Nikolas Ventourakis, Untitled, 2017

An exhibition of works by Nikolas Ventourakis, resident artist for Blitz in Valletta, opens on Saturday.

The multidisciplinary exhibition combines photography, projections and installation of new works created during the month-long residency. Rituals for Our Safety deals with notions of safety, of how opposite and contradictory visions of safe spaces are part of contemporary political discourse and end up being a matter of belief.

Ventourakis is a visual artist living and working between Athens, Greece and London, the UK. His photographic practice fuses fine art and documentation and relies on the manifested misconceptions and assumptions created by the interaction between viewer and artwork.

He explains that, on researching Malta prior to his residency, he came across reference to the name of Malta meaning ‘safe haven’ in the Phoenician language. This kick-started his research into what one would imagine to be a personal or collective ‘safe h(e)aven’ and how ports and islands would be dreamed of as such places.

The topics in the exhibition vary. Some concern personal rituals that we create to make ourselves feel safe, such as a child tucking their feet under the duvet or a person with the fear of flying making sure that he or she is not awake to experience the flight.

Others focus on wider reactions of states and societies towards perceived dangers that lead to events such as the recent Muslim ban in the US and the proposal for the construction of a border wall, or the suppression of sexuality.

The exhibition looks at local contemporary and historical notions of safety and refuge, with the history of Malta very much intertwined with the arrival of the Knights and the use of the island as a sanctuary, together with a constant colonisation and exchange of dominant power.

A discussion focusing on the prevailing narrative about “Keeping us Safe/for our Safety”, hammered into the public by politicians and institutions as well as large portions of the population itself, is welcomed and pursued.

■ Rituals for our Safety opens on Saturday at Blitz in Valletta at 7pm. The public is welcome to attend. Following this, the exhibition will run until March 22 and opening times are Tuesday to Saturday from 10am to 3pm. Entrance is free. Blitz is supported by Arts Council Malta while the residency programme is supported by Valletta 2018 – European Capital of Culture. For more information, visit http://thisisblitz.com .