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Organizers of a new art biennial which will take place on the southern Mediterranean island of Malta, have named 72 artists from around 30 countries who will participate in its inaugural edition, which is scheduled to take place next year from March 11 to May 31, with Exhibitions planned at twelve historic sites in Maltese towns.
Established names like Cecilia Vicuña, Tania BrugueraLaure Prouvost and Pedro Reyes will be among the participants.
The 72 artists will participate in the main exhibition of the Biennale, curated by Sofia Baldi Pighi, an independent Italian curator, temporarily based in Malta. The exhibition focuses on issues relating to the Mediterranean more broadly, as detailed in its curatorial statement entitled “Insulaphilia”. The concept refers to an obsession with islands and, said Baldi Pighi ARTnews, encourages artists to reflect on Malta’s unique position, at the crossroads of the main surrounding regions and their history. She organized the main exhibition into four sections, each emerging from the themes exposed in “Insulaphilia”: regional issues, facets of decolonization, the political dimensions of the Mediterranean and the various forms of resistance.
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Like many major art events in their first editions, the Malta Biennale faced challenges relating to its location and timing. The organization of the first edition, which lasted two years, takes place as geopolitics become increasingly bleak amid an ongoing war in the Middle East. Baldi Pighi said the Biennale seeks to be a “safe place” for artists uprooted from conflict-torn regions to interrogate sensitive topics. This philosophy extends not only to the artists participating in the exhibition’s main thematic exhibition, but also to the eleven national pavilions surrounding it, representing Austria, China, Franco-Germany, Italy, Malta , PalestinePoland, Serbia, Spain, Türkiye and Ukraine.
Two artists, one Palestinian and the other Ukrainian, will present solo exhibitions to represent their respective national pavilions (their names have not yet been released, although Baldi Pighi confirmed that the artists are currently in Poland and Malta, respectively). to host a pavilion recognizing Palestine in June, a decision that Pighi said preceded the Venice Biennale’s rejection of a Palestinian affiliated museum’s proposal to hold a collateral event in association with the 2024 edition of the biennale . “It was very important to have Palestine among us,” the curator said.
In an email to ARTnews, Mario Cutajar, president of Heritage Malta, a government agency responsible for culture and co-organizer of the biennial, highlighted the representation of these pavilions. “The biennial would not be relevant if it did not discuss our present,” Cutajar said, adding that the search for a solution “must itself be an international endeavor.”
Baldi Pighi is explicit in his intention not to curate an exhibition that replicates other biennials or to import exhibitions that seem detached from the historic sites that will serve as a backdrop and home to the artworks. Throughout the exhibition, particularly in the main exhibition, the focus will be on artworks that address current issues and are able to navigate a conservative climate in Malta, where the migrant crisis and strong Restrictions on abortion rights have become major concerns for the island’s young residents. . She highlighted the “soft power of culture involved in a biennial project” as a factor to take into account in organizing the event. Malta, she added, has only a few contemporary art spaces.
The biennial will also welcome artist collectives active in Europe. Among them is the Italian collective Post Disaster, a group that uses the urban rooftops of Taranto, southern Italy, as performative spaces to stage discussions about industry-induced crises. For the biennial, members of the group will mount a new site-specific installation at Fort Saint Elme, a 16th-century military site in the capital Valletta. This work will respond to the militarized architecture of Malta.
Some of the works that will be exhibited by prominent figures, including Vicuña, Bruguera, Prouvost and Reyes, are already known in the United States and Europe. A work by Bruguera from 2018 will be recreated on the facade of the 16th-century Armory building in Birgu, a town in the southeast of Malta located a short walk from the other biennial venues. Reyes, who is Mexican, will exhibit works associated with his 2022 project “Artists Against the Bomb,” which combines calls by artists against nuclear threats, on the neighboring island of Gozo. Elsewhere, El Salvador-born, New York-based artist Guadalupe Maravilla will exhibit her works inside Valletta’s 17th-century Ta-Pilar Church.
Pighi highlighted the strategic inclusion of leading international voices like Bruguera, saying his practice, rooted in migration research, provides a protective layer to the exhibition’s discourse and mitigates the risk of censorship. In turn, she sees Bruguera and the recognition of some of his peers as a guarantee for younger or lesser-known Maltese artists participating in the biennial.
Below is the full list of artists at the Malta Biennale 2023.
Alan Abd El Monim, Italian/Egyptian
Camilla Alberti, Italian
Anna Anderegg, Switzerland
Teresa Antignani, Italian
Jean-Marie Appriou, French
Rosa Barba, Italian
Simon Benjamin, Jamaican
Laura Besançon, Maltese
Aaron Bezzina, Maltese
Rebecca Bonaci, Maltese
Josian Bonello, Maltese
Isabelle Borg, Maltese
Claude Borg, Maria Borg, Sumaya Ben Saad, Rebecca Mifsud, Maltese
Amy Bravo, American (United States)
Tania Bruguera, Cuban
Siwani Buhlebezwe, South African
Teresa Busutiltil, Australian
Anna Calleja, Maltese
Austin Camilleri, Maltese
Edson Chagas, Angolan/Portuguese
Mel Chin, Chinese-American
Leo Chircop, Maltese
Dolphin Club, Maltese, French
Joseph Cochran II, American (United States)
Andrea Conte (Andreco), Italian
Gaia De Megni, Italian
Mònica de Miranda, Portuguese/Angolan
Adama Delphine Fawundu, American (USA)
Zehra Doğan, Kurdish
Dolphin Club, Maltese, French
Madeleine Fenwick, British
Andrea Ferrero, Peruvian
Martina, Romeo Roxman Georgina, Gatt, Maltese
Nina Gerada, Maltese
Sara, Eleonora Goldschmied, Chiari, Italian
Bettina Hutschek, German
Anne Immelé, French
Daniel Jablonski, Brazilian
Barbara Kapusta, Austrian
Dew Kim, South Korea
Konstantina Krikzoni, Greek
Wioletta Kulewska Akyel, Polish
Sara Leghissa, Italian
Ji Yeon Yaloo, PiaLim, Borg, Korean, Maltese-Australian
LuzLizarazo, Colombian
Edson Luli, Albanian
Basim Magdy, Swiss/Egyptian
Guadalupe Maravilla, Salvadoran
Jermay Michael Gabriel, Italian
Karyn Olivier, American
Zazzaro Otto, Italian
Adrian Paci, Albanian
Post Disaster (Collective), Grazia Mappa, Gabriele Leo, Gabriella Mastrangelo, Peppe Frisino, Italian
Djana Protić, Croatian
Laure Prouvost, French
Keit, Florinda, Neils Bonnici, Camilleri, Plotard (Prune Our Skin), Maltese, Maltese, French
Agnès Questionmark, Italian
Anna Raimondo, Italian
Pedro Reyes, Mexican
Cemile Sahin, Kurd
Paul Sammut, British
Zineb Sedira, Franco-Algerian
Ana, Giuditta Shametaj, Vendrame, Italian/Albanian, Italian
Anthony Spagnol, Maltese
Tom Van Malderen, Belgian
Fabrizio Vatieri, Italian
Raphael Vella, Maltese
