Iggy Fenech chats to the curator of Dal-Baħar Madwarha, Maren Richter, who is also one of the internationally-renowned artists taking part, to get the stories behind the landmark, major visual arts exhibition for Valletta 2018.

The title of European Capital of Culture doesn’t come without responsibilities.

Indeed, what would its point be if it didn’t give artists the tools and space needed to not just showcase their art but to also broaden their horizons through networking? If it didn’t help focus people’s mindsets on to culture in the various shapes and forms it comes in? And if it didn’t leave both a physical and metaphorical legacy that can be both seen and felt?

Valletta underground cisterns. Photo: Sefora Mannino

Very little, I should think…

Well, it’s been some weeks since the public installations of Dal-Baħar Madwarha (The Island is what the Sea Surrounds) were launched, and the exhibition has already managed many of the points above while also proving itself to be a monumental happening in the Foundation’s cultural programme.

Its theme? That of exploring Malta’s most defining feature – that of ‘islandness’ – and the boundaries that that often brings with it.

“Islandness has many meanings,” Maren Richter, its curator, tells me. “Dal-Baħar Madwarha asks us to think about the relationship or paradox fabricated by ‘island’ and ‘sea’, which one could say suggest two opposite ways of thinking about territory, community, landscape, (be)longing and loss.

“The seemingly borderless world of seas, which allows for the trading of goods, people and ideas, inscribes a sense of infinity and openness; whereas the island sometimes seems to create a sense of isolation and of boundary.”

Richter, as a researcher and curator working in the fields of sociopolitical art and public spaces, is no novice to this. In fact, on top of being the curator of the European Capital of Culture in Linz, Austria (where she is based), she has also spent three years  as the artistic director of the Festival Regionale in the other Austrian town of Styria.  On an island like Malta, however – where identity, history, economy, religion and tradition have all been shaped by the sea that surrounds it and kept intact by its defined boundaries – undertaking a nation-wide exhibition of the sort is no mean feat. The abstractness of all this makes it hard to be defined; the strong sense of nationality makes it harder to execute. But as the events within Dal-Baħar Madwarha are rolled out, it’s clear that Richter, Valletta 2018 and the 22 emerging and established, local and international artists invited to take part have succeeded.

With the first three installations that were launched on March 10, for example, our relationship with our neighbours was outlined.

James Micallef Grimaud, renowned all over Europe for his street art, brought the African continent closer to our shores by transforming one of the cranes at the Grand Harbour Docks into a giraffe. ‘Ġiraffa’ now welcomes travellers entering the iconic harbour, and showcases Malta’s proximity to a continent and culture that may sometimes feel more alien to us than they actually are.

On the same day, the first part of Fleeting Territories – Mapping Malta by a temporary collective made up of Sabine Bitter, Helmut Weber, Klaus Schafler and Swedish researcher Jonatan Habib Enquist was launched. The three maps that have so far been exhibited aimed to start a discussion about how societies inhabit both real and imagined spaces; a concept which becomes clearer in older maps where harbours were depicted as being disproportionately larger than they really are (a clear sign of their importance within that society).

On an island like Malta, undertaking a nation-wide exhibition of the sort is no mean feat

Then, there was Manaf Halbouni with his multisite installation which asked audiences to think about the extreme lengths some artists will go to for their work. Entitled Uprooted, the Syrian/German, Dresden-based artist posed one simple question: What would happen if your car, normally a symbol of independence and freedom, suddenly became your only refuge… Your home?

“The inspiration behind this project was a very personal one,” says the artist, who hit the headlines last year after German right-wingers protested against his monument to the Syrian humanitarian crisis in Dresden.

The actual installation included four ‘veteran’ cars placed in scenic places around the islands, which people could book to stay in. Situated in Marsamxett Harbour and Xatt il-Barriera in Valletta, as well as Pretty Bay in Birżebbuġa and Ħondoq ir-Rummien in Qala, the installation was both interactive and thought-provoking.

“The vehicle is deeply relevant to the lives of the Maltese people,“ Richter explains. “Whether it’s the experience of intense commuting, the traffic jams that belong to Malta’s daily life, or the habit of sitting in the car while gazing out to sea, they are connected to the lives of anyone who lives here.”

Transparadiso. Photo: Francesca Vella

The second wave of installations was unveiled 15 days later, with the opening of an exhibition hosted at the St Elmo Examination Centre, which many of us visited while doing our O levels. The space has somehow stuck in our memory and, in turn, means that it is a place full of memories. With that in mind, the Examination Centre is now hosting a group exhibition by local and international artists that encompasses all that, as well as pieces that speak about romanticism, the global trade of goods, mobility, voyage and displacement.

On the same day, Susan Philipsz’s much-talked about sound installation, Who By Fire, was also launched. Addressing the themes of memories and the losses of local cultures over time, while raising some very important questions about what has been lost and what can still be lost. Ironically, however, it also gave the underground cisterns back to the people, showing that some things don’t need to be permanently lost to time.

Meanwhile, in Times of Dilemma, transparadiso (a collective initiated by artist Barbara Holub and architect and urbanist Paul Rajakovics), set up two megaphones at St Roque chapel in Valletta and another over the harbour near Manoel Island. Through them, they are creating a dialogue using għana which addresses the current urban and social issues in Malta.

Joining these was A Straight Line Through the Carcass of History, an exhibition at Valletta’s Pixkerija (the old fish market). The large-scale and site-specific installation by the Ghanaian artist, Ibrahim Mahama, was directly connected to the fabric of the fish market that, after 100 years at the centre of the industry, was replaced by the new one in Marsa in November 2015.

Using a physical line made of meshes, Ibrahim’s exhibition didn’t just honour the working history of a space that had satiated our appetite for fish for over four generations but also highlighted the uncertain future fishing faces, as well as that of the Mediterranean Sea, a catalyst of trade between Africa and Europe of which Malta is at the centre.

“Ibrahim’s work reminds us of many borders,“ Richter explains. “The structure itself, which is made of wooden frames used for smoking fish by Ghanaian fishermen, positions itself centrally in the architecture, dividing it into two equal parts. Is there something like a right or wrong side?

Our relationship with the sea and fishing was also the inspiration behind Maltese artist Adrian Celeste’s What Will Fall, which looks at the phenomenon of ghost fishing that has had catastrophical ecological effects on the Mediterranean. Showcasing this through recovered abandoned industrial fishing net, which now hangs outside the bastion walls of the capital at the mercy of the elements, the sculpture shows that large fishnets left unattended have a life of their own.

With a lot more to go before Dal-Baħar Madwarha comes to a close on July 1, the journey through islandness and all the realities that that brings with it continues.

“Can Malta’s turbulent and dense maritime and colonial history be a departure point for formulating new geographies and ecologies of scale, time and meaning at the present time?” Richter asks.

Pieces of the answer to that can be found in each of the various exhibitions. The question remains, however: what message do the waves carry for you?

www.valletta2018.org