The burnished bronze horse stands imperiously at the entrance of Valletta, the morning sun reflecting off its polished back.

Austin Camilleri’s Żieme, which will grace City Gate for a month as part of the Valletta International Visual Arts Festival (VIVA), commands attention.

Passers-by stop to snap a picture and others stare, brows furrowed, trying to interpret the installation. Times of Malta approached a couple in their 60s to gauge their reaction.

“It’s the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever seen. How on earth would a horse remain in position with only three legs? It’s utterly ridiculous,” said the husband .

“I have really no idea what it is,” his wife put in. “It doesn’t make much sense to me.”

Piqued by the discussion, other passers-by joined in to put in their two cents; worth.

“I’ll tell you what it is,” said a man in his 50s in an authoritative tone. “Our lady President [Marie-Louise Coleiro Preca] is consumed by the plight of handicapped people. The horse serves as a reminder for us to think of handicapped people.”

A 69-year-old man, Gaetano Vella, enters the circle of people quietly. “I’m not a learned man but I think the fact that it is positioned right in front of the new Parliament is significant. Could it be suggesting that Maltese politics in general, like the horse, is maimed?”

The comments board beneath the online article on the horse were replete with a wide array of opinions, some denouncing the piece because a true artist should love nature and should, therefore, never disfigure an animal.

It’s good that this created debate but, unfortunately, not a very informed one

Others directed their criticism at the fact that the laws of physics would mean that a horse with three legs would actually collapse and others still concluded that the sculpture had to be a faulty or broken horse imported from China.

Mario Aquilina, a Department of English lecturer at the university specialising in criticism and theory, explained that the Maltese seem to be very resistant to anything that challenges our idea of what art is.

Using Picasso’s famed Les Demoiselles d’Avignon (which has been hailed as the most influential artwork of the past 100 years) as an example, Dr Aquilina noted that, applying the logic of many commentators, this painting is rubbish because: a) it is not accurate in terms of engineering and physics; b) it is not meant to show the beauty of nature; c) it is not a positive message; d) it does not work as a nice decoration for Valletta’s entrance and e) it distorts nature.

“It is good that such work created debate. The downside is that, unfortunately, the debate is not a very informed one.”

Dr Aquilina clarified that he does not refer to whether a person likes or dislikes the piece but the criteria used to assess a contemporary art installation.

“The idea that a work of art has to reflect reality has been swept away by the past 100 years with the event of cubism, impressionism and surrealism. We’re having a discussion which other countries had a century ago.”

This discussion, he said, has exposed clear deficiencies in our education system when it comes to exposure to art in its entirety.

Malta still lacks a contemporary art museum.

“We might be artistic as a population because there are a number of good artists. But, as a general population, we do not have the artistic sensibility to be open to what art can do.

“And what worries me is that we’re moving in the opposite direction. If you look at art and literature in curriculums, their importance is being reduced.”

Żieme’s artist, Mr Camilleri, is reluctant to interpret his own work.

“As some poets would put it, I’d rather not read you between my own lines,” he smiled.

“However, apart from all the interpretation tangents, it seems that most [people] are missing, excuse the pun, is the fact that the work is not just a symbol of power but stems from the interest of how power is depicted, hence my reference to a millennial tradition and the use of an ‘immortal’ medium.”

To compare by analogy, it is not merely about the model pictured on a glossy magazine cover but the process used to create the image.

“What interests me is the disparity between image and substance, the lack of transparency.”

Sociology lecturer Gillian Martin asked whether we need to be “informed” to appreciate art.

“I wouldn’t say so, but we need to be regularly exposed to art in order to enjoy it,” she said. “Art in all of its forms, not simply the saccharine sweet, the melodious and predictable. The VIVA festival is certainly helping to put this right.”