11 12 17 ONLINE INTERVIEW COMMENT The Wrong John Paul Azzopardi’s Konrad Buhagiar on Biennale new work love and vulnerability

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ELEONORA SALVI €2.00 WHERE SOLD SPOTLIGHT

São Paolo Museums “Jardim District can compete with the dis- tricts of Soho and Tri- beca in Manhattan for the largest concentra- tion of art galleries, but certainly at more af- fordable prices.” Spotlight, Pg. 24

ANN DINGLI Art in the Time of Climate Crisis

n its penultimate day of viewing, I visit- ed Michael Rakow- itz’s first European O survey show at the Whitechapel Gallery in Aldgate

, Austin Camilleri, 2019, in situ at Villa di Maser. Photo courtesy of the artist. di Maser. Carte , Austin Camilleri, 2019, in situ at Villa East. Having been warned that wall captions were scarce and BIENNALE: Istanbul long-awaited INTERVIEW: Tom van Malderen that reliance on the compli- Q & A: Stuart Semple – artist & activist SPOTLIGHT: Zimbabwe artists rising mentary booklet was advised, I entered a room barren of intro- New Norway Museum Austin Camilleri in Italy REVIEW: NEWS: ductory information. >> Pg.41 SPOTLIGHT: Pavillon Le Corbusier MARKET: Middle East Sale W Welcome / Team / Inside October – December –‘19

he main objective in creating architect, artist and designer – Tom van - The Ecstasy of St Teresa by Gian Lorenzo Editor-in-Chief this publication has always Malderen – and finds out how he manoeuvres Bernini; and following his retrospective Lily Agius been to reveal the ‘creative’ between the practice of all three disciplines; exhibition in London, we interview the (+356) 9929 2488 Malta I cherish. I had no idea Giulia Privitelli meets with the curious British artist and activist Stuart Semple who Editor at the time of editing the first Maltese artist John Paul Azzopardi before wishes the artworld were not ‘a rich man’s T issue that we would discover his upcoming solo exhibition; Joanna Delia sport’. Margerita Pulè so much happening on the islands and align discusses the importance of residency Creative Director with such an enthusiastic audience. There programmes for artists, and speaks to local We will be back with another issue of Chris Psaila has since been a resurgence of contemporary artists about their own experiences; whilst Artpaper in December; until then if you Assistant Designer exhibitions in Malta and Gozo, emerging new Gabrielle Spiller discusses the wonder of would like to get in touch regarding Nicholas Cutajar talent, and the local art audience is growing. the architect Le Corbusier and his drawings editorial or advertising, contact us Art funds are also in place to connect Malta in Zurich. Meanwhile Erica Giusta explores by email on [email protected], or Sales Manager with the world and expand on its talent and how artificial intelligence can be creative; call (+356) 9929 2488. You can follow Lily Agius creative expertise. We can confidently say architect Konrad Buhagiar reveals his first Artpaper on Instagram and Facebook. (+356) 9929 2488 that the understanding of good quality art taste of eroticism with the painting Venus Contributors and design in Malta is improving – despite the and Mars by Botticelli; Kenneth Zammit Nicole Bearman ungracious property boom – and Artpaper Tabona deplores the lack of beauty in Finn Blythe will continue to feature what counts. contemporary art; and Eleonora Salvi visits Konrad Buhagiar the colourful culture of Brazil. Architect Joanna Delia Inside this issue, our editor Margerita Pulè and artist Richard England eulogises on Ann Dingli interviews a reserved yet interesting local one of his favourite 17th century art works Richard England Erica Giusta Karin Grech Bruce Micallef Eynaud Giulia Privitelli Eleonora Salvi Karen Elizabeth Steed 25. Residencies Artists’ experiences FEATURE Gabriele Spiller ART NEWS Christine Xuereb Seidu 37. Fine Art Bernini 06. Austin Camilleri In Italy 07. ASinMalta New programme Kenneth Zammit Tabona 41. Climate Change and contemporary art 06. AMuSE Project finale 23. Malta Cole & Sons Fabrics at Loft Artpaper is owned / 08. Blitz Goes international produced by Lily Agius and Chris Psaila [ V ] Publications 08. Whitney Faces controversy 09. Valletta Cultural Agency EXHIBITIONS + EVENTS Competition . Mould in museum Supported by / Malta 18. MUZA 07. Etchings Contemporary print by Bruce Eynaud AP Valletta Bridge fined art..e Gallery 20. Calatrava 08. Human Figure Xebgha Nies ArtHall Gozo Costs spiral ASinMalta 29. Orbit Tower 11. Florence Italian biennale Go Figure! Can you guess the 3 Bee Wise Philip Chircop Blitz 29. Tribute 11. Istanbul Anticipated biennale artworks that make up this figure? Edwards Lowell New gallery Send your answers by email to info@ Fragmenta Malta 36. Women Artists 29. Positions Berlin art fair Heritage Malta . Ganni Bonnici artpaper.press by 31 October, with Horizons 40. Tribute 31. What’s On Visual art events in Malta La Bottega Art Bistro ‘Competition’ as the subject, for a chance Middle East sale Lily Agius Gallery 42. Sotheby’s 31. MICAS Pierre Huyghe LogoGrafixExpress to win: Nicolas de Staël Malta Society of Arts 42. Christie’s 33. International Global events Malta Tourism Authority Manoel Theatre 42. Protests Nan Goldin continues 36. Brasil Dobrasil biennale First Prize: MICAS. MUZA 42. Tribute Dame Tempra 40. Johannes Itten Bauhaus artist A month-pass to all Heritage Malta sites National Archives of Malta People & Skin Spazju Kreattiv Studio 87 Second Prize: €20 voucher from The Macc Unfinished Art Space VeeGeeBee Art Shop Valletta Contemporary INTERVIEWS BOOKS Valletta Cultural Agency Vamp Magazine 12. John Paul Azzopardi Space and beauty 07. Fragmenta Malta Book launch Vee Gee Bee Art Shop Winners from What Do We Do Now? 26. Q & A Stuart Semple 19. Realism Modern art in Malta previous issue: (1) Supported by / International 34. Tom van Malderen Quiet revolution 21. Dance Contemporary art Nina Karniej has Africa Museum, Belgium Benaki Museum won a year-pass to Calouste Gulbenkian all Heritage Malta Château LaCoste Christie’s sites and (2) Sarah Dobrasil Biennale Finkelstein Gallery REVIEWS SPOTLIGHT Borg has won a Florence Biennale €20 voucher from Grand Palais 38. Belgium New Africa museum 11. Digital Curation The Wrong Biennale HOFA Gallery, LA VeeGeeBee Art IMMA 43. Virtual Reality Singing hologram 15. Le Corbusier Zurich pavilion Istanbul Biennale Shop Kistefos Sculpture Park 24. Brazil São Paulo art scene Kunstmuseum Bern MIT Press 28. Online Artifical intelligence MoMA Musée du Louvre 44. Norway Kistefos Sculpture Park Pavillon Le Corbusier, Zurich COMMENT / OPINION Positions Art Fair, Berlin 46. Zimbabwe Artists rising Royal Academy of Arts, London 14. Beauty in satin sheets Sotheby’s The Wrong Biennale 17. Art Love and Vulnerability White Cube Bermondsey Whitechapel Gallery

