[attach id=634487 size="medium" align="right"]Patrice Pantin uses a unique cloth technique for his works.[/attach]

Lazuli Art Gallery, a Fair Trade gallery in Victoria, is hosting the exhibition Tieqa tad-Dwejra – A Tribute to the Azure Window by French artist Patrice Pantin. The iconic landmark was swallowed by the raging sea a year ago, on March 8, 2017.

For around 500 years, Mother Nature had been slowly carving a hypnotic window out of the giant limestone outcrop on Dewjra’s coastline, some say a window into the soul of Gozo, and in one fell swoop she magnificently struck it down. The shock waves of this act of destruction reverberated across the Maltese islands and out into the world.

Pantin was one of those who understood that this majestic sculpture was more than just a tourist attraction. His paintings, which are both pictorial and photographic, take their inspiration from six precious fragments of the arch that were brought to the surface from where the Tieqa tad-Dwejra now rests. The exhibition is curated by Olivier Plique.

The artist lives and works in Pantin, near Paris, where for the last 20 years he has been honing the unique cloth technique he uses in this distinctive work.

Tieqa tad-Dwejra is Pantin’s second offering to the Maltese islands. His first work, a large map of the Maltese archipelago made using sand from a local beach, featured in the Contemporary Art Biennale in Mdina in 2015.

This exhibition is open at Lazuli Art Gallery at 83, Palm Street, Victoria, until April 1. It is open on Mondays, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays from 10am to 1pm. The exhibition is supported by the Ministry for Gozo, Visit Gozo, the San Lawrenz local council and the French Embassy. For more information, visit www.lazuliart.com or visit the Facebook page LazuliART.