Arts Council chairman Albert Marshall has threatened to end Malta’s participation in the Venice Biennale amid controversy over his handling of the selection of curators for the prestigious contemporary arts exhibition.
Times of Malta reported on Wednesday Mr Marshall had vetoed the decision of an international evaluation panel tasked with picking the curatorial team for the Malta pavilion at the Biennale and then replaced the panel with a new one, which selected the candidate he had favoured.
Mr Marshall denied any irregularities and said the change in juries was due to “artistic concerns [which] were sufficiently serious to warrant a fresh outlook”.
Responding to a request for further comment on Wednesday, Mr Marshall said: “I’ll be doing my damnedest to ensure that next year will be the last time, until I’m around at least, that Maltese artists are provided with a platform for Venice. Now I understand why Malta was absent from the Biennale for 17 bloody years.”
He did not respond to a request for clarification.
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Malta did not participate in the Biennale between 1999 and 2017. The return last year was trumpeted by the Arts Council as a major achievement in the government’s cultural strategy.
Mr Marshall’s latest comments come amid growing calls within the artistic community for an investigation into the selection process.
Echoing these calls, Raphael Vella, who was co-curator of the Malta Pavilion at the 2017 Venice Biennale (but not involved in this year’s process), told Times of Malta: “Last time round there were none of these behind-the-scenes issues. It was a fair competition.
“If there is any element of truth to what is being reported, then it should be immediately investigated for the sake of everyone involved: artists, curators and the Arts Council itself. As things stand, everything is ambiguous, which doesn’t benefit anyone.”
The Culture Ministry did not respond to questions on whether it would be carrying out an investigation.
The Venice Biennale – attended by half a million people every other year and sometimes referred to as the Olympics of the art world – attracts the world’s leading curators, gallery owners and critics and inclusion can have a substantial impact on an artist or curator’s international career.
Panel members, curators and artists who participated in this year’s selection process – including several high-profile international figures – are understood to be baffled and frustrated by how it played out and warned of long-term damage to Malta’s artistic reputation.