Art historian ROMINA DELIA relays the history of Malta’s participation in the prestigious international arts exhibition.

Every two years, Venice is transformed into a floating festival of contemporary art, bringing together some of the world’s best curators, artists and critics, as well as thousands of journalists. Over 90 countries from around the world take part in the international art exhibition during the Biennale di Venezia – an event that has often been described as the “Olympics of the Art World”.

During the event’s six months, Venice is transformed into a sprawling celebration of contemporary art, hosting themed art shows and performances, while also providing access to some of the city’s most historic and sometimes off-limits palazzos.

'Barca Nostra' by Christoph Büchel, exhibited in the Arsenale during the 2109 edition of the Venice Biennale.

Malta participated in 1958 and in 1999, and eventually, after an absence of 17 years, Malta returned to the Biennale di Venezia in 2017 with its national pavilion located in a central location in the Arsenale, commissioned by Arts Council Malta. It has since then participated also in 2019 and is now eagerly looking forward to participate in the 2022 edition.

Brief history of the Venice Biennale

Ever since the Biennale di Venezia was launched in 1895, countries from all over the world have offered the opportunity for

curators and artists to showcase their ideas in national pavilions. Various well-known artists have had their works displayed at the Biennale along the years. For example, in 1910 there was a room dedicated to Gustav Klimt, a one-man show for Renoir, and a retrospective of Courbet.

Venice Biennale 2019 catalogue cover

In the 1930s, new festivals were also born, namely for music, cinema and theatre. The 1940s saw works of various well-known contemporary artists being exhibited, including works by Chagall, Klee, Braque, Picasso and Magritte. Abstract Expressionism was introduced in the 1950s.

The Biennale di Venezia is also credited with importing Pop Art into the canon of art history by awarding the top prize to the American artist Robert Rauschenberg in 1964. In 1980, the first International Architecture Exhibition took place, and in 1999, dance debuted at the Biennale di Venezia.

Malta at the Venice Biennale

The Biennale in 1958 hosted a special exhibition of seven Maltese artists, namely Antoine Camilleri, Carmenu Mangion, Frank Portelli, Emvin Cremona, Hugo Carbonaro, Josef Kalleya and Oliver Agius. In 1999, Malta commissioned its national pavilion, curated by Adrian Bartolo, who at the time was one of the curators of the National Museum of Fine Arts in Valletta.

The chosen participating artists were Vince Briffa, Norbert Attard, and Ray Pitrè – all of which exhibited works reflecting on the philosophical concept of time.

Street scene in Venice during the Biennale of 2019.

Vince Briffa presented Hermes, a video collage depicting biological time and its effects on humans, taking his cue from the Genesis narrative in which Man was fashioned from the soil – with the soil becoming the symbol of Man’s nemesis.

Norbert Attard presented Larger than Life, an installation which also drew upon the concept of time, reinterpreting the Baroque past and its dramatic influences on the present, while Ray Pitrè exhibited his mixed media sculpture entitled Guerriero consisting of twisted steel sculptures, which were actual remnants of the last war, representing timeless reflections of the violence perpetrated throughout history.

‘Annalisa’ by Darren Tanti, one of the artworks exhibited at the Malta Pavilion in Venice in 2017.

After a 17-year absence, Arts Council Malta commissioned Raphael Vella and Bettina Hutschek to curate the Malta pavilion in 2017. The pavilion marked Malta’s return to Venice, and its return also coincided with Malta’s presidency of the Council of the EU in 2017, and the build-up to Valletta’s role as European Capital of Culture in 2018.

The conceptual exhibition Homo Melitensis: An incomplete inventory in 19 chapters resulted in a spirited, often provocative address of Maltese cultural identity, history, religion, myths and politics, expressed through over 200 items of ephemera and historical artefacts and contemporary artists from Malta and from the Maltese diaspora.

The featured artists included Aaron Bezzina, Adrian Abela, Austin Camilleri, Darren Tanti, David Pisani, Gilbert Calleja, Joe Sacco, John Paul Azzopardi, Karine Rougier, Maurice Tanti Burlò, aka Nalizpelra, Pia Borg, Roxman Gatt and Teresa Sciberras.

The Culture Trip listed it as one of “The 10 National Pavilions You Can’t Miss at the Venice Biennale”, while Karen Gardiner, writing for American art journal, Hyperallergic, said “Malta’s pavilion offers a sense of the tiny nation interrogating itself as it steps onto the international stage”. She explained how “the country is an amalgam of cultures and influences”, and how that complexity was examined at the Malta pavilion.

Art installation exhibited in one of the past editions.

US style title Paste Magazine listed the Malta pavilion as one of the best shows to see and described the pavilion as “...a kind of mini museum filled with contemporary artworks and historical artifacts... The displayed items range from the serious (religious iconography) to the absurd (a box of Maltesers candy).

Two years later, the Malta pavilion, also commissioned by Arts Council Malta, was singled out by the prestigious Christie’s international art magazine for its “Pick of the Pavilions” at the 2019 edition of the Biennale.

Titled Maleth/Haven/Port – Heterotopias of Evocation, the Malta pavilion, curated by Hesperia Iliadou Suppiej, was also among the 25 national exhibits named by leading arts magazine Frieze as “the best on view in Venice” for that year – out of more than 95 pavilions present at the event. The exhibiting artists were Vince Briffa, Trevor Borg and Klitsa Antoniou.

Around 600,000 people visit the Biennale in every edition, and over 5,200 registered journalists attended the pre-opening week in 2019, on top of other journalists who registered as press throughout the opening period.

The project representing Malta at the 2022 edition of the Venice Biennale is entitled Diplomazija astuta and it is being curated by Keith Sciberras and the New York-based curator Jeffrey Uslip.

'The Beheading of St John the Baptist' by Caravaggio, St Johns Co- Cathedral, Malta.

The participating artists are Arcangelo Sassolino, Giuseppe Schembri Bonaci and composer Brian Schembri.

They plan to re-articulate Caravaggio’s seminal altarpiece The Beheading of St John the Baptist (1608) as a contemporary, immersive, kinetic, sculptural installation.

The Malta Pavilion is once again being commissioned by Arts Council Malta and the opening dates of the exhibition are April 23 till November 27. The location is at the Arsenale in Venice.