A collective exhibition revolving around the pandemic is currently being held at the Malta Enterprise (ME) premises in Pietà (alongside St Luke's Hospital).

Titled Pandemic: Survival, Art and New Action, it features 71 artworks that include paintings, photography, sculptures, printmaking and illustration. Additional works are also being exhibited online on ME’s CSR platform.

Works by Pawlu Mizzi (left) and Omar Camilleri

A public call had invited artists to present works that dealt with the human processes they were going through during the COVID-19 period. Out of all entries, the works of 44 artists were chosen by a panel of judges made up of Lisa Gwen, Therese Debono and Anna Grima together with curator Pamela Baldacchino.

The artworks were selected based on conceptual relevance and artistic ability. The artists chosen include visual artists, painters, digital artists, photographers, sculptors and a bronze smith. 

I Am Not Alone, I Love Myself by Paul Scerri

“This led to an extensive selection of visual art processes being included in the exhibition, such as photography, digital art, painting, drawing, etching, woodcut and lino print to ceramic and bronze sculpture,” Baldacchino says.

She notes that the artworks work cohesively to tell a story,  “one that narrates the need to live through this reality and create artworks that are a testimony to the times we are living”.

The ‘survival’ part of the exhibition’s title, of course, refers to how people have managed to survive and to go on with their lives in these difficult times, even on an intimately human level, while the ‘new action’ part reflects on how we have learnt and are still learning to adapt to the changes brought about by COVID-19.

“‘New action’ pushes us to adapt to challenges through the need for a new vision. There was a time last year when the skies were clear from contrails, roads free from traffic and when, consequently, pollution levels shot down. A new vision is one where we challenge the norms we are accustomed to, such as living with pollution and the dead-end scenarios that lead us nowhere,” Baldacchino says.

Artworks by Keith Ellul

She adds that, in a place like Malta Enterprise, this sort of negotiation is encouraged. And, in fact, proceeds from the sales of the artworks will go to a research project on sustainable environment through the Research University Trust Fund (RIDT). 

She remarks that corporate social responsibility (CSR) is “not just a tick box for Malta Enterprise” and highlights the effort and enthusiasm of the CSR team, represented by Josephine Vassallo Parnis, head of EU Affairs at Malta Enterprise.

“CSR strategy is a way in which an enterprise, organisation or company can give back to society, yet, somehow this act of giving becomes the heart of the matter, creating a working environment that encourages innovative thinking, better relational dynamics and well-being in the workplace. So it’s a win-win situa­tion,” the curator says.

Baldacchino admits that the exhibition is significant for her personally because it provided her with the possibility of organising a collective that was challenging in terms of curation.

“Bringing the whole exhibition together and understanding how the works relate to each other while respecting their need for space within the context it was being held was, in fact, a learning curve for me.”

Photography by Amanda Hsu

But she says that it is especially significant for her in terms of personal insight: “Just entering the atrium at Malta Enterprise and sitting there quietly surrounded by all this art becomes an almost meditative experience in the sense that the art creates a dialogue which brings to light the value of being human in these pandemic times. The exhibition, in fact, reinforces the need for connection in terms of our humanity, becoming a means to mark history, a means to start a conversation and a direction forward.”

“The exhibition reinforces the need for connection in terms of our humanity”

Baldacchino highlights two artworks from the collective that represent the outer and inner realms of the human response to the pandemic: Vince Briffa’s Signs of Revelation and Shanice Farrugia’s Unspoken.

Unspoken by Shanice Farrugia

She relates how a medical student working at ME approached her on the days of the exhibition’s set-up. She was helping with organising all the information needed with respect to the artworks and asked Baldacchino the eternal question: how does one find meaning in an artwork?

“I could see she was unsure as to what she was meant to understand in front of artworks such as Signs of Revelation, by Dr Vince Briffa. I explained that this was not a question of a mental/conceptual understanding of a subject matter. Nor was it an emotive/reflexive response to an artwork. It was an even deeper gut-based response, almost primi­tive in nature, to what is essentially an artist’s manipulation of a medium. This interactive dimension occurs to the point that it becomes a tool in the hands of the artist. The medium is the tool and the subject is the self. Therefore, the medium actually becomes representative of the self. So a laceration to the surface of the medium becomes a laceration to the self,” Baldacchino explains.

Signs of Revelation by Vince Briffa

She continues: “The meaning of an artwork becomes fluid and is not confined to the meaning attributed by the artist. The less representative a work is, the more its meaning becomes malleable in nature. The artists participating present their visual stories as part of the larger narrative.”

Turning to Farrugia’s work, she says that “the meaning here is easily palpable and we realise that we are dealing with the darkness of life. With the pandemic our lives never stopped spinning, difficulties never stopped recurring. The pandemic cast a dark glaze over everything. 

“Our supporting structures slowly disintegrated and the value of familial and social networks became more apparent.”

The Golden Cloud by Paul Scerri

The other artists showcasing their works in the exhibition are Trevor Borg, Gabriel Buttigieg, Joyce Camilleri, Christopher Chetcuti, Paul Scerri, Roderick Camilleri, Ryan Falzon, Fabio Borg, Karen Caruana, Tania Vella, Elisa von Brockdorff, Daphne Bugeja, Debbie Bonello, Elena Degenhardt, Franco Navarro, Keith Ellul, Pawlu Mizzi, Amada Hsu, Inigo Taylor, Jacob Sammut, Omar Camilleri, Carmel Bonello, Adele Borg, Audrey Mercieca, Wallace Falzon, Joana Dounis, Alaine Baker, Kevin Sciberras, Jennings Falzon, Stephen Micallef, Nicole Sciberras Debono, Anna Galea and Dagmara Zaczeniuk.

Catherine Cavallo, Paul Caruana, Chris Urpani, Noel Attard, Nadine Micallef, Sandy Marshall, Derek Mason, George Muscat and Emma Attard are exhibiting their works on ME’s CSR platform, csr.maltaenterprise.com.

The exhibition is open at the foyer of the Malta Enterprise in Guardamangia Hill, Pietà, until December 22. All works will then be accessible for viewing on the digital platform.