The word ‘gravity’ can be described as a homonym − it has more than one meaning. Curator Sara Dolfi Agostini talks to Joseph Agius about the concepts underlying the Gravity exhibition, currently on at Blitz Valletta, and how the seven artists interpret it.

Gravity, ‘discovered’ by Sir Isaac Newton, is defined as “the universal force of attraction acting between all matter” and scientifically it is the weakest of the four forces governing nature. The term gravity has also sombre metaphorical relevance, as indicated in the exhibition’s mission statement. How does an exhibition titled ‘Gravity’ bring these two aspects together?

Gravity is an invisible force that we take for granted, but there is no life without gravity. It is a property of our bodies, regardless of our ethnicity, gender and cultural background. However, in the English language, gravity also evokes a serious, solemn matter that requires special attention. The work of most contemporary artists is as much about definitions as it is about representations, as you can totally see when reading the titles of the artworks in the show. This is the thought process that made Gravity the title of a group show whose central theme is the body.

6YARD, 2021, by Pierre Portelli.

Collective exhibitions sometimes lose focus and the underlying concept chosen by the curator gets diluted, as more variables are factored into the equation. Is there another inherent conceptual dimension to the exhibition, besides the ones mentioned in the exhibition’s mission statement, maybe that the gravity of the situation that we are experiencing, climate and pandemic-wise, can bring about a more integrated holistic approach that attracts artistic polarities, pushed together by a ‘gravity’ of sorts?

Yes, that is part of what the theme communicates to our audience. Indeed, after over a year and a half of life under the weight of the pandemic, we do not want to run from this sense of heaviness and gra­vity we seem unable to escape from. Instead, we see a new common bond between all of us on this planet. Now the pandemic has not impacted everyone equally, of course; it has laid bare inequali­ties and injustice. But it is still a planetary phenomenon, and this gravity is as palpable as the force of gravity itself, which as we said earlier does not discriminate.

Everybody Breaks, 2021, by Kane Cali.

The internet and technology have brought about a progressive dehumanisation that has generally left humanity in tatters and rags. The meaning of the term ‘humanity’ has become warped and maybe has lost its timelessness...

I think what we tend to forget is that every innovation in history has brought with it a duality. Einstein’s atom can save us all or destroy us. The internet is no different. Information society relies strongly on digital technology and the internet, but what we are offered in the virtual world comes at a price. As Harvard professor Shoshana Zuboff brilliantly explained in her book The Age of Surveillance Capitalism (2019), the internet stemmed from the modern dream of expanding knowledge to all but it is now a corporate space where the individual’s freedom to “explore” is being tracked and used for marketing purposes, to affect consumption and political opinion.

This exhibition, in particular, is very timely because it scrutinises the persistent gap between empathy and first-hand experience

With the rise of misinformation – arguably a pandemic of its own – we see the internet and social media become tools for control. Artists Simon Fujiwara and Kane Cali are keen observers of this phenomenon. Fujiwara is an internet-conscious storyteller who researches the social constructs that forge the modern process of individualisation, and how this intersects with collective fantasies. Cali, instead, explores human identity within a digital context, hanging between bio­logy and virtual dematerialisation. But tatters and rags also come from unresolved issues of privilege and inequality, tackled here by Adrian Paci and Jesse Darling, or the social impositions investigated by John Coplans, Pierre Portelli and Eva Kotáková.

(Left) We Got Another One Over Here, 2019, and Twinkletoes Batman Thumbs the Hole, 2017, by Jesse Darling.

Does this exhibition offer some hope or redemption via some ‘re-humanisation’, beyond exploring the tatters and rags?

The exhibition definitely explores the tatters and rags of our society, which have all been exacerbated and exposed by the pandemic. This also comes with hope; however, I would not talk about “redemption” or “re-humanisation”. I do not think we were more “human” without the internet or before turbo capitalism spread across Western society. There was never a Golden Age for being human, as slavery, pandemics and wars have demonstrated across history. I see humanisation as an ongoing Platonic quest and art as an exercise in awareness. This exhibition, in particular, is very timely because it scrutinises the persistent gap bet­ween empathy and first-hand experience, which is where humanity sometimes fails to emerge and where every process of healing should begin.

Gravity is multi-thematic when broken down into its different ‘atoms’ represented by the different personalities of the seven exhibiting artists. There is a microscopic and macroscopic exploration via different media into the nature of post-human relevance, within and outside the confines of the exhibiting space. Can an exhibition which relies so heavily on concepts and philosophy reach out to a wider audience?

This exhibition is a journey through a space that used to be a home, which was abandoned for 30 years until Blitz Valletta’s director and artist Alexandra Pace – the granddaughter of the previous tenants – decided to restore it with extreme care and vision, in order to turn it into a contemporary art centre in 2013. It is important to highlight this story because Gravity was conceived in a time when our domestic space was all we had.

Vedo Rosso, 2020, by Adrian Paci.

So it reflects a quest for intimacy and, at the same time, a desire to answer the big questions raised by COVID-19 uncertainty. I felt a responsibility to create a shared public space online, in the galleries and the city of Valletta – through the sculptures I commissioned to Maltese artists Pierre Portelli and Kane Cali – that resonates with the personal, sometimes lonely experience of sickness, powerlessness, loss and basic limitations on freedom which suddenly concern everyone, with few exceptions.

Joanne, 2016-2018, by Simon Fujiwara.

Could you elaborate on the so-called big questions through the works on display?

Of course. The exhibition kicks off with John Coplans’ poignant auto-portraits which defy the classic iconography of male power and invulnerability, and Portelli’s installation featuring several local rocks reflected in the space via mirrors – one especially endowed with a prosthetic Victorian eye. In Fujiwara’s mixed media installation and Cali’s sculpture, bodies are fatalities of technological acceleration and new media dissonance, as society morphs into an antagonistic or oppressive force.

In Paci’s video and Kotátková’s installation, by contrast, it is privilege and political disruption that intensify social distress, and eventually provoke psychological malaise. In Cali’s and Darling’s drawings, finally, the investigation extends into otherness and failure, ordinary taboos that are both physical and linguistic. Beside the exhibition, our public programme and kids activities are ongoing. One can sign up for our newsletter on BlitzValletta.com to take advantage of our initiatives, which are free.

Gravity, curated by Sara Dolfi Agostini and hosted by Blitz Valletta of 68, Triq Santa Luċija, Valletta, is on until September 30. COVID-19 restrictions apply.