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No.8__ artpaper / 04 Art News / On the Scene October – December –‘19 10.19 ON the SCENE. “The light, majestic, falls; so potent, so alive, that it seems to settle on everything like a sort of luminous mist.” – Ângela in The Book of Chameleons, by José Eduardo Agualusa

ART NEWS COMMENT / OPINION SPOTLIGHT ART SALES DESIGN REVIEW / INTERVIEW BOOKS 03 Prix Pictet

Celebrated Maltese architect Rich- ard England has been awarded the 01 prestigious Robert Matthew Award in Kenya. The award is given by Marina Abramovic’s Imponderabilia to be the Commonwealth Association of performed in London Architects (CAA) to an architect or architectural office making the most outstanding contribution, having The Royal Academy of Arts will be showing the first UK exhibition spanning particular relevance to the country Marina Abramovic’s career, recreating live performances including the infa- or region in which they operate. mous Imponderabilia in 2020. First performed in 1977 by Marina Abramovic Past winners of the award include IAA Academician Ken Yeang together with TR herself and her then partner Ulay, the work is essentially a naked man and Hamzah and Yeang from Malaysia; Philip Cox from Australia; Ian Ritchie from the woman standing in the doorway through which audience-members enter the UK; and Arup Associates, also from the UK. Richard England has had a long and exhibition space. Curated in close collaboration with Abramovic, the exhibi- influential career in Malta, where he was born. He is a Visiting Professor at the tion will offer visitors the sort of intense, physical encounter for which she University of Malta, having acted as Dean of the Faculty of Architecture between has become known. Abramovic will participate in the programme of talks and 1987 and 1989, and is the recipient of a number of Honoris Causa doctorates. events surrounding the exhibition. www.royalacademy.org.uk The Artist is Present , Marina Abramovic, performed at MoMA in 2010, photo credit wikimedia 02 Marie Louise Kold bids farewell to Malta

Danish born artist, Marie Louise Kold, will be showing her exquisite metal artworks as she bids farewell to the island, having worked and resided in Mal- ta for the past eight years. Her work is created by combining patination and etching on copper, bronze and brass, resulting in unique metal pieces that are surrealistically captivating, and strong and bold in character. This boldness is in keeping with something that the artist holds dear to her heart; freedom of ex- pression. All proceeds will go towards the investigative news portal, The Shift News.

Words will be on show at Studio 87 in Valletta from 15 to 29 November 2019.

Image: © Marie Louise Kold www.mlkold.com

No.8__ artpaper / 05 Art News / Malta October – December –‘19

MALTA ITALY

Maltese Creative Europe Project Austin Camilleri Exhibiting Completed in Italy

AMuSE (Artistic Multi Senso- Maltese artist Austin Camilleri participated in a large exhibition rial Experience), the first Cre- of site-specific works this summer at Villa di Maser near Trev- ative Europe project led by iso. The exhibition – Armonia del Tempo, curated by Simon- a Maltese organisation to be etta Gorreri Casini – was produced by Artlife for the World, an > selected for co-funding by the organisation which produces the bi-annual exhibition in presti- European Commission, has been completed. gious locations near, or in, the Venice Laguna in tandem with The Malta Society of Arts led the project over the Venice Biennale. a number of years, with a creative programme including exhibitions and smaller projects, led Villa di Maser, designed by Andrea Palladio and frescoed by by artistic director Roderick Camilleri. The Paolo Veronese, hosted the 2019 edition, with 20 participating end of the project will be marked with a syn- international artists in an exhibition that attempted to inter- chronised church bell ringing performance, pret the Palladian miracle through contemporary artistic ex- an interactive concert, and a final collective pression. Most of the works were located outdoors, along the exhibition. The closing exhibition is currently waterway created by Palladio within the grounds of the villa. showing work by the 16 participating artists, from Malta, Italy, the Netherlands and Lith- Camilleri’s work, Carte is a site-specific sculpture and video in- uania. The exhibition runs until 31 October. stallation based on the Palladian line of symmetry. The work www.artsmalta.org Roberta Vrubliauskaite working on her jewellery art concept during contains a duality blur between the randomness of crumbled the project’s third Artists’ Residency in Lithuania paper (used as markers in the territory and in the grounds of the villa itself) and the obsessive linear clarity of both the archi- tecture and the water-system supplying the vineyards and villa itself. The video is a performative, single-take, cinematographic walk delineating and focussing on the line of symmetry, thus creating a secular ‘cammino’ following the seemingly imperma- nent markers – solid Hansel and Gretel sweets. The physical sculptures were created using 3D scanning and were cast in aluminium.

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Carte, Austin Camilleri, 2019, in situ at Villa di Maser. Photo courtesy of the artist.

No.8__ artpaper / 06 Art News / Malta October – December –‘19

MALTA ASinMalta - Enriching Life through the Arts The Christian Dior Exhibition at the V&A. Photo: ASinMalta

f you have been on the lookout for is a leading arts education charity that promotes the society has provided funds for conservation purposes an organisation in Malta that pro- study of fine arts, as well as an awareness of interna- to both the Notarial and the National Archives, as vides a platform conducive to the tional cultural heritage. With a network of over 380 well as the School of Art in Valletta. discovery and education of the arts societies globally, it covers decorative and fine arts, in a relaxed environment, look no architecture, literature and music, and history. Talks in the coming season include The Beatles and I further than ASinMalta – formerly their Artists, and Winston Churchill - the Artist. the Decorative and Fine Arts Society in Malta – and Since 2015, ASinMalta has hosted lectures on various Other subjects include public art, the fashion of the an affiliate of The Arts Society UK. subjects, as well as workshops, study-days, and house of Dior, and the work of Matisse. The series exhibitions. In line with ASinMalta’s objective of pro- will be concluded with a talk on architecture in May The Arts Society, with its headquarters in London, moting and supporting Malta’s national heritage, the of next year. www.maltadfas.nadfas.net

MALTA An Exhibition of Original Etchings including a retrospective of the printed works of Frank Portelli and Horst Janssen

Grafika: Of Form and Image, the fourth exhibition by niques. Portelli is well known for his Cubist-like im- Maltese print-making organisation iMprint IV, will take ages, and the deep-seated melancholy that permeates place this November at the Malta Society of Arts in his work. Janssen was a German graphic artist whose Valletta. The exhibition, curated by Christian Attard, images tackle themes such as portraiture, the erotic plays on the un-tameability of the print medium, and death. In total, the work of 27 diverse artists will which lies out of control of the print-maker, no matter be shown in the exhibition, tackling varied subjects how experienced they may be. and imagery.

