Raphael Vella tells David Schembri that the Valletta International Visual Arts Festival is yet another step in the development of visual art in Malta

One of the hallmarks of contemporary art is the multiple interpretations being available to the viewer. It is, perhaps, no surprise then, that the acronym for the Valletta International Visual Arts festival is a word – Viva – that carries more than one meaning.

Raphael Vella, the festival’s artistic director, is well aware of this: “The word ‘viva’ has a rather obvious political or celebratory meaning in various languages, including Maltese, and is usually translated in English as ‘long live’. Even though one should not overlook a measure of self-irony in our use of the word, I like the way it connotes a strong sense of power relations and life.”

That’s just the start. It can also be extended to refer to a term like viva voce, “which reminds us of the significance of listening to the spoken word and debating one’s ideas with others,” Vella says.

Consisting of exhibitions, artists’ talks, film screenings and an intensive curatorial school, “Viva explores the possibility of creating new communities that bring together, in conversation, Maltese artistic practitioners with international artists and curators. It also focuses on long-term benefits like education and research into curatorial strategies that contextualise Maltese art in a wider global dimension,” Vella says.

The festival is an answer to the cries for attention the visual arts community has voiced over the past years.

“We have several festivals in Malta that focus on the performing arts, but none that are dedicated to the visual arts,” Vella explains.

We have several festivals in Malta that focus on the performing arts, but none that are dedicated to the visual arts

The festival doesn’t exist in a void, either: “Contemporary visual art has become a very significant global phenomenon. Maltese art has developed in various ways in recent years, aided by funding schemes, educational initiatives and the work of a handful of very active practitioners. A great deal of work still needs to be done of course.”

The wide remit of the festival has an equally wide audience, and the organisers hope that many people from different sectors of society will find “at least some aspects of Viva interesting or even memorable”.

A couple of public sculptures by Austin Camilleri and John Paul Azzopardi in collaboration with Michael Camilleri will be installed in Valletta during the last week of August and are intended to entice more people to visit other events. Naturally, the partner organisations behind this festival – St James Cavalier, Valletta 2018, Aġenzija Żgħażagħ, Leeuwarden 2018 (Holland), Arts Council Malta, Heritage Malta, Pjazza Teatru Rjal and the University of Malta – expect to draw many people from different artistic and scholarly backgrounds, like artists, curators, cultural operators, art historians and also those involved in film studies and literature.

With Vella placing an emphasis on video installations, film, and photography, the goal of Viva this year is to look into the various relationships between art and politics “without falling into the facile trap of political triumphalism,” Vella disclaims.

One of the highlights of the festival is the world-renowned Dutch cultural theorist and critic, Mieke Bal, who will be in Malta to present a couple of films and give lectures and workshops. One of these films, titled State of Suspension, was directed by herself and Israeli-Dutch film-maker Benny Brunner and presents a collage of musical performances and satirical explorations of feelings of patriotism in Israel.

“I am also curating a rather complex, multimedia installation that Mieke recently produced with British video artist Michelle Williams Gamaker, which reinterprets Flaubert’s Madame Bovary by focusing on the relationship between emotions and capitalism. Versions of this installation were shown in Colombia and Poland,” Vella says.

Another highlight includes a video installation studying the practice of parkour, military-inspired free running through urban obstacles by Madrid-based duo Democracia.

“Ironically, in the videos they are presenting in the Upper Galleries at St James Cavalier, these practitioners of parkour leap over the gravestones of the Madrid Civil Cemetery: the freedom of the body is achieved over the immobility of death,” Vella says.

Other events that form part of Viva in-clude a collective photographic exhibition on male dominance and violence involving Maltese and international artists, curated by Fabrizio Mifsud Soler; a purpose-built installation on the architecture of zoos by Austrian artist Katharina Swoboda; and the third edition of Divergent Thinkers, which this year revolves around emerging artists’ interpretations of the word ‘radical’.

An aspect Viva is keen to highlight as one of the most important is the one-week Curatorial School at St James Cavalier from September 1 to 6, which will offer local artists, art historians, educators and students the possibility of attending lectures by international curators and academics.

Lecturers hail from Sweden, the UK and Holland and will offer feedback about participants’ work or curatorial ideas.

There will also be three emerging Dutch curators-in-residence in Valletta during this period. These will be scouting for work by Maltese artists in preparation for a funded exhibition the organisers are planning for next year.

Vella stresses that Viva is not a “one-off event that comes to an end after a week of exhibitions and talks”. Rather, he says, “I prefer to think of it as a project that has already been initiated by many artists over recent years and is being given a supporting hand by this unique collaboration between various entities.

“Viva self-consciously asks the question: How can we support Maltese art and artists most effectively? It refuses to find the answer to that question in a narcissistic fixation with national pride, which revolves on the rather simplistic belief that you can get to know yourself better by staring at a reflection of your face in the mirror.

“Instead, Viva puts things into a more global perspective by bringing international curators, artists and academics to Malta in order to present their ideas and give feedback about artists’ works and to create the possibility of long-term collaborations between Maltese and international practitioners,” Vella says.

“Viva’s legacy ultimately lies in the hands of Malta’s artists and their ability to capitalise on opportunities opened up by Viva.”

Viva takes places between September 1 and 7 at St James Cavalier, Valletta.