The Mdina Cathedral Contemporary Art Biennale has been relaunched to include a more international approach. The event is set to be one of the major artistic highlights on the 2015 calendar and is being organised under the artistic directorship of artist and art theorist Giuseppe Schembri Bonaci,

The Biennale aims to show the prestige of recent and contemporary art, both locally and European, through the choice of the very best works of art. The theme will be Christianity, Spirituality and the Other, with exhibits dealing with the interrelationship between spirituality and religious belief and examining the role of the ‘Other’.

The Other includes every aspect within the spectrum of spirituality, a spiritual identity that embraces the tension between doubt, belief, non-belief and the struggle to define the spiritual parameters of humankind.

The Biennale will be divided into four main sections. Four resident Maltese artists will be specially invited to take part. Fifteen other European artists, including Malta, chosen by the artistic director, will be asked to exhibit one or two works each, specifically created for the Biennale. Other artists may propose their works, and if chosen these too will be exhibited at the Biennale. A major 20th-century artist will be selected, and a group of his or her works exhibited under the umbrella of the Biennale.

Schembri Bonaci believes in the importance of promoting the international aspects of the Biennale, and discussions are already taking place with artists from the UK, Italy, Germany, Spain, Bulgaria, Russia, among others.

Schembri Bonaci is a senior lecturer in the Department of History of Art at the University of Malta. Besides being the author of several academic research publications, he is also an artist who has exhibited in various Maltese and international galleries.

For more information about the Mdina Cathedral Contemporary Art Biennale send an e-mail to giuseppe.schembri-bonaci@um. edu.mt