Hagarna, Victor Agius, 2019, photo courtesy of the artist The exhibition will include work by print-makers Grafika: Of Form and Image will take place at Frank Portelli and Horst Janssen, both of whom held Palazzo de la Salle, Valletta from 7 to 30 November. very different attitudes towards print-making tech- www.artsmalta.org 2 naughty dance for you great John Neumeier (detail), Horst Janssen, 1993

MALTA FRAGMENTA– Malta Retrospective

Operating since 2013, FRAGMENTA Malta, curated by Bettina Hutschek, is known for its experimental site-specific exhibitions and open curatorial philosophy.

A book looking back at 6 years of FRAGMENTA Malta has recently been published and includes an over- view of these events, texts about art in public space, and reflections on art’s responsibility in society. In the spirit of the FRAGMENTA project, the book also contains absurdities and ironies, stemming from Hutschek’s sense of humour and love of art and experimentation.

www fragmentamalta.com 2016, Fragmenta Malta of 1000 Pleasures , Jagna Samir, Valley

No.8__ artpaper / 07 Art News / International October – December –‘19

NEW YORK MALTA Blitz Valletta Sends Artists A Legacy of the European Capital of Culture to International Art Fairs title beyond 2018

or the first time since initiating, Blitz Valletta has participated in two international. platforms dedicated to non-profit art spaces, with an exhibition project featuring Maltese artists, curated by Sara Dolfi Agostini, at Contemporary Istanbul and Barley Fair Chicago.

At Contemporary Istanbul this September, Blitz presented a group Fshow with artists Alexandra Pace, Tom Van Malderen and Matthew Attard in a new section dedicated to art initiatives that have an innovative approach to the institu- tion, and that are developing original projects in extraordinary or remote locations.

Also in September, Barley Fair presented 24 selected contemporary art galleries, Whitney Museum of American Art, photo credit wikimedia project spaces, and curatori- al projects during the annual Art Week in Chicago. Spaces Whitney Board Controversy exhibited works in 1:12 scale The Whitney Biennale was beset with controversy this year, when in the months booths, built to mimic the running up to the biennale, artists and audiences objected to the appointment to design of a standard fair. As the Whitney Museum Board of Warren B Kanders, whose company Safariland, pro- one of these 24 spaces, Blitz duces ‘defence weapons’, including tear-gas canisters used against asylum seekers presented a project by artist along the U.S.-Mexico border. The controversy came to a head as eight artists Pierre Portelli. withdrew from the biennale in protest. Protests led by the activist group Decolo- nize This Place kept the issue in the public eye over a period of nine months. www.thisisblitz.com The formation of the cavern, Alexandra Pace, courtesy of the artist and Blitz Valletta Although curators Jane Panetta and Rujeko Hockley tackled the controversy head-on by commissioning Forensic Architecture to create a video dealing with the allegations, the controversy did not subside, and Kanders eventually resigned his position as vice chairman of the Whitney Museum Board.

MALTA COMIC Xebgha Nies 2 - BRUCE MICALLEF EYNAUD The Human Clay

The Human Clay is the second collective exhibition by a group of well-established artists who share a predisposition to draw, sculpt and paint the human figure.

The artists in this year’s collective include Paul Scerri, Debbie Caruana Dingli, Steve Bonello, Francesca Balzan, Marisa Attard and Andrew Diacono. The group is linked by friendship and past collaborations, and remains committed to looking at people as an inspiration for their work.

Loosely translated from the Maltese as ‘a lot people’, the phrase Xebgha Nies is both a reference to the artists themselves as well as to the men and women present in their work. Although each artist brings an individual sensibility to their work, common ground is found in the human figure – each artist creates their own narratives by observing idiosyncrasies in the people that surround them. The human body is not only seen as a site of desire and agitation, fragility and compromise but is also capable of transmitting an entertaining critique of modern life.

Xebgha Nies 2 - The Human Clay, curated by Caroline Miggiani is on at the Malta Society of Arts, Palazzo de la Salle in Valletta, 05 - 19 December. Britain has her fortune told

No.8__ artpaper / 08 News / Malta / Valletta October – December –‘19

MALTA

THE VALLETTA CULTURAL AGENCY: A Legacy of the European Capital of Culture title beyond 2018

