Every artist aspires to win an important commission, so the Heritage Malta and Mizzi Foundation call for proposals to erect monuments in honour of F. Laparelli and G. Cassar was indeed good news.
Downloading the overly elaborate 26-page document reveals that the people at Heritage Malta have absolutely no idea of what the creation and making of a monument entails.
The consigning of an elaborate proposal complete with maquette (bozzetto) is deadlined for September 15. The document was posted on the Heritage Malta site on July 24, so that gives the candidates less than two months!
Strangely, the document itself bears the date March 28, 2015. Why was it released almost four months later, leaving little time for the artists to work on their proposals?
It is also monumentally (pun intended) ridiculous for the powers that be to assume that the artist, professional or otherwise, is sitting idle with hands crossed waiting for the gracious people at Heritage Malta to give him work.
The jury will be so efficient that by the 18th they will have decided the winner. The monuments are to be completed and unveiled by March of next year, a mere six months later.
Believe it or not, the artist has also to propose the site, so should there be a disagreement on this, the project will inevitably struggle to take off until a suitable compromise is reached, adding days or even weeks to the time schedule.
An absolute limit of €73,500 has been allotted for the production of both monuments, all inclusive. What a strange figure. How and who on earth came up with such a sum? Take away the VAT and it goes down by over €11,000.
All this seems to be purposely fashioned to scare off the traditional figurative sculptor and pave the way for the modern conceptual laser-cut stainless steel type of work currently in vogue.
But then again, there is always China and countless Chinese hands feverishly working away to give body to the ‘armchair artist’s’ computer image or primitive bozzetto.
Such a work was seen a few months ago exhibited near Parliament and the Chinese didn’t get the (dubious) credit.
The saga of the Mintoff concept monumentis a comic and troubled one, rife with questionable practices
One condition which I think is also very unfair to participants is that besides paying €50 to enter the competition, all the works become the property of the Mizzi Foundation. Such a condition was also in place for the Mintoff, Tabone and de Marco monuments.
The exhibition of the entries planned by Heritage Malta never materialised (why?) and after some angry remonstrations by certain participants the works were returned.
May I remind the reader that the winner for the Mintoff monument was eventually disqualified but it seems that according to the recent revelations in this newspaper it was remodelled to Yana Mintoff’s recommendations. This in itself would have been a gross injustice to the other participants.
Now we hear that instead there will be a conceptual representation of the Mintoff persona instead of a figurative statue, which is what the Mintoff family really want. Wouldn’t this jar with the other statues?
Which brings me to question Manwel Dimech’s right to be with the former prime ministers. Why wasn’t the new ‘concept’ made public? Why wasn’t the artist’s name made known? Why was it directly commissioned, making a mockery of the previous contest? Why all the secrecy?
The saga of the Mintoff concept monument is known to a good few people who work in this field and anyone would tell you that it is a comic and troubled one, rife with questionable practices. Whatever anyone says, it won’t be appreciated by the general public and it will cost a lot of taxpayers’ money if it ever makes it past the casting stage, because it is huge (about 5m by 5m) and complicated.
In case one is wondering, I did not take part in the Heritage Malta three-monument competition. I was busy working on the Cottonera Mintoff statue, so no, this is not sour grapes. I return to my original argument.
By writing this article I also am knowingly excluding myself from participating in this competition, because amongst other things Rule 06.12 says “...participants shall not dispute nor make any oral or written complaints, public announcements or statements on the same whether during or after the call for proposals”.
There must be some latent Soviet nostalgia in the Heritage Malta management team!
Finally, I am aware that my comments will annoy some people and may bring repercussions, but somebody has to come forth and say how things really are in the hope that future competition regulations show some sensibility to the needs of the artist.
Noel Galea Bason is a coin designer and engraver and a sculptor.