MUSIC
Strummin’ Round the World
The 18th edition of the charity concert is back in aid of the Smiling with Jerome Foundation.
The concert, which features a band accompanied by a guitar choir which strums along to popular songs, is being held today and tomorrow at the St Agatha Auditorium in Rabat at 8pm. Doors open at 7.30pm. For tickets and more information, visit https://strummin.mt and the Stummin’ Foundation Facebook page.
Defected Malta
Defected Records, a British independent record label specialising in house music recordings, compilation albums and events, are organising a house music festival at various venues across Malta between tomorrow and Sunday. There will be club shows, boat parties and events at off-the-grid locations.
The line-up includes household headline acts alongside the rising stars of the scene and underground names. These include Kerri Chandler, DJ Fat Tony, Sam Divine, Dan Shake, Chicago legend Jamie 3:26, Todd Edwards, Natasha Diggs, Shapeshifters, Gorgon City and Basement Jaxx.
For more information and tickets, visit defected.com/malta.
ARTS FESTIVALS
Birgufest
The Vittoriosa local council is once again organising the popular Birgufest this weekend after a two-year break due to the pandemic.
The event will kick off today with a performance by the progressive rock band Tea Crisis at 7.30pm and by Fakawi at 10pm on the main stage at Vittoriosa Main Square.
The programme's highlight takes place tomorrow evening when street lights will be turned off and the locality will be lit up with thousands of candles.
There will be various performances in different venues across the city, including by DCapitals and Geo Debono Band at St John's Tower, a sacred music concert by Alex Vella Gregory at St Lawrence Conventual and Collegiate Church. The main stage will host Karin Duff, Bernie and Pod and The Travellers.
There will also be fire performances, an artistan market, medieval re-enactors, a short film festival and an infiorata by the Vignanello local council of Italy.
Various places of interest will be open this weekend, including the Auberge de France, the Norman House and the convent and cloister of the Dominican Friars.
Fort St Angelo and the Inquisitor's Palace, which also includes the National Museum of Ethnography, will be open until midnight tonight and tomorrow with a reduced entrance free.
The Malta at War Museum at Couvre Porte is also extending its regular opening hours. Currently, the museum is hosting an exhibition about Operation Pedestal.
On Sunday, there will be an Inguardia parade between 10.30am and noon.
For more information, visit the Vittoriosa local council Facebook page.
Birgufest officially opens tonight but the main highlight will be tomorrow when the city will be lit up with thousands of candles. Photo: Shutterstock.comVISUAL 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.
Some of the illustrations forming part of Daniela Attard's exhibition Dying Planet. Photo: Facebook/Spazju KreattivWillie 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 21. 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.
One of Joseph Farrugia's works on display at Bureau Iniala. Photo: Facebook/Marie Gallery 5Thread
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.
Resonances
An exhibition by the late maestro Pawlu Grech is opening today in Rabat.
From an early age, Grech showed proficiency both for music and for the visual arts. It was a twinned passion that was to persist throughout his life. This exhibition celebrates both sides of Grech, its title Resonances evoking the characteristics of both his music and visual art.
The exhibition, organised by Amanda Tabone, is part of an initiative managed by the Malta Council for the Voluntary Sector 'Art for VOs' and will be in aid of Animal Guardian, Cat Sanctuary, Luqa.
It is being hosted by The Volunteer Centre, St Bartholomew Street, Rabat, until October 22. It is open from Tuesdays to Saturdays from 6 to 9pm and on Sundays from 10am to 1pm. Consult the event’s Facebook page for more information.
Bones (1968) by Pawlu Grech150 / 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.
Essence
A solo exhibition of contemporary realistic works in oil by Christine Porter Lofaro is open at the Malta Society of Arts at Palazzo de la Salle in Valletta.
The artist portrays observations, emotions and narratives as she strives to present our transitory presence in this world, its intensity and how much it matters.
The exibition runs until October 27. Opening hours: Monday to Friday from 8am to 7pm and on Saturdays from 9am to 1pm. For more information, click here.
Landmarks
Artist Fabio Borg is holding his eighth solo exhibition throughout the month of October at The Phoenicia, in Floriana.
Borg construed his 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.
Tra cielo e terra by Fabio BorgFuq 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.
Manoel Island, Here We Come by Paul CarunaIt'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
Pastorianum by Anna DumitriuInternationally 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 taking place 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.
A Phoenician sarcophagus discovered last year is a main attraction of an exhibition at the Archaeology Museum in Valletta. Photo: Heritage MaltaDumnikani 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 weekly from Tuesday to Sunday from 9am to 4.30pm. Tonight, the palace is open till midnight with a reduced admission fee on the occasion of BirguFest.