The people of Sliema are not just well-to-do businessmen who live in fancy houses. Clifford Jo Zahra and David Grima tell Veronica Stivala about their project, Linji Sfużi, that challenges this mistaken perception.

In the conventional narratives of Sliema, only successful people get the limelight. A group of authors and photographers have set out to challenge this assumption. Clifford Jo Zahra, one of the authors in the writing and photography collaborative project Linji Sfużi explains:

“We focus on women who must go out and do dirty work to support themselves; on migrants seeking some sort of recognition; on the elderly going through life all alone, sometimes abused by those much younger than them and on kids suffering from chronic disease.”

Together with photographer David Grima, Zahra coordinated this project which saw eight young people aged between 19 and 26 from different backgrounds in Sliema take part in a series of workshops.

These, in turn, led to the creation of a photographic exhibition and a collection of 10 short stories entitled Linji Sfużi. The word sfużi is coined from the Italian, and loosely translates to ‘dispersed’.

The two worked with the Salesian Theatre’s Creative Director, James Spiteri, who wanted to challenge the typical Sliema stereotype and involve youths in the process, so as to produce self-learning workshops through which they could challenge conventional clichés.

The latter has been important to bring young people closer to the Salesian Theatre, so as to strengthen its sense of community.

Covering topics such as finance, friends, social contact, family, education, the environment, fashion, politics, travel and aspirations for the future, the workshops gave participants the opportunity to discuss among themselves and to bring closer their diverse perspectives in the spirit of tolerance and solidarity.

The workshops served as a catalyst for communication among young people and to challenge the mistaken belief of the Sliema stereotype, that is, business-men and people of high ranking living in beautiful houses.

The book and exhibition aim to show how young people from different families and backgrounds integrate, despite the prejudice and stereotyping that is prevalent in Sliema.

Before we delve into further detail about the project, I’m curious to understand what exactly the title of the project means.

“The metaphor has been inspired from the image of a book that has a number of pages missing (hence the ‘sfużi’),” explains Zahra.

“The lines refer to everything that might bring us together. We are all connected, be it a sweet or sour relationship, a contact of convenience or a harmonious encounter, we are all the time coming into contact with each other.”

This theme is prevalent in the stories too. All main characters in the stories are connected, in that they experience some sort of fear and rejection.

Sometimes, the culprits are ageing, have a physical disability or a fear of failure. These, in turn, sometimes develop into domestic violence, racial hatred and loneliness. Why did they pick Sliema as a place to work?

Grima explains how, while Sliema has very strong and defined stereotypes and would work well to have these stereotypes challenged, they were also specifically attracted to the 106-year-old Salesian theatre and its potential to bring young people together and foster the right atmosphere for thesharing of ideas.

Lastly, Sliema provided the ideal mixture of human characters and interactions, thus serving as a sort of micro-cosm illustrating a broad representation of Malta.

Main characters in the stories are connected in that they experience some sort of fear and rejection

The photography aspect included street photography documenting the different parts of the city, and at different times of the day. This allowed the artists an important way of getting a clear idea of what goes on in the city and the different styles of life that interact on a daily basis.

Before the stories were written, the writers and photographers spent a substantial amount of time going around the streets and taking random and spontaneous photos. This fieldwork was followed by discussion and the photos sometimes served as inspiration for new stories.

The creative process had a domino effect and the stories then in turn served as inspiration for a set of artistic photos.

For many of these, models were needed to step into the shoes of the characters of the story. Some photos were taken in the Salesian Theatre and others in various locations.

The two authors then wrote 10 stories that incorporate the happenings, thoughts and moods of the protagonists, characters and situations which, although fictitious, have not necessarily not happened in real life.

The photographic exhibition by David Grima runs until today at the Salesian Theatre, Sliema. The collection of short stories Linji Sfużi is available by sending an e-mail to cjzahra@gmail.com or to davidmgrima@gmail.com.

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