A bronze monument honouring Maltese literary icon Oliver Friggieri has been unveiled in Floriana, where the author and thinker was born and raised.

The monument, by artist John Grima, does not offer a traditional life-size replica of the likeness of the subject it seeks to commemorate.

Instead, it honours Friggieri by building on his legacy  - and provoking thought in the name of art.

“I wanted to create something that causes a viewer to ask questions. This was never just about creating a physical copy of Oliver Friggieri. It was never about replicating his body. It had to be something more thought-provoking – just like Friggieri was,” said Grima.

Oliver Friggieri's monument seen in daylight.

Grima was commissioned to create the monument after winning a competition held by Heritage Malta after Friggieri died on November 21, 2020, at the age of 73.

The competition left the design of the statue up to the participating artists who were also able to propose a location for the monument.

As images of Grima’s draft sculpture were made public, many criticised it for its abstract element.

The main issue was that the sculpture depicted a hollow body rather than a real-life duplicate of Friggieri – a person still very fresh in the nation’s memory.

Thought-provoking

Grima explained that Friggieri was a contemporary thinker who tremendously influenced modern Malta. His works provoked and challenged traditional thinking and the monument reflected that.

“The sculpture mixes figurative and abstract elements harmoniously while respecting and honouring the monumentality and dignity of the literary giant that Friggieri was,” Grima said.

The imposing figure – that is a larger-than-life 2.4 metres high - reflects the colossal stature of Friggieri in the Maltese academic fora, he said.

But why a hollow body? 

Grima explains that the abstract shapes clinging to the side of the figure represent the profound, raw thoughts and insights so characteristic of this important figure of Maltese intelligentsia. 

“They represent the thought-provoking themes often treated in his works such as humanity, the troubles of life and man’s relation with God.

"All these underlying themes find concrete expression in the book tightly held within his arm, representing also the numerous books and studies he published. The petals falling from the book evoke the heritage of knowledge and wisdom he passed on to the Maltese people,” he said.

The figure’s torso is characterised by a void, an abstract space. This, Grima said, is intended to further enhance the symbolic-expressive power of the composition.

“It can be open to interpretation," he said. "It can also interpret a profound inner spirituality in the philosophic writer, and which finds an expressive outlet in his creative works, particularly in poetry. Just like silence in music, empty space in art is not a shortcoming but an integral and necessary part that completes the work.”

As to why he suggested Floriana, Grima explained that the idea was to adorn the edge of Floriana's St Anne's Street, right across from the monument of National Poet Dun Karm Psaila.

“Dun Karm and Friggieri are two pillars of Maltese literature. On one side, Dun Karm, sculpted in the traditional style, represents the past - the romantic era of Maltese literature. On the other side, Friggieri represents modern thought in contemporary Malta.”

Friggieri was pivitol in promoting the use of the Maltese language within local literature, co-founding popular children’s magazine Is-Sagħtar and local publishing house Klubb Kotba Maltin.

In 1988, Friggieri was appointed head of the University of Malta’s Department of Maltese after a career of teaching secondary and tertiary students Maltese.

Aside from publishing in Maltese, Friggieri’s works have also been translated into English, French, German, Italian and Greek.

Friggieri was honoured with a gold medal in the Ġieħ l-Akkademja tal-Malti' in 2016 and won various editions of the National Book Prize.