Like others, I have waited a long time for the opening of the new Malta Contemporary Art Museum. However, do those who operate the building know what it is supposed to be?
The physical building is wonderful, a fine palace, wonderfully restored. But a visit is ruined by amateurish, misguided, pretentious and outrageously inept thinking. What an embarrassment for Malta! Some fine art work is jumbled together dreadfully, often labelled incorrectly or not labelled at all. Some art work is so badly displayed that it will inevitably be damaged.
I really believe that a university student would fail if this was his or her examination project. It is simply too amateurish to be credible. Then we have the café, a centre of contemporary Maltese pretentiousness! The tepid little glass of tap water with wilted leaves selling at €1.20 and marketed as ‘Flavoured Water of the Day’ was one of my favourites.
And the liveried waiters, awkwardly trying to be posh and polite, are a good match for the pretentious titles of the food! It is all embarrassing, but the crowning glory has got to be the public convenience. The toilets – or should I say ‘the toilet room’ – are multisexual, non-monosexual, omnisexual or polysexual – I am afraid I do not quite know the correct terminology.
But I do know the embarrassment of stepping into the single facility shared by all genders to find everyone looking equally confused and embarrassed when they realise that one of their most private bodily functions is to be shared publicly in a series of stalls (not unlike school toilets) where you are bound to hear every sound from the neighbouring stall!
I shall not easily forget the looks on the faces of the elderly ladies who stood watching in horror as I exited a stall that they were about to enter.
What the ultimate reasoning behind this ‘multisexual/non-monosexual/omnisexual/polysexual’ toilet is beats me. Now, I know that around 0.3 per cent of the population is ‘non-monosexual’ and that we must be sensitive and aware of their needs. But I am not sure that it is helpful in changing people’s attitudes by making more than 99 per cent of the population feel uncomfortable when they go for a pee in a public building.
Sadly, this foggy thinking typifies the confusing experience of visiting this museum. I have visited it three times with friends who have confirmed my view that the adults need to come into the room and check out what the children have done.