You have to hand it to them. The administrative staff at V18, I mean. These last five years haven’t been an easy ride.

Things started off on a less than spectacular note with architect David Felice at the helm, and the almost invisible Wayne Marshall as his artistic director, and then all went downhill after that.

A change of government saw a changing of the guard at the top, with ex-Super One head honcho taking over from Felice and the almost immediate dismissal of Marshall.

Then, in typical fashion, Jason Micallef declared that he did not need an artistic director and dismissed the programme coordinators who had put the bid together, thereby throwing out the proverbial baby with the bathwater.

He also forgot to mention that the team that put the bid together was summarily dismissed when the new ‘regime’ came in and replaced by, well, no one actually

The staff of V18, suddenly headless and legless were asked to bail out a sinking ship. Led by that perfect mandarin Karsten Xuereb, they tried valiantly to cobble a programme together, trying to give the impression that something was being done by sticking the V18 logo onto any old thing as their captain announced one Infiorita after another and launched a portacabin-like information booth, which had no information to hand out.

In the meantime, the EU commission monitoring board sent over report after report, pointing out that alarm bells were ringing and the ship was still sinking.

Micallef finally buckled under pressure and found himself an artistic director. Only this artistic director misses two appointments with the EU monitoring board - sending instead a previously unannounced post of vice-artistic director.

This seems to have upset the monitoring board no end, so tickets were booked to come down to Malta to meet the artistic director. At this point Mario Philip Azzopardi, for it is he of who we speak, announces that in fact he is not the Artistic Director of V18 but merely the artistic director of the main six projects (for which read, the projects which will scoop up most of what little money there is).

He adds that the structure of V18 includes, or will include, or maybe has included, a number of experts in different fields, which may (or may not) be doing their own thing irrespective (or respective) of what the others were doing.

Is it any wonder therefore that the first public report to be issued was less than satisfactory. You can read the whole thing here:

http://ec.europa.eu/programmes/creative-europe/actions/documents/ecoc/2018/malta-monitoring_en.pdf

But here is a flavour of what I’m talking about:

On programme planning:

“The panel is concerned about the status of development of the programme at this stage. While the programme should be the core of the preparatory work, it does not seem to have developed much since the last post-designation meeting... The panel stressed that the programme should differ from normal business not only in size and scope but also in artistic and cultural quality terms.”

On financing:

“There are still some concerns about the budget for administration, which is quite high compared to the budget for programme. As it has been mentioned that the administrative costs cannot be reduced, the foundation should develop mitigating measures to avoid a drastic reduction in the programme budget if the private funding target cannot be reached.”

On legacy:

“The panel enquired about the legacy plans and how these will be financed, as there is no budget for 2019 and beyond. The foundation explained that it will be closed in 2019, but a Master Plan for Valletta beyond 2020 will be developed with a strong base on the results of the ECOC 2018.”

And finally on the artistic team:

“In this perspective, the links between the artistic team (Artistic Director and Vice Artistic Director) and the programme team should be stronger and the reporting mechanisms between those organisations developing the projects and the foundation be reinforced.”

On that last point it seems that at the time of the reporting in September, everyone was under the impression that we did have a V18 artistic director. It looks like it is not only in politics that a month or two can be a long time.

The report looked so bad that alarm bells rung all the way to Castille. It even prompted an article in Times of Malta by columnist Martin Scicluna.

Executive director Karsten Xuereb, tried to pour oil on rather turbulent waters a week later in the same paper, crossing swords on behalf of his boss Micallef.

Xuereb chastised Scicluna for trying to compare Micallef to the previous chairman David Felice. Xuereb was of course right to do so. Let’s face it, it would have been like trying to compare a burger from a festa stall to the 1970s phenomenon, the Baked Alaska. Different strokes for different folks.

Xuereb also took time out to remind Scicluna that he (Xuereb) was one of the winning team that helped put together the winning bid. Unfortunately in his haste to do so, Xuereb forgot to mention that this was a winning bid in a competition of one. He also forgot to mention that the team that put the bid together was summarily dismissed when the new ‘regime’ came in and replaced by, well, no one actually.

So it came as no surprise to read yesterday that members of the monitoring board were back in Malta. And finally the V18 staff heard some good news. The head of the EU Commission monitoring panel, Ulrich Fuchs, said that there has been “a big step forward” in the progress registered.

Great. We can finally heave a collective sigh of relief. But wait there’s more. In one of the most spectacular uses of diplomatic language, Fuchs added, to quote this newspaper’s article:

"The challenges which faced every European Capital of Culture revolved around the two different tempos. Each cultural capital is selected five years in advance. However, five years was often too short a time for the preparation of large projects which required big investments."

For which read: “look we get it, you did sweet nothing to improve your physical infrastructures”

He went on to say:

“On the other hand, five years was too long a time in terms of programming.
“It would be a terrible mistake from the organisers’ part not to keep the programme process open, even until the end of next year, especially for smaller projects. Sometimes, the best of ideas tend to crop up rather late.”

Throughout this whole sorry saga, Maltese artists have excelled themselves in one thing, and one thing only: being apathetic.

Additionally, Valletta 2018 was not the Maltese capital of cultural but the European one, he added, stressing the need to “strike a balance between local involvement and the international dimension.”’

For which read: “ I understand, and your government has confirmed, that you are finally going to get someone foreign to sort out the mess you’re in and try and bring in the European element, seeing that all your proposals are embarrassingly parochial”.

The unsaid question in all this, although implied in Fuchs’ statement, is how much money will there be for these projects? Fuchs seems already resigned to these being “smaller projects.”

Now it seems its up to the artists themselves. And therein lies the rub. Throughout this whole sorry saga, Maltese artists have excelled themselves in one thing, and one thing only: being apathetic.

Yes, there have been rumbles in the corridors of creativity. But look closely at the gaggles of artists talking among themselves, and you will notice furtive glances as they wait hopefully for a commission or two. Not for them the long-term vision or strategy.

With the arrival of a non-local person guiding the ship, will this attitude change, I wonder?

If not there is always ECOC Gozo 2031!