As the national centre for creativity has just launched its new season’s programme, Ramona Depares catches up with Toni Sant to find out about the highlights.
Can you give us an overview of the main strands that the new programme will be focusing on?
After a number of years of planning it, we have now launched ŻiguŻajg is-Sena Kollha! This means that the Spazju Kreattiv children’s programme (which includes activities for young people and families) is now integrated into the ŻiguŻajg brand. The ŻiguŻajg Festival will still be held as usual in November, but we have a year’s worth of ŻiguŻajg events.
We’re also continuing with Contemporary Visual Arts as a major strand in our programme. This is evident from the Video Vortex exhibition held throughout September and most of October, which ties in with the conference by the same name taking place during the last weekend of September.
Later, we’ll be exhibiting work by Ding Li, a contemporary artist from China, which will lead us to the 2020 edition of Art+Feminism in collaboration with Wikimedia Community Malta. This strand will also include a retrospective of significant works by Caesar Attard from the 1970s called Foreshadowing the Future, focusing on the earliest Maltese examples of what we now call contemporary art that involve installations, artist’s books and performance art.
One other thing to keep in mind is that we’ll soon be celebrating 20 years since the establishment of a National Centre for Creativity at St James Cavalier. So we’re ramping up for an anniversary celebration starting from December 2019 leading up to September 2020.
Other strands include our performance programme, cinema screenings, and artists’ residency.
How important do you feel it is for the programme to continue pushing the boundaries of what are perceived as ‘artistic events’?
When I first became the artistic director of what we now call Spazju Kreattiv, I continuously pointed out that our focus was on creativity rather than artistic events. In Malta, and perhaps even beyond, we tend to conflate creativity, art, and culture.
They’re very closely related, and we certainly think of them as a continuum of sorts rather than separate concepts. The way we do this is to ensure we don’t only work with conventional forms but explore interdisciplinary possibilities as well as emerging forms whenever possible.
We’ll soon be celebrating 20 years since the establishment of a National Centre for Creativity at St James Cavalier
This is why we work closely with the Malta Chamber of Scientists, or Wikimedia for example. This is also why we dedicate considerable attention to archiving and aspects of cultural heritage.
Will the new programme be including a number of emerging artists?
Yes, this is always an important aspect of the Spazju Kreattiv programme. This year I am particularly pleased that we are co-producing a new Maltese-language play by Kurt Meli, an emerging writer who won the last MADC One-Act-Play Festival.
We are also staging a new version of Teatru Malta’s repertoire work Panto in the Dark, with Marta Vella and Vikesh Godhwani, entitled L-Imbuljuta, this December. We are also rather excited about a collaboration we’re fostering with between two emerging visual artists – Matthew Schembri and Thomas Scerri – who jointly won last year’s Agenzija Żgħażagħ contest for emerging visual artists. Still, the largest opportunity for emerging artists is arguably the ICA Festival we co-produce with Mcast in June/July.
Will the programme include opportunities for collaborations between local and international artists?
Over the past year or two we’ve stepped up our international collaborations, especially by ensuring we provide opportunities for Maltese artists to show their work overseas as part of the Spazju Kreattiv programme.
Aside from the exhibition held at the European Court of Auditors in Luxembourg, there’s also the participation of ten artists from the Spazju Kreattiv programme in the Ostrale 2019 Contemporary Art Biennale, which just came to a close in Dresden a few days ago. Some of these same artists will now be exhibiting in Rijeka, Croatia, as part of the 2020 European Capital of Culture programme.
We’re also hoping to extend collaborations with American artists through the US Embassy in Malta. Another opportunity on our programme for international collaborations is with artists who come to Malta on our Artists’ Residency programme, which now continues in collaboration with the Valletta Design Cluster, Aġenzija Żgħażagħ, and the Gozo Ministry.
From your point of view, what is the endgame of the annual programme – as in, what do you hope is the legacy every year?
I like to think that providing a space for ongoing creative activities is what distinguishes Spazju Kreattiv from most other cultural organisations. While we certainly remain production-driven we also aim to string together a programme that builds on existing working relationships while also ensuring we’re as inclusive as possible.
Our inclusivity refers to both the audiences we aim to attract and serve, as well as the various types of operators within the very broadly defined creative sector.