he anniversaries of the These debate platforms will seek to past are as important open doors to opportunities for several as the foundations that cultural and creative organisations, as we lay for the future. well as for professionals, students and Bearing this in mind, visiting practitioners to grow in their re- we launched the Vallet- spective sectors. Tta Cultural Agency (VCA) on 29 March 2019, markedly, the day after the anni- When thinking about where we are and versary of the laying of the first founda- where we want to go, we must also think tion stone of our capital city. Following of where we came from – our inheri- the first European Capital of Culture tance. With InherIT, we subscribe to . title for Malta, we now find ourselves the notion that we owe it to ourselves with an opportunity to lay another type and to our future to reflect upon the re- of foundation, one that ensures that Val- alities of Valletta’s communities and to letta’s future continues to hold culture, truly embrace – even at UNESCO-level heritage and the arts at its very core. – our intangible cultural heritage. The Agency will support and enable tradi- As a legacy of Valletta 2018, the VCA the Valletta 2018 initiative, the VCA be- ine the past spirit and future aspirations tional cultural celebrations as important has been set up to sustain and strength- lieves that the city’s lifeline is sustained of the city. Trans/Form and INnovate elements of the social fabric of the city. en the capital city’s vibrant cultural life by a thriving and sustainable cultural focus on recognising and strengthening through the creation of an annual pro- sector that fundamentally underpins the Valletta as an international contempo- These values are the foundation for the gramme of creative events, to uphold economic and social fabric of the city, rary cultural and artistic hub, under- VCA’s Cultural Programme, but also for standards of excellence in their organ- bringing communities together, creating lined by the Agency’s aim of ensuring all those with an affinity towards Vallet- isation, and to encourage access and a platform for civic participation, em- equity and access to arts and culture ta. Together, we can cultivate opportu- participation by a diverse audience. In ploying hundreds of workers, attracting for all. INnovate, in fact, promotes ini- nities for further professionalisation, carrying out its remit, the VCA will seek thousands of tourists, and generating tiatives that experiment with new prac- inclusion, access and participation that to nurture, discover and create syner- millions in economic activity each year. tices, concepts and technologies, whilst our capital city deserves, ensuring the gies between the old and the new, be- Sustaining this level of cultural vibrancy Trans/Form invites the development of city’s firm placing as one of Europe’s tween people and the spaces and time and activity while involving the various transformative experiences and collab- most vibrant cultural hubs. in which we live to produce exciting and stakeholders in the city will be another orations which turn audiences into par- thought-provoking artistic works and of the Agency’s priorities. ticipants. Valletta Cultural Agency, cultural events. The Agency will there- Exchange Buildings, fore work with artists, communities, The experience gained in implementing Active participation is only truly possi- Republic Street, NGOs, Public Cultural Organisations a wide-ranging and intense programme ble through DIalogue and debate in a Valletta, VLT 1117, Malta. and other stakeholders to create a more for the European Capital of Culture has growing hub of activity – which Valletta Email: [email protected] sustainable, inclusive, and equitable helped the new agency to identify the can be defined as. Through this value, Tel: (+356) 2124 2018 cultural sector that involves residents, following five values that will define its we aim to activate and/or reinstate plat- Website: vca.gov.mt visitors, the business community, and work in the coming years: forms for collaborations and network- public entities alike. ing, enable artists, scientists, philoso- ABILITY explores and contributes to phers, craftspeople, and whoever else Valletta – a UNESCO World Heritage the concepts of livability, accessibility can contribute to engendering a better Site that holds within its walls over 300 and sustainability in Valletta through understanding of current realities and a monuments – is one of the most dense- arts and culture. On a daily basis, people vision for future generations. ly-concentrated historic areas in the give life and meaning to the intersecting world in terms of tangible culture, but streets and squares of the city, spaces it has also enriched itself, generation af- which the Agency seeks to activate for ter generation, with an equally valuable cultural purposes. We aim to empower intangible element that the Agency is residents to increase their quality of life committed to protecting and promot- and help them create thriving commu- ing. The VCA will strive to strengthen nities that celebrate arts and culture in the city’s contemporary cultural prac- open, interconnected places. tices and the living, working and visit- ing communities that give Valletta the The cultural, socio-economic fabric of vibrant life it has become synonymous the city is at the heart of the Agency’s with. Based on studies conducted for work, in order to transform and reimag-

“The Agency will support and enable traditional cultural celebrations as important elements of the social fabric of the city.”

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Art News / Biennale October – December –‘19

ISTANBUL FLORENCE The Seventh The 12th edition of the Contemporary Art Biennale Continent in Florence

Installation image, Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University, Istanbul Painting and Sculpture Installation view, Florence Biennale 2017 Museum. Photo Gizem Ozkol

The 16th Istanbul Biennale is current- down to a cellular level. This year’s The twelfth edition of the Contemporary Art Biennale, Florence will take place ly showing in Turkey’s most populous edition will show 38 new commissions, this October. In acknowledgement of the fifth centenary of Leonardo da Vinci’s city. Curated this year by the eminent and will be housed in three locations death, the event will work to the theme of ARS ET INGENIUM – Toward Leonar- curator and art critic Nicolas Bourri- across Istanbul – the historic Istanbul do da Vinci’s Legacy of Similitude and Invention. aud, the biennale will show works by Shipyards (Tersane Istanbul); the Pera 57 artists from 26 countries. Museum in the heart of the city; and The biennale will stage a diverse, multicultural, and multidisciplinary art event in a series of historic sites in Büyüka- that, through contemporary interpretations, intends to stimulate reflection on The title given to this edition – The da, the largest of the so-called Princes’ Leonardo da Vinci’s cognitive and creative approach. Curated by Melanie Zeffe- Seventh Continent – refers to the mass Islands in the Sea of Marmara. Artists rino (art) and Gabriele Goretti (design), the biennale will host over 700 artists of plastic waste that now covers 3.4 include the Feral Atlas Collective, Eva from around the world. million square kilometres of ocean sur- Kot’átková and Piotr Uklanski. face. The biennale recognises the paral- The twelfth edition of Florence Biennale – Art and Design will take place be- lel between that new plastic world and The 16th Istanbul Biennale is on un- tween 18 and 27 October in the Spadolini Pavilion of the Fortezza da Basso, our own, where accepted norms and til 10 November. www.iksv.org Florence. www.florencebiennale.org cultures have also fragmented, almost

ONLINE

Malta will be taking part in the Wrong Biennale for Digital Art for the first time this year. The online The Wrong Biennale platform What Do We Do Now? created by digital artist Letta Shtohryn, will be participating in the third edition of the biennale, along with around 170 other cities, pavilions and embassies worldwide. The > Wrong Biennale will see hundreds of online events and offline exhibitions taking place in parallel around the world and in the digital realm.

What Do We Do Now? will create both an online pavilion and an offline embassy in Malta. The exhibition, curated by Shtohryn and resulting from an international open call, will show the work of 27 artists, each responding to the theme of energy exchange and interdependency between the virtual and the material realms. The online pavilion will be hosted on www.whatdowedonow.xyz between 1 November 2019 and 30 March 2020, while the offline embassy will take place from 16 to 30 November 2019 at Splendid in Valletta. Following the exhibition, the individual works will be installed in public spaces around Valletta.

Letta Shtohryn is a media artist based in Malta with a background in philosophy, sociology and digital arts. In her work, Shtohryn uses critical media reflections linking the digital with the tangible, and the historic with the current, projecting subtle feminist undertones. Her practice employs speculative strategies, poetics and metaphysical inves- tigations that respond to aspects of digital development using new media, sculpture, video games, commercial goods and imagery.

We Have Blood, Redgrits, courtesy of the artist and www.whatdowedonow.xyz What Do We Do Now?

