Malta Biennale makes history with prison inmates among participating artists

This year’s Malta Biennale will feature 130 artists from around the world, including inmates from Malta’s correctional facility, marking a historic first for the festival.

Around 10 inmates will be participating in a pavilion titled Floating Fragments, which will be housed at the Old Armoury in Vittoriosa. The participating inmates come from several different nationalities. The pavilion is curated by Prof. Rolf Laven, an academic based in Vienna.

“This is the first time in history that a biennale has inmates as artists,” the president of the Malta Biennale and chairman of Heritage Malta, Mario Cutajar, said.

He added the project would extend beyond the exhibition space itself.

“They will not be exhibiting just in the armoury but also exhibiting their research within the prison itself. So there will be events happening on both ends and parallel with each other,” Cutajar said.

The initiative follows a growing international interest in engaging prisons within major cultural events. During the 2024 Venice Biennale, the Giudecca women’s prison was used for the Vatican Pavilion and featured inmates as tour guides. The artist behind that project was the well-known Italian sculptor Maurizio Cattelan.

Speaking during Thursday’s press conference, Cutajar announced that Cattelan will also be among the artists featured in this year’s Malta Biennale.

Cattelan is known for satirical and hyperrealistic sculptures and installation works. Among his most famous pieces are La Nona Ora, a sculpture depicting Pope John Paul II struck by a meteorite, and America, a fully functioning golden toilet.

Cutajar also said the anonymous feminist art collective Guerrilla Girls will be attending the biennale.

The Malta Biennale will have its official opening on March 10 and will open to the public on March 14. It will run until May 29.

The art festival is curated by Rosa Martínez, a respected Spanish curator who has organised her own biennales and served as director of the 51st Venice Biennale. 

Events will be spread across 11 Heritage Malta venues, with a particular focus on Valletta and Vittoriosa in Malta, as well as Xagħra and Victoria in Gozo.

A total of 27 pavilions will be featured. Eight of these are national pavilions representing France, Serbia, China, Armenia, Finland, Spain, Poland and Malta. Organisers noted that national pavilions may include artists from countries other than the one they represent. The remaining pavilions are thematic.

The Maltese Pavilion will be hosted at MUŻA, which Cutajar described as the “home of the Malta Biennale”. Titled Wonderland: Kaos Kontemporanju, the pavilion will feature works by Gulja Holland, Roderick Camilleri, Vince Briffa and Pierre Portelli. It will be curated by Katya Micallef.

Addressing the scale of international interest in the event, Culture Minister Owen Bonnici said that over 3200 applications from 122 different countries were submitted to the Malta Biennale 2026, out of which, 40 projects were selected.

In addition to the main exhibitions and pavilions, the biennale will host more than 80 educational activities for people of all ages, as well as 12 satellite events.

The Malta Biennale is being held under the patronage of the President of Malta, Myriam Spiteri Debono.

Malta was also listed by Artsy, a global online art platform, as one of the top seven art destinations for 2026. In its assessment, the platform described Malta as an "emerging Mediterranean art hub worthy of international attention.” Other destinations listed included Venice and Sydney.