Joseph Agius talks to RUTH BIANCO about her collage Lines of Migration that has recently been acquired to form part of the European Parliament Contemporary Art Collections and feature in the exhibition Art In Democracy.

JA: Art and democracy – do you feel that current events have redefined the roles of both?

RB: I think that democracy, as a project, is not complete. We aspire to democracy; it is still ongoing and needs perfection. It is vulnerable to disorder – a more determined approach helps realise the democratic vision.

We see a lot of failure of democracy around us, because decision leaders are very territorial and have personal interests for power. Their ambition and power struggle interfere with the rights of people as democracy represents the people’s voice and the respect of their rights.

The European Parliament, the EU as a whole and the UN provide mechanisms to safeguard this. This is not always successful as the EU does not interfere with national governments. So, it all boils down to us to choose the right leaders, our decision-makers. Sometimes, they lose track that they are there to serve us and not the other way round.

Current events inevitably rebound on the social space and hence redefine our sensibilities, roles and practices, as art and democracy share key objectives to preserve our fundamental freedoms, movements and creative integrity.

JA: Your general oeuvre has a strong ecological and environmental dimension. Lines of Migration, executed during the years of COVID-19, links human migration to that of birds. How do these relate to each other in this particular work?

RB: Birds are a symbol of peace in many cultures. I find a connection between the human and the bird. The human migrant is seeking a new refuge just as the bird is seeking a safe one. Migration, which is happening right now, is a historical but polemic-inducing event.

I have been strongly aware of it from a humanitarian perspective since 2007, when we started having influxes of arrivals in Malta; since then, I started exploring the theme. I also consider migration as a metaphor on different levels.

(From left) Malta’s First Lady Miriam Vella, President of Malta George Vella, EP president Roberta Metsola and Ruth Bianco during the exhibition launch. Photo: European Parliament

I explore the ‘line of flight’, a concept developed by the French philosophers Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari, involving the movement from one territory to another and expanding that new space. The philosophical line of flight is about disparate ideas that come together, thus creating a new departure for thinking or ideas.

Pictorially, I want my collage to be challenging and engaging, and therefore more democratic. I ask the viewer to work out the puzzle. Migration is a reconfiguration of space, as is the collage process as Braque and Picasso intended it to be.

Ever since the industrial revolution, human beings move, travel, transbound and reorder borders – there are these different tensions in the quest for human beings to remap the world. In parallel with this, our developing technologies transbound space and connect in different ways beyond such borders.

My interest lies in the role of art in the human social space and how it creates these spaces of interaction- Ruth Bianco

JA: The work, a collage of narratives, investigates chapters and brings them together as a tapestry. Do you relate to the integrated narratives of artists, such as Tracy Emin and Grayson Perry or more to pre-Renaissance narratives like the Bayeux Tapestry?

RB: This work is an unplanned process. I’m very interested in the book as object and the space of the book and its deconstruction. These collages are pages that are connected by the topic via compounded layers and lines that join things. The lines represent how humans connect when they cross borders, how human and animal connect, how spaces connect, how pages connect, and ultimately nations.

The strata of the Bayeux narratives or the tactuality of old manuscripts hold a fascination for me. I admire the personal narratives of Emin and Perry; however I felt no affinity when I was creating this piece. I just wanted to do tactile work. I used stitching, using my sewing machine, in a way it is drawing with threads to create connections between the territories of the pages. My process is a collage of thoughts and ideas.

I love the DADA and Fluxus artists for the challenges they presented. My process is also an exploration of different collage techniques, even digital ones. Space, so dynamic, is always topical for me, whether two or three-dimensional; connectivity is always an underlying factor. 

JA: Do you think that art can be a political tool to propagate issues, such as the migration one, especially in the EU? Is the EU in fact a jarring tapestry in itself?

RB: I see a common ground between art and democracy. Democracy is about the right for human expression, upholding culture, anti-aggression, non-discrimination, harmony and coexistence. Art generates a unique space for debating and engaging these values. It is not just about creating objects.

My interest lies in the role of art in the human social space and how it creates these spaces of interaction – art as production and not as representation. Representation for me is like owning something; this does not really interest me creatively. When the artist continues the dialogue beyond the static object, the artist then produces, and that is what I’m after.

The EU can indeed be a jarring tapestry of complex histories, views and cultures despite proximity, striving however, to connect differences for peace and security primarily, so crucial as we see more fragmentation around us – that is why it is down to the individual to elect decision-makers we can count on and hold to account.

Art In Democracy, launched by MEP Marcel Kolaja, is located in the European Parliament, Brussels and is on until June. Follow Ruth Bianco on Instagram @ruth.bianco/ruth@ruthbianco.com. Visits to her private gallery in Valletta available by appointment.