FILM

Mayerling

The Eden Cinemas in St Julian's is screening the ballet Mayerling live from London’s Royal Opera House tonight at 8.15pm.

The opera house is marking 30 years since the death of choreographer Kenneth MacMillan with a revival of his 1978 ballet, which is inspired by dark and gripping real-life events.

Mayerling, featuring music by Frans Liszt and set during the oppressive glamour of the Austro-Hungarian court in the 1880s, depicts the sexual and morbid obsessions of Crown Prince Rudolf, which lead to the murder-suicide scandal with his mistress Mary Vetsera. 

There will be an encore of the ballet, certified PG, on Sunday, October 9 at 3pm. For tickets, click here. 

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MISCELLANEOUS EVENTS

Inner Demons − Readings from an unpublished book by Angela Bettoni

Angela Bettoni, a 21-year-old writer and performer with Down syndrome, will read excerpts from her upcoming young adult novel at the Concert Hall of the Malta Society of Arts in Valletta today at 7.30pm.

Bettoni is one of the four recipients of the 2021/22 Artivisti award by Arts Council Malta and Aġenzija Żgħażagħ. Her Artivisti vision is to break down society’s assumptions about what we think is normal and what we think is different. She has been working under the mentorship of author Clare Azzopardi on Inner Demons for her Artivisti project. 

During the event, Bettoni will be joined by Lorraine Aquilina, artistic director of the School of Performing Arts, and SOPA students, as well as members of the Opening Doors Association’s theatre groups.

Author Leanne Ellul will provide a review of the manuscript, followed by a discussion with Bettoni and Azzopardi facilitated by Toni Attard. 

Entrance is free by invitation/registration. E-mail info@cultureventure.org for more information.

Working with Adolescents and Families to Address Problematic Substance Use

Caritas Malta and The Association for Child and Adolescent Mental Health - ACAMH Malta are today holding a seminar to discuss ways of managing problematic use of substance in adolescents and the impact this has on their families.

Guest speaker Dorothy Newbury-Birch will tackle the question: ‘What do we know about the effectiveness of alcohol interventions for young people?’

The event is being held at 5.30pm at the Caritas Community Centre in Mountbatten Street, Ħamrun. Registration and refreshments will be provided from 5.30 to 6pm. A €10 donation will be collected at the door. To register, send an e-mail with your details on malta@acamh.org.

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VISUAL ARTS

Dying Planet

Illustrator, designer and visual London-based artist ‘iella’ (Daniela Attard) is presenting a body of illustration work and paintings focusing on climate anxiety and existential dread at Spazju Kreattiv in Valletta.

The artworks on display focus on the global impact of climate change with some reference to local issues and include strange figurative work and characters which serve as modern allegories.

The exhibition runs until Sunday, October 9. For more information, visit www.kreattivita.org. 

More insight into the exhibition is available here.

Willie Apap – Colour and Light 

A retrospective exhibition of works by Willie Apap (1918-1970), considered one of Malta’s leading exponents of 20th-century art, is currently on at Il-Ħaġar – Heart of Gozo Museum in Victoria.

The 70 works on display feature portraits, landscapes and still-lifes, dancers, human figures, sacred and ethnic works in oils and inks, and are accompanied by a lavish 100-page GEMS # 20 catalogue.

The exhibition, curated by Maria Cassar, runs until October 10. Opening hours are from Monday to Sunday from 9am to 5pm. Entrance is free.

The exhibition is supported by the Malta Tourism Authority and the Gozo Ministry’s Cultural Directorate. For more information, visit the museum’s Facebook page.

Read the Times of Malta interview with the exhibition's curator Maria Cassar here.

Residue

A solo exhibition by Joseph Farrugia is open at Bureau Iniala in Valletta.

Residue explores the definition of man's existence, through particles, negative spaces, generations, and the residuals we leave behind.

The exhibition, organised by Marie Gallery 5 and curated by Maria Galea, runs until October 12. Bureau Iniala is open from Monday to Friday from 9.30am to 5pm and on Saturday and Sunday for private viewings only.

Visit the event's Facebook page for more info.

Thread

A collective exhibition by Ebru Çinar, Stefan Spiteri and Bernice Vassallo is currently on at Il-Kamra ta' Fuq in Mqabba.

The three artists experiment a lot in the use of thread in their oeuvre. Apart from this medium, they are also bound by the thematic of nature and organic forms which are almost always present in their works.

The exhibition, curated by Art Sweven, runs until October 17. The gallery is open from Mondays to Saturdays from 6am to noon and on Sundays from 7am to noon. More evening hours are announced weekly on Il-Kamra ta' Fuq Facebook page.

150 / Richard Ellis

The Richard Ellis Archive, consisting of 39,000+ glass negatives documenting the period in Malta and Gozo between 1861 and 1938, has been digitised in archival-grade quality for the first time in its history. 

The British-Maltese photographer (January 1842-December 1924) was one of the pioneers of photography in Malta during the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Thirty large prints taken from his archive are currently on display at Spazju Kreattiv, Valletta, until October 23.

The exhibition is curated by Charles Paul Azzopardi and Ian Ellis. For more information, click here.

One may also read the Times of Malta interview with the collection's owner.

Landmarks

Artist Fabio Borg is holding his eighth solo exhibition throughout the month of October at The Phoenicia, in Floriana.

Borg construed this collection of abstract landscapes, tilted Landmarks, as innate emotions being expressed onto canvas and painted by instinct. The paintings, therefore, become emotional landmarks that Borg invites the viewer to partake in.

