An art talk and exhibition are being held at St James Cavalier, Valletta, this week.
French artist Baptiste Debombourg will present a talk entitled ‘Contemporary art in dialogue with violence’.
In today’s increasingly precarious social and economic environments overwhelming violence and terrorism are more and more present everywhere around us, such as the World Trade Centre attack in 2001, the shootings at Columbine High School in 1999, and the deadly hostage-taking in Beslan, North Ossetia, Russia.
When we consider the events that pummel our everyday lives on a daily basis, it is clear we are experiencing rather violent times.
Debombourg’s work seeks to come to grips with this environment and offers a multimedia reflection on the violence that is fed to us through the news. He will present his research and his work on this subject at St James on Tuesday at 7 p.m.
On Friday, an exhibition entitled ‘Aux Armes’ by Debombourg and Raphael Vella will be launched at St James Cavalier.
The exhibition is about the appropriation of political statements and monumental forms that perhaps have lost some of their power in western societies, about architectural forms that compartmentalise life and transform themselves into treacherous weapons, and about the innocent and anonymous faces of children who grow into political leaders who lose their anonymity (and perhaps their innocence).
www.baptistedebombourg.com
www.raphaelvella.com