Artist Matthew Attard NavarroArtist Matthew Attard Navarro

The very last exhibition to open as part of Viva, Malta’s first contemporary arts festival, Alpha, brings together seven Maltese and international photographers showcasing 14 photographic prints. The theme? Male dominance in the 22nd century.

The idea was born when Viva artistic director Raphael Vella approached Fabrizio Mifsud Soler to curate a photography exhibition for the contemporary arts festival. The theme was to revolve around the generic idea of power.

“I reflected on this through a context which I find quite thought-provoking and fascinating: the dynamics between males. Anyone who has ever owned a male dog or driven a car in Malta knows exactly what I am referring to,” Mifsud Soler says.

The results of this seed of an idea are unveiled today, with this exhibition that features new works by Andy Houghton (UK), Matthew Attard Navarro (UK/Malta), Joey Leo (Greece), Julian Vassallo (Malta), Ritty Tacsum (Malta), Thobias Malmberg (Sweden) and Joseph Wolfgang Ohlert (Germany).

Artist Joseph Wolfgang OhlertArtist Joseph Wolfgang Ohlert

“The aim of the collection of photographs presented within the parameters of this exhibition is to highlight and bring to the fore imagery which reflects male power structures, dominance, violence and the masculine form.

“Thus, what is sought is a contemporary conversation con-textualising – or, in some cases, de-contextualising – these elements,” Mifsud Soler says.

The curator explains that the photographs presented reflect the theme and are both related and yet unrelated to each other.

“I selected works which mirror and ping-pong a message which, in the end, depending on the perception of the viewer, could either be retained or discarded.”

The challenges towards putting this exhibition together were, as always, various – starting with the most obvious issue of actually identifying the participants to miscellaneaous technical issues that are common to all large-scale events.

However, perhaps, none of the challenges were as strong as the challenge that this exhibition will posit to some viewers.

Asked how he expects people to react to a theme that is hardly commonly addressed in Malta, Mifsud Soler replies that in reality there have been thought-provoking exhibitions aplenty in recent times.

“In 2009, the Malta Arts Festival had presented The Life Model, an exhibition which sought to provoke thought vis-a-vis the idea of naked vs nude in a visual art context.

“This was in the wake of the controversy created by the censorship of the theatrical performance Stitching. A year before that, photographer Alexandra Pace exhibited Soldier Boy, a series dedicated exclusively to the male nude.

“In 2012, St James Cavalier hosted Matthew Attard Navarro’s first solo exhibition Call Your Girlfriend, which documented scantly clad male youth.”

Considering there is zero nudity present in Alpha, Mifsud Soler believes that the envelope has already been pushed.

“The pitchfork wielders vying for blood can stick to their comfortable sofas – it is summer after all,” he says with a mischievous smile.

It is not too far-fetched a notion to rule out the mental image of a metrosexual riding a tractor without a hair out of place

The photographers were all picked on the basis that their works had already previously explored similar themes.

Asked whether the fact that Ritty Tacsum is the only woman included, Mifsud Soler said that this was purely coincidental – other female photographers had, in fact, been approached, but declined to take part.

Speaking about what each individual photographer brought the collective, Mifsud Soler explains how Attard Navarro’s portraits of Oly Innes enforce a certain stereotype of what a dominant male could be like.

“Leather gear, tattoos, piercings, eyes hidden behind dark sunglasses… Some might find this mildly (or not so mildly) intimidating, while there are others for whom this is fantasy embodied,” he says.

Then there is Andy Houghton’s pistol-wielding faceless men and Joseph Wolfgang Ohlert’s masked individual.

These, Mifsud Soler says, both enforce the notion that violence (as objectified by the gun and the transmutation of the face) causes fear and subsequently, subservience by those who succumb to them.

“The anonymity found in both these photographers’ works is echoed and stretched much further through the works of Thobias Malmberg and Julian Vassallo whose males, albeit to different degrees, are sheer physique and nothing beyond that,” he continues.

The exhibition concludes with the works of Joey Leo and Tacsum. Leo’s alpha male may be described as a work in progress, “a wannabe who fantasises about be­coming the action hero he holds so dear”, in Mifsud Soler’s words.

Tacsum’s subject, on the other hand, may be out to prove that being at the top is a lonely place after all and whether it boils down to vanity or self-satisfaction, even the alpha male may prefer fiction to reality.

Given that in Malta the idea of the alpha male is approached in a very traditional manner, how does this tie in with the exhibition?

“Yes, I think the idea of the alpha male in Maltese society still probably revolves around the image of a tattooed bodybuilder womaniser. But there are other contexts too.”

Still, Mifsud Soler concludes questioning whether today, with the emergence of feminism and the metrosexual, there remains space for the stereotypical dominant male.

He believes that in some realms and environments, this stereotype continues to thrive – within a modern, cosmopolitan context, nothing proves this as strongly as the adult film industry, which maintains its exaggerated formula of what a man should be like.

“In a rural environment, the male has somehow managed to hold on to his role without undergoing a literal and metaphorical process of grooming (and waxing).

“I would like to think it is not too far-fetched a notion to rule out the mental image of a metrosexual riding a tractor without a hair out of place.

“But then again, there is Tom Ford, known for riding through his Tadao Ando designed Texan ranch on an infamously re-sprayed black tractor.”

Alpha runs at Heritage Malta, Melita Street, Valletta, until September 21.

www.viva.org.mt/#alpha

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