Between spring and summer 2018, curator Maren Richter is bringing Valletta 2018’s major visual arts exhibition, featuring large installations, performances and public interventions, in both traditional and unexpected locales across the country.
Among the star sites of Dal-Baħar Madwarna is the Pixkerija at Barriera Wharf, a Grade 2 scheduled building that was built in the 1930s. Richter is working with more than 25 established and emerging artists from 15 countries – including Malta, France, Austria, Egypt, Germany, Syria, the UK, Sweden, Ghana, Spain and Palestine – who are collaborating with local partners.
The project is inspired by a quote from the work of philosopher Gilles Deleuze – “the island is what the sea surrounds”. This sets the tone for newly-commissioned and existing pieces that explore the idea of “islandness” in playful and critical ways. It’s an artistic journey through the contemporary realities of the Maltese islands, placing at their helm the islands’ relationship with their closest neighbour – the Mediterranean Sea.
The exhibition retraces borders, imagining new geographies that view the sea as fluid and transformable rather than another physical barrier between people, places and culture.
Dal-Baħar Madwarna kicked off on Saturday, with public space works by Manaf Halbouni in Birżebbuġa, Valletta and Qala (Uprooted) and an intervention by an Austrian art collective around Malta and Gozo (Fleeting Territories – Mapping Malta). Works are also under way for a large-scale installation by James Micallef Grimaud to be displayed in the Grand Harbour docks (Ġiraffa).
March 25 sees the opening of a sculptural installation by Aidan Celeste in Valletta (What Will Fall), a participatory installation by Transparadiso in Valletta and Gżira (Times of Dilemma), Ibrahim Mahama’s site-specific installation in Valletta’s Pixkerija (A Straight Line Through the Carcass of History) and a site-specific sound installation by Susan Philipsz in which visitors can explore Valletta’s hidden underground (Who By Fire).
Also opening on the 25th is a group exhibition at the Examination Centre in Valletta.
Tania El Khoury will also be delivering Sejjaħ lil Malta, a site-specific sound installation which kicks off with a performance on April 6 and explores our changing perception of the Mediterranean Sea; and Kristina Borg will be presenting No Man’s Land, a participatory excursion aimed at discovering new forms of territory along the Valletta coast.
Dal-Baħar Madwarna is currently on at various outdoor locations, from March 25 to May 27 at the Old Examination Centre, from March 25 until July 1 at Il-Pixkerija and from March 25 to July 1 at Valletta Underground (Republic Street). For more information, visit the Valletta 2018 Foundation website www.valletta2018.org.