Borg is sensitive to his surroundings and trees, or the seeming lack thereof, is one such issue often a topic of heated discussions. Therefore, these compositions, largely produced in the last two years, trees are the main protagonists in an idealised reinterpretation of nature.

Landmarks, on display at The Phoenicia's Palm Court Lounge, is curated by Charlene Vella.

Fuq Tlieta

Camilleri Paris Mode of Rabat is hosting an exhibition of paintings by three Maltese artists – Pawl Carbonaro, Jesmond Vassallo and Paul Camilleri.

Carbonaro is one of Malta’s foremost veteran artists, who is famous for his abstracts and semi-abstracted landscapes; Vassallo has a very varied oeuvre, ranging from landscapes to nudes to still lifes; while Camilleri is exhibiting his tactile abstracts that fit well with the works of the other two artists.

Fuq Tlieta is open until the end of October. Log on to the Camilleri Paris Mode Facebook page for more information.

Funny How Time….

Artist Paul Caruana is showing his latest collection of works at Gemelli Framing in Ta' Qali until October 30.

Through a series of poignant watercolours, most of which have origins in the artist’s own biography, Caruana invites us to dwell on the past and learn lessons to alter the present so that the future might be worth living.

The exhibition runs until October 30. Consult the event’s Facebook page for opening hours.

Read the Times of Malta interview with the artist here.

It's 5 o'Clock Somewhere − A Collective Art Exhibition Exploring Guilty Pleasures 

A collective exhibition, being held at BOHO Boutique Hotel in Cospicua, is inspired by the famous phrase used when one craves an alcoholic drink at 10am, and to the sting of a guilty conscience, one declares that it is 5 o'clock somewhere in the world. 

The participating artists, Aaron Bezzina, Daniel Borg, Roderick Camilleri, Debbie Caruana Dingli, Rupert Cefai, Antoine Farrugia, Karl Froman, Lawrence Pavia, Amelia Saint George, Mario Sammut and Darren Tanti, are portraying such instances they have encountered during their artistic career.

The exhibition, curated by Melanie Erixon, runs until October 30. It is open daily from 10.30am till 1.30pm and on Wednesdays also from 7pm to 10pm. Click here for more information.

Architecture Student Expo 2022

A celebration of everything the Faculty for the Built Environment at the University of Malta does, is taking place at Spazju Kreattiv in Valletta.

The Architecture Student Expo is also an opportunity for the creativity of students and their ideas of future spaces and structures to be communicated to society through designs, sketches, digital graphics and architectural models.

The expo runs until October 30. For more information, visit the event’s Facebook page and kreattivita.org.

BioArt Alchemy: Works by Anna Dumitriu

Internationally renowned British bioartist Anna Dumitriu is exhibiting for the first time at Spazju Kreattiv in Valletta.

The artist uses bioart, sculpture, installation and digital media to explore a range of topics, from the origins of society to the sustainable production of biodegradable plastic, cutting-edge genetics and the possibility of bacterially-enhanced super-humans.

The project, a commission of Spazju Kreattiv, features a collaboration with artist Alex May. It is supported by Esplora Interactive Science Centre and Science in the City, Malta.

BioArt Alchemy runs until October 30. For more information, click here.

Groundwaters

A collective exhibition featuring outsider art – an umbrella term coined for individuals producing art outside the culturally established centres – is being held at Valletta Contemporary Gallery.

Titled Groundwaters, this exhibition is the first one in Malta to explore the perspectives of individuals who are somewhat marginalised, through their own design or otherwise, and who create work on the fringes of the mainstream. 

Curated by Gabriel Zammit, it features the works of Anonymous, Emma Attard, Adrian Camilleri, William Driscoll, Emma Johnson, Salvina Muscat and Joe Vassallo. It includes ex-voto paintings, West African Bocio fetish dolls and other objects which have their roots in religion, magic and ritual.

The exhibition runs until November 12. Opening hours: Wednesday to Sunday from 2 to 7pm. For more information, visit www.vallettacontemporary.com/.

OTHER EXHIBITIONS

Meet the Phoenicians of Malta

A Phoenician stone sarcophagus excavated last year at Għajn Klieb, on the outskirts of Rabat, is one of the major attractions of an exhibition at the National Museum of Archaeology in Valletta.

The exhibition brings to light the results of months of painstaking studies by a multidisciplinary team researching the sarcophagus and two other tombs discovered in the area, as well as their contents. The three tombs, although inherently different, shed light on the burial rituals of the earliest Phoenicians on the island.

The exhibition runs until October 30. The museum in Republic Street, Valletta, is open from Monday to Sunday from 9am to 4.30pm. Entrance to the exhibition is free of charge.

Dumnikani fil-Palazz: Home & Temple

An exhibition at the Inquisitor's Palace in Vittoriosa tells of the special relationship between the palace and the neighbouring Dominican Order, especially in the post-war years.

Enemy war bombing in 1941 had left the Dominican community without a convent and a church, and they found temporary refuge beyond Vittoriosa. But they were called back by the need to fulfil their spiritual and educational mission among their people.

Eighty years ago, in August 1942, the Dominicans asked for temporary shelter at the Inquisitor’s Palace and, for almost two decades, the palace became the community’s home and temple.

The exhibition runs until January 8. The Inquisitor's Palace is open from Tuesday to Sunday from 9am to 4.30pm. 

whatson@timesofmalta.com