Surrealist artist Max Ernst once said: “Creativity is that marvellous capacity to grasp mutually distinct realities and draw a spark from their juxtaposition.” This is the basis of the concept behind Gozitan multidiscipli­nary artist Victor Agius’s current exhibition at Il-Ħaġar Museum in Victoria, very eloquently titled In Dialogue.

Through a significant research process, the artist sought to gather visual information from the artefacts that are the soul of this museum. He subsequently created new artworks and superimposed existing works that act as conversation pieces in themselves. This relates on many levels to specific pieces that are intrinsic to this exhibiting space, its volumes occupied by an established permanent collection, one that documents the history of the sister island, its archaeology, anthropology, religion, folklore and so much more.

Currently, in six Parisian museums, somehow mirroring to some extent the juxtaposition concept behind this Gozitan exhibition, the work of celebrated fashion designer, the late Yves Saint Laurent, is tasked to create dialogues between artefacts and art works, hosted in these famous shrines of world art.

However, unlike Agius’s case, the conversation is one between objects that already exist – there was no in situ creative process, thereby resulting in a somewhat forced contrived exercise to establish dialogue between artefacts.

The Gozitan artist’s site-specific work does not encounter this shortcoming as, unlike Saint Laurent, who passed away in 2008, Agius is directly involved in the creative process, evaluating the DNA of the space as expressed by the exhibition curator Elyse Tonna’s words: “In Dialogue intersects the museum’s thematics mediating ancestral narratives, intervening in time and creating connections between past and present.”

Agius embarked on this project while having the pandemic as its backdrop. His traditional themes intrinsically concerned with his birthplace Xagħra and the

Neolithic site of Ġgantija figure predominantly in his artistic expression – the materic earthy quality of his ceramic and mixed media sculptures and reliefs relate to the narratives of our prehistoric ancestors. Their rites, their traditions, their dependence on stone, released from the innards of the ground they cultivated – all these are themes that are central to the Gozitan artist’s artistic ethos.

Tonna revealingly explains: “Sensitively reflecting upon the dire uncertainty posed by the ongoing pandemic, the artist willingly subjected himself to the lingering, placid aura given off by the site at night, producing in situ works while reconnecting with his roots.”

The architecture on four levels of Il-Ħaġar museum itself, each of which dedicated to different aspects of Gozitan history, has indicated the thematic sub-divisions of the exhibition and suggested self-explanatory titles.

The exhibition is an invitation to deepen our understanding in ways of seeing

The reception level deals with the concepts related to geological strata and the quarried material that went into the construction of Ġgantija Temples themselves.

It reveals the four-year, in-depth artistic process of ħaġarna: a public sculpture located in Xagħra. At the lowest level of the museum, the artist investigates the properties and the attributes of a clay, soil, rock and roots and other basic material as artistic media and comes up with novel art works that relate to this.

The level entitled Splendour is dedicated to the ostentatiousness of artefacts related to Roman Catholic rites and places of worship. Through his Ritwal – Ġgantija, Agius dwells on the contrasts that one of his pieces elicits, in conversation with the decorative excesses of artefacts like St George’s Reliquary and the Church Father’s Chalice and Paten. The latter are accessories to spiritual rites, mirroring the idea behind the Gozitan artist’s shamanistic creations.

The level attributed to Matter and Form relates to concepts much dear and at the heart of the Gozitan artist’s output. With its bevy of Baroque carved frames and intricate motifs enhancing the art works they enclose, the artist was exposed to narratives that fluidify stylisation and dissolve matter and form into idiosyncratic new anecdotes. Using the medium of cement, he created dialogue with Stefano Erardi’s large altarpiece of St Paul. St Paul’s Islands have become transformed and engulfed by concrete towers and monuments idolising soulless cement. Agius’s video Sublime Landscapes relates to the callous disfigurement of our country.

The level entitled Figures is one populated by effigies of saints and religious figures. Some of them recall their stories of martyrdom and heroics in the face of the indignity of torture and death and transformed into the posterity of sainthood. The figure of Mary, the Mother of God, is central to our beliefs; Agius focuses on the mother figure, also in relation to primordial matriarchal societies at the heart of our country’s prehistory, as defined by the goddess figure, be it sleeping, sitting or crouching. In curator Tonna’s words: “The focus of this contemporary practice [on this level of the exhibition] orbits around the mother figure.” He has created a number of site-specific works that relate to this and are in conversation with the museum pieces in the permanent collection.

In Dialogue is an exhibition primarily concerned with dualities, with the exchange of ‘words’ and ideas. “The exhibition is an invitation to deepen our understanding in ways of seeing,” Tonna says. At times when our sight has lost its clarity and our reason has been upstaged by senseless demagogy, Agius invites us to rediscover our roots and ask some questions.

In Dialogue, curated by Elyse Tonna and hosted by Victoria’s Il-Ħaġar Museum, is open until March 8 from Monday to Sunday from 9am to 5pm. Consult the museum’s Facebook page for details of ‘Meet the Artist’ events and the catalogue.