No.8__ artpaper / 11 Interview / Gallery / Malta October – December –‘19

MALTA GIULIA PRIVITELLI In the Beginning there was Silence “Every man takes the limits of his own field vision for the limits of world.” – Arthur Schopenhauer Untitled no. 6, Bone, 2015, H54 x L80 W19 cm, image courtesy of the artist

t is easy to get carried the pace and spontaneity of our ex- tures) nudge any conversation about thoughts are free and detached from away with words, and change. Later on, faced with the daunt- them to go in that direction – towards you and your own limited concerns on it is simpler still to get ing whiteness of a blank document, I the realm of form, method and tech- things that were or that have not yet carried away by our grappled with the essence of what we nique – he is not particularly keen on been. “The sea,” John Paul tells me, “is own thoughts. But, as had talked about. I slowed down those discussing such topics. “It’s more about where I want to go with my work”. Khalil Gibran would racing thoughts, selected and medi- going into the space of the form, rather put it, in speaking, tated on them, and wondered wheth- than the form itself that interests me. But to go to the sea, metaphorically I much of our thought er this was precisely John Paul’s own It’s a way of going into silence, of ex- speaking of course, is no mean feat. – and also our art – is murdered. Such approach before creating one of his periencing pure presence”. The basis It takes time and patience; it is a risk. was the nature of my conversation with sculptures; to fish in silence, in a flow- of his thinking, and also of his method, To go out to sea might also mean that Gozo-based artist John Paul Azzopardi, ing stream of consciousness. is greatly indebted to Eastern schools the people on the shore will lose sight one fine afternoon in some corner of of thought and worldviews, particularly of you. For them to be misunderstood a coffeeshop. Questions bounced be- The contemporary debate on art, on that of Hindu philosophy, which advis- or misrepresented would not come as tween us, eliciting reactions and com- what constitutes an artwork and even es on the paths of spiritual realisation. a surprise. The works need space, for ments on aesthetics, time, solitude, on its practice, has not really shaken Creativity – creation – also belongs to they were created in space. desire and freedom, wealth, integrity, off the clutches of the classical con- this path. The experience of pure pres- the sacred and the metaphysical, ex- siderations on form. Even though John ence could be likened to that liberating When viewed closely, the bone sculp- istence. I wanted to pick at his brain, Paul’s works (most are familiar with his moment while staring at the sea, that tures are seemingly chaotic and dense, but my hand could not keep up with meticulously constructed bone sculp- moment when nothing else matters; but naturally, order emerges from

No.8__ artpaper / 12 GIULIA PRIVITELLI holds an M.A. in History of Art, and is presently Assistant Editor at Fondazzjoni Pat- rimonju Malti. She is also a freelance S Interview / Gallery / Malta writer, regularly contributing cul- ture-related articles to various local October – December –‘19 newspapers, magazines and blogs.

chaos. For the ancient Greeks, ‘Kaos’ emerged at the dawn of creation from a gaping void – from emptiness and dark- ness. It is perhaps no mere coincidence that the closely related word kairos, also in Greek, refers to that opportune time, that absolute time for something to hap- pen. It is as if to say that creation could only occur at the moment of chaos.

In other words, something positive could emerge from a shadow. “Chaos can trigger things in your mind that can also be cathartic,” reflects John Paul; “through shock, one can heal”. The bone sculptures are demanding and require, from the artist, a great sense of stillness, of certainty and concentration, but also of vulnerability. It was a means for John Paul to come in touch with his inner turmoil, to soften it – like the bones themselves before being placed with- in the complex matrix – and to under- stand the roots of what caused it. The turmoil is there, but so is the stillness, and the fragility of this dichotomy may be quite easily perceived when taking in the sculpture as a whole, irrespective of what it represents. Thus, the sculpture is less about decay or death than it is about that positive experience of space and growth in silence. And if it should Moon tide (Transience and Resonance), John Paul Azzopardi, 2019, acrylic, pencil, target sheet, image courtesy of the artist be about death, decay or loss, then it is more about the ‘death of the ego’ than it is about any cultural or material death.

I was keen to understand why John Paul feel his bone sculptures do not work with a contemporary audience (I feel would dispute this, since many find his work fascinating). Death, I thought, is something we all come face-to-face with at some point – we fear it and the uncer- tainty it brings along, and yet it enthralls us. Tragic car accidents are disturbing, yet most of us slow down and slide a quick glance as we pass by. Likewise, ruins are beautiful when their destruc- tion comes about, not senselessly – like the vile terrorist destruction of unique Centripetal Deluge (The Sky is Falling), John Paul Azzopardi, 2018, mixed media, Svapnal||Sushupti, John Paul Azzopardi, 2019, acrylic, pencil, target sheet, image heritage sites and museums – but in the image courtesy of the artist courtesy of the artist “realisation of a tendency inherent in the deepest layer of existence of the de- stroyed,” as German sociologist Georg work to decay? I imagined him saying. the infinite may indeed be reached the Silver River, the exhibition of works Simmel would argue. Ruins, like relics, further it moves away from the past. in pencil and acrylic on target pa- are attractive because they embody That said, death or rather loss, is cen- But in loss, what ought to be found or per, opens on the 30th of October at memory, life and death all at once – they tral to John Paul’s work. Be it the loss desired becomes all the more clear. A 7.30pm and runs until Saturday 16 embody the past, the present and the of artistic integrity ‘sold’ in exchange story of hope fills my mind; like the November. The exhibition is open future (or the possible) in a harmonious for greater audiences, or the detach- young Telemachus awaiting his father’s 10-1 and 2-7pm Monday to Saturday. contradiction of sorts. “Only, my sculp- ment from tradition and historicity, return – assumed by many to have For more information contact Lily on tures are not about death. They do not the loss of space, of meaning, of con- long been dead – I could also imagine (+356) 99292488 or go to lilyagiusgal- work in a society that grapples with the nection, of singularity and silence, all John Paul looking out to sea, waiting lery.com. challenge to stay with one object. They shed light on the artist’s dissatisfaction patiently, meditating deeply in silence, do not work in a context where art is with the general spirit of the contem- before finally returning to the studio to consumed”. Isn’t that enough for an art- porary age, disillusioned as it is that begin working on a new piece.

No.8__ artpaper / 13 KENNETH ZAMMIT TABONA is Artistic Director of the Valletta International Baroque Festival and of Malta’s Teatru Comment / Art / Beds Manoel. He is also one of Malta’s best-known visual October – December –‘19 artists and illustrators.

