Eight projects have been selected by Arts Council Malta to benefit from the Malta Arts Fund – Project Support Grant (2nd Call 2020) out of 36 applicants.
The selected projects will share a total of €90,000.
Culture Minister José Herrera told a press conference that the government was committed to continuing to support the cultural sector through direct investment as well as through its holistic policy.
Albert Marshall, executive chair of Arts Council Malta described the Malta Arts Fund as, “a pivotal initiative by Arts Council Malta which focuses on the development and production of an artistic project which has innovation, quality and artistic development as a primary aim."
The Arts Fund was established 10 years ago to invest in the development of quality-driven creative work.
The selected projects
Sara Dolfi Agostini – GRAVITY - €10,800
A project inspired by gravity. Its inexorable effect on human bodies makes it an ideal point of departure for an investigation into a traditional genre of art history – the body and its representation – that has re-emerged as crucial after the outbreak of the pandemic. The project pledges to continue the relevant discussion on contemporary art in Malta and internationally, while offering the artists and the audience an experimental platform they can strongly relate to because of the connection to an event that affected everybody, no exception.
Shaun Grech – Dehumaneation – €17,000
Dehumaneation is a multidisciplinary exhibition that will combine paintings by Shaun Grech (fluidly labelled as raw or outsider art), film, an installation, narratives, and critical debate to explore the space between dehumanization,
humiliation and nation through a geopolitical and historical perspective. Curated by Raphael Vella and using Dehumaneation as an invented word, concept and probe, we will bring these three concepts together (Dehumanization, Humiliation and Nation) to address a range of instances and manifestations of this intersectional space. These will include: political violence and tribalism, colonialism, racism, disablism, gender-based violence, politics of borders and
nationhood, identity politics, the assault on the environment, poverty and inequality, pandemics and unequal access, neoliberalism and neocolonialism among others.
Greta Muscat Azzopardi – Mapping Malta III. Debatable Land(s) €17,000
Debatable Land(s) is the latest chapter of the long-term, research-based art project Fleeting Territories, resulting from the project Mapping Malta I- II, which took place in 2018. In the connection of the two actually opposing terms “fleeting” and “territory”, the Fleeting Territories collective see spatial coordinates not simply as stable or fixed values, but rather as aiding in the identification and negotiation of [in]visible mechanisms, which in turn organise and shape cities,
land[scapes], human and more-than-human interconnections. Rights, laws, politics, and economies, as well as emotions play a central role in the appropriation of territories.
Glen Calleja – PUPAE – €15,000
This proposal will culminate in an exhibition, a publication and a series of workshops. Pupae is a development upon a project titled KIN, whose objective was to create a collection of some 40 hand-made dolls and the stories about them, to the general public, through an exhibition and a bilingual catalogue. During the exhibition, two workshops will be held featuring the process of creation as well as the reflection of the doll as an object of anthropological interest. The exhibition is aimed to be held at Spazju Kreattiv’s Upper Galleries and form part of the organisation’s official artistic programme.
Christopher Gatt – Decameron 10 stories, 10 journeys – €7,550
Based on 'The Decameron', this is a promenade performance that makes full use of the Manoel Theatre and its environs with a live performance whilst sticking to the current COVID-19 regulations. The framework of the original concept of
the Decameron was that of a group of 10 people (six women and 4 men) who have 'exiled' themselves to a country house whilst waiting for the plague to pass. Whilst under lockdown they entertained themselves by each of them telling a new story over 10 ten nights. Therefore ten stories in 10 nights.
Veronique Vella – Project Hold – €3,120
'Project Hold' will result in an original music album of the experimental/electro-acoustic/ambient musical genre or aesthetic - one which, has so far, been largely neglected by local composers. The album will offer its audience a unique
and original sonic experience. It will be an “emotional time capsule in music”, documenting the COVID-19 pandemic through different women’s perspectives. This will be achieved through the use of female voice samples, extracted from
recordings made by participants. These volunteers will each offer their own distinctive perspective on a shared experience - the current pandemic.
Gabriel Zammit – Darkness at Noon - €14,000
‘Darkness at Noon’ as a collective exhibition will showcase the work of three Maltese artists; ceramist Paul Scerri, photographer Charles Balzan and painter Gabriel Buttigieg. These three artists have been chosen as their work is
radically different in terms of form and style, yet it plumbs the same sphere of human experience and will thus be brought into dialogue under the concept of the uncanny. The project will culminate in an exhibition at ‘The Splendid’ in Valletta, as well as a catalogue detailing the exhibition concept from an intellectual-curatorial angle. This venue was chosen because of its symbolic importance as well as its atmosphere. The publication will feature essays on the uncanny within the context of the art on display by (tentatively) Clive Zammit and Niki Young as well as Lara Zammit and Giulia Privitelli.
Antje Liemann – LIGHT IS TIME THINKING ABOUT ITSELF – €5,530
The applicant proposes a hands-on project-exhibition, culminating in a solo exhibition to form part of the MUŻA programme and will be held from November 5th until December 20th, 2020 within the Community Space plus Corridors
at MUŻA - The Malta National Community Art Museum. Antje Liemann will, over a period of three months, work with a group of diverse and specialised individuals from Malta to develop their vision of possible post-covid futures. The artist
takes our current situation of lockdown as absurdity – what has become accepted as ‘normal life’ in a very short space of time, would have been unimaginable only a few months ago. Antje Liemann wants to use this feeling as a starting point
for the project’s concept.