A contemporary art exhibition entitled Dal-Baħar Madwarha/ The Island is What the Sea Surrounds is being hosted in two unique venues in Valletta – the underground cisterns opposite the law courts and the old fish market (il-pixkerija), until July 1.

The cisterns host a sound installation called Who By Fire by Turner Prize winner Susan Philipsz. The installation refers to a damaged naval bell at the National War Museum in Fort St Elmo that was salvaged from a battleship. For Philipsz, the battered bell is a reminder of the impact and force of air raids, and her work addresses memories and loss of local cultures over time.

The cisterns where the sound installation is hosted have a rich history, having been built hundreds of years ago by the Knights of Malta and used to store water, and during World War II as a place of shelter from air raids.

Meanwhile, the pixkerija, a Grade 2 scheduled building constructed in the 1930s, is hosting the installation A Straight Line Through the Carcass of History. This large-scale intervention by Ghanaian artist Ibrahim Mahama is a physical line made of meshes, with the aim of highlighting the working history of the old fish market, its uncertain future and the Mediterranean Sea as a symbol of trade between Africa and Europe. He uses the transformation of materials to explore themes of commodity, migration, globalisation and economic exchange.

Dal-Baħar Madwarha is open from Tuesday to Sunday from 11am to 7pm until July 1. Tickets may be purchased from the ticket booth opposite the law courts or by visiting http://tickets.valletta2018.org .

Valletta’s underground cisternsValletta’s underground cisterns

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.