’s also the reason why anyone who relates to Malta in whatever way has something to say about Piano’s designs.

In sum, Valletta does not begin and end with the walls. If it is a capital city, there must be a sense in which it is Malta. Which means that there is no contradiction in the, say, Mosta or Sannat councils hosting – or even organising – an event for a Valletta capital of culture bid.

There is a second, possibly stronger, reason why Valletta – rather than Malta – must be the 2018 capital of culture.

Quite apart from the obvious point that ‘Malta’ is not the name of a city, it’s infinitely healthier to go for an urbanist rather than a nationalist model.

To borrow an idea from a well-known anthropologist, it all boils down to routes as opposed to roots.

A nationalist model of culture is based primarily on roots. Nations are solemn and stodgy creatures. They harp on about what makes them unique and cultivate snotty opinions of themselves. Perhaps most obnoxiously, they value authenticity (whatever that means) above all else.

Cities can be rather more playful. An urbanist model of culture takes mobility and routes as its point of departure. Much as it relates to the past, it doesn’t take it as programmatic. Difference, rather than authenticity, is what makes it tick.

It would be completely refreshing to manufacture our culture using the raw materials of citiness. That’s because most of the time we’re (and I think Malta is especially unfortunate in this respect, for various reasons) condemned to do so using those of nation, with all the negative implications of that.

Valletta 2018 serves up a wonderful opportunity to locate ourselves within currents rather than stagnant ponds. The point is not some airy-fairy notion of ‘multiculturalism’ or ‘celebrating diversity’, but rather one that understands locality in terms of connections.

It is said that Marcel Duchamp used to carry around a vial of Parisian air wherever he went, just in case his artistic inspiration ran out.

We may be spared the trouble. Given their small size, it shouldn’t be too difficult for the fresh air of Valletta to drift around the islands.

mafalzon@hotmail.com

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