MALTA

KENNETH ZAMMIT TABONA A Tale of Two Beds

I would imagine that anyone Maybe I’m the fuddy-duddy in his right mind, being of- who believes that all art must fered to sleep in one of these also be beautiful. I’m sure I’m two beds, would opt for the not alone. I am complete- splendiferous confection in ly floored when confronted imperial yellow silk. At least with anything ugly. It upsets I definitely would. me and annoys me in real life but when it invades the realm As you probably all have of culture then I’m afraid I’ll guessed the untidy bed is a rebel and spit it out. There is creation of artist Tracy Emin, enough ugliness in the world. while the silk extravaganza Art for me is an escape from was found on an interiors that ugliness and is my ref- website. I posted it on In- uge; the only hope I have that stagram saying that it was maybe we will not all perish the latest from Tracy Emin, in a cataclysmic implosion of which I suppose was rather pollution. naughty of me, but I simply couldn’t resist the comparison to see if I could discover more about the greatest On the other hand, Emin could be underscoring this very message and by present- mystery in my life. What is art? ing us with this painful abomination is reminding us that our days are numbered. But can such a reminder be called art? Can it be compared to Bernini’s Apollo and The unmade bed’s sordidness is, in my book, off-putting in the extreme. There isn’t Daphne? Can it be compared to Picasso’s Les Demoiselles d’Avignon? Can it be a single iota of beauty in it. It could be telling a story, but then is it a story I really compared to a Mahler symphony or a Rachmaninov concerto? Can it be compared want to know? Sweaty bodies, farts and crisp crumbs combined with a smell of hu- to Shakespeare’s great plays, or Somerset Maugham ‘s short stories? I don’t think manity that we do our best to eradicate.... honestly what story could I conjure up? Is so... the Emin bed telling us that there are millions of people around the globe who live in sordid conditions? I don’t think we need to be shown an unmade bed and junk to I think we need to rethink this ‘Contemporary Art’ concept, especially as I think know that – because we do! We also know that many millions of people don’t have a that art that has to be explained fundamentally to be understood or appreciated bed! So, is Emin trying to prick our social conscience? is not art at all. Why do millions gawp in front of the Mona Lisa or Starry Night? It’s because there is something in both creations that stirs the senses almost to a Then we have the yellow bed, also unmade, covered with embroidered foliage and primeval level. birds in rich yellow silk. While this might not be telling us any story apart from the fact that people who can afford to sleep in a bed like that are an infinitesimal few, So where does that leave Tracy Emin’s bed? I wonder. there is in the yellow bed an element that the Emin one lacks completely; Beauty with a capital B!

2 0 1 , M E R C H A N T S T R E E T , V A L L E T TA

No.8__ artpaper / 14 GABRIELE SPILLER is a Swiss-German author and journalist who lives between Berlin and Gozo. She looks Spotlight / Le Corbusier / Zurich forward to playing a part in promoting Malta’s emerging October – December –‘19 art scene.

ZURICH

GABRIELE SPILLER A House of Art, of Man, of Pleasure Le Corbusier with his “collection particulière” in apartment/studio, Paris, photo: René Burri, 1959, Museum für Gestaltung Zürich, Graphics Collection, © Magnum Photos The last work of the architect Le Corbusier (1887 – 1965) has reopened to the public in Zurich

n enthusiastic tapestries. Eventually, after having been for what he called ‘Maison d’Homme’ living in Dubai, did not agree on terms young interi- invited to Le Corbusier’s Paris studio, (House of Man). Heidi Weber mean- for the city to buy her collection inside or designer, Weber realised the potential of the fur- while sold all her belongings and moved the house, and thus removed everything Heidi Weber, niture drawings he had shelved in 1929, into a one-and-a-half-room flat with her from the premises. meets the and began manufacturing them close to son in order to finance the project. world-famous her shop in Zurich. Historic and Inspiring Opening architect, who Hard Times Saving the Threatened Exhibition A called himself Iconic Furniture Brought to Life House The result is an exhibition, Mon Univ- Le Corbusier (born Charles-Edouard The four – now iconic – armchair and In 1967 the Heidi Weber House – Centre ers, that runs until 17 November and Jeanneret); it must have been an excit- chaise-longue models were soon in Le Corbusier opened its doors. Weber mainly draws on loans from the Foun- ing encounter for the 31-year-old single such high demand, that by 1964 Weber had managed to lease the land from the dation Le Corbusier in Paris. It strives mother and business woman, when she needed a partner to extend to industri- city for fifty years; not an easy task in a to present the artist’s passion for col- encountered her idol for the first time in al serial production. She partnered with conservative, male-dominated country, lecting objects from all over the world. August 1958. For sixty years she served the Italian family-run company, Cassi- where women still did not have the right Searching for inspiration, Le Corbusier as an ambassador of his art. She built a na, which specialised in wooden interi- to vote. The construction was also over- kept conch shells, ceramics from the museum in Zurich, in Switzerland – now ors for ships and hotels, and received shadowed by Le Corbusier’s death in a Balkans, flotsam and industrial glass. the Pavilion Le Corbusier – and almost a sublicense, which is still held today. bathing accident in the Mediterranean His legendary 1931 installation, Les arts went bankrupt. In the end she lost this Meanwhile, Heidi Weber organised ex- Sea in 1965 – at the age of 77 he suf- dits primitif dans la maison d’aujo- total piece of art, Le Corbusier’s last hibitions of Le Corbusier’s artistic work fered from a heart attack near his holi- urd’hui is recreated on the ground floor. project, to the city. It has now been ren- while he toured to create modern archi- day home in the south of France. Le Corbusier created it in his studio, ovated and was reopened in May. Here’s tectural projects: planning the capital placing a cast for the attic calf-bearer how it all began. of the Indian state Punjab, designing This valiant woman challenged the Zu- alongside a painting by Fernand Léger, a public housing in Marseille, churches in rich municipality in many ways. How- Peruvian ceramic piece, a Benin bronze, Heidi Weber was running a small interior France, museums in Japan. ever, she never received any financial a brick, a wicker chair and his own design studio in Zurich when she came support for her Le Corbusier museum, painting in a suggestive ensemble. The across paintings by Le Corbusier at the Weber also developed ideas for a Le not even on the 100th anniversary of pavilion itself has undergone intensive art museum Kunsthaus Zurich. Her Corbusier museum in Zurich. She found Le Corbusier’s birth in 1987. On several renovation and shines in its bright co- neighbour, a graphic designer, owned the perfect spot in a park in the pres- occasions, she resorted to selling pieces lours again. Visitors – perhaps oblivious a collage by the master, which she ad- tigious Seefeld district at Lake Zurich. from her private collection in order to to Weber’s endeavours – can freely wan- mired. Not being able to acquire such a When her French-Swiss friend paid her save the financially-threatened house. der around the four-story-building, sit piece of art in cash, she offered to swap a visit, she took him to the site and dis- Five years ago, it became apparent that in Le Corbusier armchairs and soak in it for her Fiat Topolino – even though cussed her plans. Like Weber, he was the lease of the land would soon ex- the atmosphere, including the gorgeous she had a little son and the car was not at ease with the Swiss at that time pire, and the grounds were eventually view on the park and the lake from the much more valuable! Still, happy with – after some disappointing construction returned to the City of Zurich. What at roof terrace. the exchange, Weber sought to meet efforts in his home country he had come first looked like a friendly agreement the artist in Nice a year later. The then to regard them as narrow-minded and between the two parties turned into a Pavillon Le Corbusier, Höschgasse 8, 71-year-old widower was curious to get did not want to build in Switzerland at lawsuit. Heidi Weber was forced to sell Zurich, Switzerland, is open until to know this woman, who was not inter- all. But Weber’s persuasiveness made the landmark building to the municipal- 17 November and reopens in March ested in his famous architectural work him change his mind, and back in his ity for 1.06 million Swiss Francs, a frac- 2020. www.pavillon-le-corbusier.ch but in his paintings, sculptures and wall workshop he began to draft the plans tion of its true value. Weber, then 93 and

