Being an island has never had such resonating meanings. Island frontiers are the natural borders of the seashore that keep them detached from the rest of the world and easier to close in times of pandemics. The sea often washes ashore threats and opportunities, yields forth resources for the community needs and continuously shapes and informs their way of living.

The main exhibition of the Maltese presidency of the Council of Europe in February 2017, at the BOZAR Centre for Fine Arts in Brussels, sought to present this complex relationship between land and sea, with Malta as the subject. 

Malta. Land of Sea presented Malta as a territory of land and sea, with a history inspired by the ways and means through which the two connect and merge, overlap and retreat.

The unusual selection of objects and artworks, deliberately chosen to bridge land and sea, were featured within a sequential narrative of dialogues. The contents of each cluster, and each cluster of works, were connected and cross-referenced to create a table of elements, some of which remain, as yet, unknown and elusive.

Photo: Martina Cutajar

Rather than a chronology of objects presenting the history of Malta, the exhibition narrative showcased a re-engineered chronology by dislocating and reconnecting heritage objects with purposely commissioned interactive sound and text installations by Maltese artists Pierre Portelli and Austin Camilleri.

The exhibition catalogue featured essays with a focus on the dialectic between land and sea and catalogue entries for each work of art, object, document and artefact on display.

Now, a second edition of this catalogue has been published by Midsea Books. Edited by Sandro Debono, this publication features most of the content of the first edition but rethought akin to a documentation project.

Second editions of exhibition catalogues are a rare occurrence

Additions include photographic documentation of the exhibition itself, curatorial notes and commentaries on the design concept and an essay by architect Tom Van Malderen on the exhibition design itself.

The preface and foreword have been written by President George Vella and Prof. David Abulafia, author of key reference publications about the Mediterranean and its histories, who acknowledged the exhibition as being “highly original and thought-provoking”.

Photo: Martina Cutajar

The cover features a detail from a watercolour painting by British 19th-century artist Edward Lear which is found at Palazzo Falson Historic House Museum in Mdina.

Second editions of exhibition catalogues are a rare occurrence, making this work an unusual development in the history of Maltese publications.

Besides being a fitting memento to the original project from concept stage to implementation, this edition should serve the purpose of a reference publication for new ways at looking at Maltese material culture and history, through a broad selection of works, objects and works of art from Maltese national, ecclesiastic and private museums, historic houses and archives.

The publication is on sale at leading bookshops and book distributors’ websites.

Photo: Martina Cutajar