Apologies in advance for ending the year on a sour note, but I just had to get this off my chest. After all what other reason is there for maintaining a blog!

The matter in hand has been irking me for sometime now. In fact it has been irking me for at least the last 15 years. So you can assume that I am fit to burst. And yesterday I did just that.

But before I get there, let me take you back to the time 15 years ago when it all began.

I think it was at the Malta Jazz Festival, an event I hold in very high esteem I hasten to add.

There I was about to take in the mellifluous notes of some trumpeter or ivory tickler when across the harbour I saw the logo of one of the sponsors of the festival projected onto the bastion walls of Fort St Angelo.

Overseas they don't turn buildings such as the Presidential Palace into oversized billboards

In one fell swoop, an important and enjoyable cultural event blotted its copybook with a singularly crass act of desecration: turning the recently-restored bastion walls of St Angelo into a large billboard selling mobile phones.

Instead of looking across the waters to a view of Fort St Angelo, one of the most impressive examples of fortifications built by the Knights of Malta which bore witness to countless triumphs and tragedies, bathed in a warm soft light, with a complimentary image reflected in the water, we were exhorted to buy into a mobile phone plan.

Fast forward quite a few years and change location to St George’s Square in Valletta and the idea of projections onto buildings has really caught on. It’s New Year’s Eve of I’m not sure which year and on the cusp of the New Year an animated projection appeared on the walls of the palace. But these were clever projections. Fish ducked in and out of windows as a carefully constructed series of animations closely mapped to the contours of the building transformed the palace into a delightful mosaic of images, colours and trompe d’oeil effects.

This requires a careful coordination of animator and scientist, as a combination of art and technology ensure that everything marries together.

Not so this year. On entering the square yesterday, I saw the President’s palace 'adorned', if that is the word to use, with a series of white canvasses and what looked like white sheets hanging from the balconies. The white canvases hung, some of them askew, over the windows of the facade.

The sheets were draped, many of them loosely and with their edges flapping in the wind, along the balconies, looking for all the world, as though the presidential staff were airing their laundry.

The effect was, to put it bluntly, shabby.

Photo: Darrin Zammit LupiPhoto: Darrin Zammit Lupi

And just as I was wondering what the whole point was, up comes an advert for a famous international soft drink, which at one point claimed to add life.

Immediately after up came another slide advertising the New Year’s Eve shindig in Valletta.

So once again, the crass and the frankly ugly has taken over what could be a fun and inspiring event.

A properly mapped projection on buildings does not need billowing sheets to cover windows and balconies, but advertising does.

Mapped projections are very popular around the world. They have been seen on some of the most iconic of buildings such as Buckingham Palace. But all properly mapped projections respect the building. And they certainly do not cover buildings in shabby white material. Nor do they turn buildings such as the Presidential Palace into oversized billboards that tell us to buy a soft drink which happens to be 'it!'

And the cherry on the cake was that the slide advertising the New Year’s Eve event carried the slogan 'Towards Valletta 2018 - Capital of culture' and the coat of arms of the Valletta Local Council!

Way to go, guys!

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