No.8__ artpaper / 15 Of Myths & Men KONRAD BUHAGIAR is a founding partner of Architecture Project and has been respon- sible for numerous restoration and rehabili- tation works in historic buildings and urban sites. He has lectured in Malta and several countries abroad, published numerous his- Comment / Fine Art / Love & Vulnerability torical articles and has been the Chairman of both the Heritage Advisory Committee and October – December –‘19 the Valletta Rehabilitation Committee.

CULTURE

KONRAD BUHAGIAR Of Myths & Men

Venus and Mars, Sandro Botticelli, c. 1485, tempera & oil on poplar

owe my love of “That is Mars, the God of War, the man disturb the tranquillity of the mystical making? The lance and the seashell are art to my moth- of action,” my mother explained. “He garden of myrtle trees – the evergreen surely objects of sexual symbolism and er. She loved de- is resting after some very strenuous with white flowers sacred to Venus – the painting portrays an aura of carnal tail above all, and and life-threatening exploit. And that where the beautiful gods lie. Mars is de- sensuality. Looking back on the hold admired the abil- lady whose all-knowing gaze rests on picted naked and locked in the deepest that the painting had on me in those ity of the Great the sleeping man is Venus, Goddess of sleep. Even the sound of a satyr’s bel- pre-pubescent years, I cannot but feel IMasters to imitate reality so closely. She Love. That is what love is, watching over lowing seashell horn cannot wake him. that its power had something to do with took me on a visit to the National Gallery someone, and understanding”. While he is lost to the world, Venus con- the contrast between Mars’ candid in- in London for the first time when I was templates his unaffected beauty, and genuity, that, in spite of his belligerent eleven. I remember her explaining Van Years later, as I began to read more the satyrs use his weapons and armour reputation, is central to the painting, Eyck’s The Arnolfini Portrait, the depic- about the Renaissance, and Botticelli’s to amuse themselves. One wears Mars’ and Venus’ compassionate but discern- tion of a couple that had just been joined painting in particular, I learned about helmet and, with his two companions, ing gaze. in marriage, showing me their fur-lined the more mainstream, academic ver- attempts to steal away with the warrior’s clothes and wealthy interior, and point- sions of the symbolism contained in the lance, while on the far lower right of the Strangely, the subject of the innocent ing to the artist’s reflection in the mirror painting and the message it conveyed. painting another is cheekily crawling warrior or sinner re-emerged abundant- on the back wall. Later, we stood in front Love will triumph over War. Also, sexu- through Mars’ breast-plate. ly in the books I read during my sixth of Botticelli’s Venus and Mars and I re- al prowess is greater than the physical form years. Too many to mention, they member being strangely disturbed by strength of a warrior. In contrast, Venus is clothed. She gaz- included writers from Graham Greene it. In comparison, the Arnolfini portrait es at the sleeping God of War, satisfied to Francois Mauriac and Heinrich Boll. seemed so serene, but stiff, stuffy and Botticelli depicted Venus and Mars fac- somehow, confident and in control. Her I suppose no actor incarnated better settled. Venus and Mars, on the other ing each other, accompanied by playful flowing white, gold-trimmed gown is the role of the sinner-saint than Richard hand, was my first taste of eroticism as satyrs, symbols of sex or lust. You can fastened with a pearl-encrusted brooch. Gere in his rich filmography of the eight- well as my first lesson in love. sense these mythological creatures are Is this scene intended to depict the im- ies which I devoured. American Gigolo up to some considerable mischief as they mediate aftermath of the couple’s love- is a trendy and unexpectedly >>

“He is not necessarily beautiful in himself but is made beautiful by the projected desire of his admirers.” >>

No.8__ artpaper / 17 Comment / Fine Art / Love & Vulnerability October – December –‘19

CULTURE

Continued ability to show his vulnerability? Is sex a means to hide that weakness? And is the fairer sex, Venus in Botticelli’s painting, knowingly pandering to man’s artifice of deception?

Last year’s show by Marlene Dumas at David Zwirner’s gallery in New York en- titled Myths and Mortals, seems to say so. The huge show, numbering 29 oils and 33 ink wash drawings was inspired by Shakespeare’s debut poem of 1593, Venus and Adonis, a Baroque explora- tion of a tale Ovid includes in Book X of his Metamorphoses. Dumas focuses on the erotic, specifically female love, and the mysterious coupling of male and fe- male sensual and sexual sensibilities. In Ovid, Cupid accidentally wounds Ve- nus, his mother, with one of his arrows, and she falls madly in love with the beau- tiful hunter Adonis. Ovid is clear that Venus is a victim and her love is mad, a pathological condition that makes the immortal goddess love the all-too-mor- tal hunter. In his interpretation of the tale, Shakespeare endows Venus with an erotic frenzy where she wishes she were a man. Dumas transforms this gen- der inversion into a tender commentary on new male-female relations. The artist seems to want to conquer the tradition- al territory of male artists, the nude, in order to express contemporary male-fe- male sensibilities.

Amends is a full-frontal male nude that we view over the shoulders of female poignant handling of this theme. Julian of a Palm Springs socialite. The mov- the morning paper, rearranges his paint- spectators. His arms are spread and his Kay, the gigolo of the title played by ie wants us to believe in the power of ings, exercises or selects his clothes for palms face the audience as though to Gere, is vulnerable, and a little too ‘good’ love to redeem both characters: Julian the day, underline the void that marks say that this is all there is, all that is on for his own good. Like Venus watching learns to love unselfishly, irrespective his life. American Gigolo leaves you with offer. He stares at us, empty of emotion over Mars in his fragile moment of slum- of money, and the woman learns to love the curious feeling that even if wom- and refusing to admit a multitude of oth- ber, the audience cannot but care for honestly, clearly not a characteristic of en were paying this man to sleep with er covert, submerged insecurities, fears Julian. What he does for a living, making the marriage to her influential politician them, they genuinely cared about him and reasons to be loved. He is not nec- love to rich, elderly women, gives him husband. and watched over him. They under- essarily beautiful in himself but is made the means to treat himself to the lux- stood his covert shyness, his inability beautiful by the projected desire of his uries by which Beverly Hills measures This business of redemption works on to expose his vulnerability, and they ac- admirers. It is as though Botticelli’s success. He drives a Mercedes, owns an the backdrop of an engaging story about cepted his qualities of a loner that made Mars, on waking up from his deep slum- expensive wardrobe and rare collection murder, framing, and police investiga- it easier for him to love when it was just ber, hides his fragility and disorientation of antique vases and is a member of ex- tions, but the whole movie has a deep another deal. behind the armour of his own nakedness clusive country clubs. sadness about it. Take away the story’s and is happy to exist as a function of the sensational aspects, Beverly Hill interi- Somehow, it strikes me how current this reflection that Venus offers him. This Of course, this is Hollywood, and the ors and Armani suits, and what is left all is on the courtship battlefield today was perhaps Richard Gere’s greatest protagonist is destined to fall in love is a study in loneliness. Richard Gere’s and how timeless is the message con- contribution, way back in the eighties, with his client. At the same time, how- performance is central to this, and some tained in Botticelli’s painting. Is a man’s to the expression of the emotional state ever, he is being framed for the murder of his scenes, whether when he reads chief vulnerability his reluctance or in- of the contemporary male.

“Is a man’s chief vulnerability his reluctance or inability to show his vulnerability? Is sex a means to hide that weakness? And is the fairer sex, Venus in Botticelli’s painting, knowingly pandering to man’s artifice of deception?”

No.8__ artpaper / 18 NIKKI PETRONI is a PhD candidate researching Maltese twentieth-century art. She has written for and Art News / Book / Malta edited a number of academic books and is co-curator of October – December –‘19 the APS Mdina Biennale.

MALTA

NIKKI PETRONI and creating knowledge on the topic, the necessity of such: “We ‘see’ things despite the many books in circulation. according to our concept of the things The epistemology of Maltese modern art we ‘see’”. In other words, historical ev- Realism has thus reached a qualitative standstill idence can be as fragile as memory in that reflects a seeming intransigence spite of its tangibility. “We are entangled of thought, with the consequence be- in layers of prejudices and preconcep- ing that the understanding of the sub- tions, a whole complex of heteroglossic ject has had a muzzle constraining its flows which are essentially defined by resounding, sometimes cacophonous, the dominant ideologies of our lives,” and Its Many even strident, voice from being heard. writes Schembri Bonaci. It is art’s task to exit these parameters to present coun- With steadfast determination, Giuseppe ternarratives, manners of representa- Schembri Bonaci, Associate Professor of tion that disturb rigid and constraining Modern and Contemporary Art History norms. Naturally, not all art presuppos- Fictions at the University of Malta, has embarked es such intentions. on a project to unravel the conventions he publication of history of artists produced volumes of work that are embedded in current scholar- Memory is inferred as tremulous as it books on Maltese Modern characterised by a diversity of aesthet- ship through a series of publications is an objective factor as much as it is Art has seen a steady in- ic choices denoting their positions on on the history and theory of Modern a subjective one. Collective memory is T crease over the past three art and society. There has been a hin- Art. Schembri Bonaci has long been subjected to what the author refers to as decades. Necessity has stimulated this drance, however, to the evolution of constructing categories for the study the condition of oubli, the act of forget- increase, as a relatively small group historiography, the method of studying of Maltese Modern Art in order to give ting. This manner of a failure to remem- rise to a disciplinary language capable ber is moulded by what is made visible. of communicating the nature of local art What is made most visible and enduring that has always been in dialogue with is arbitrated by power. the international history of Modern Art. The Unreality of Realism: An insular For this reason, realism, as the supposed perspective on the development of representation of reality, is unpacked, modern art, the first in the series, is a dismembered, and furthermore invert- journey through various historical and ed for good measure. Realism in Malta theoretical chapters in the history of has been innovatively placed within the art of the late nineteenth and twentieth European context of the Barbizon art- centuries. The book itself is a repository ists, Romanticism, and the French and of arguments, some novel in Schembri Russian schools of Realism. The protag- Bonaci’s writings, others which have onists of the book are some of the usu- been maturing over a number of years. al suspects: Gustave Courbet, Eugène It is at times complex, due to multi-lay- Delacroix, Ilya Repin, Édouard Manet, ered positions that require dedicated at- Marcel Duchamp, placed side by side tention from the reader. Certain stances with eminent Maltese artists; Antonio contend with historical evidence, yet Sciortino, Giorgio Preca, Josef Kalleya, several others are derived from theoret- George Fenech, Anton Agius, and the ical awareness of Maltese culture and brothers Edward and Robert Caruana identity, the latter methodology being a Dingli. strongpoint in his research. The latter, the lesser-known sibling, is The book in fact begins by asserting given due recognition in one of >> Photograph of L’Abbandono della Casa Materna, Josef Kalleya, 1934, private collection, image courtesy: Josef Kalleya Family Archives della Casa Materna, Josef Kalleya, 1934, private collection, Photograph of L’Abbandono Fête Champêtre, Robert Caruana Dingli, date unknown, oil on board, private collection, image courtesy: Fondazzjoni Patrimonju Malti, Peter Bartolo Parnis, & Gordon & Petra Caruana Dingli

No.8__ artpaper / 19 Art News / Book / Malta October – December –‘19

MALTA the most intriguing arguments present- ed in Schembri Bonaci’s book. In the third chapter, a comparative reading of Manet’s art with Robert Caruana Dingli’s paintings on the fête champêtre theme pronounces how both returned to this topic through the work of Antoine Wat- teau, albeit with opposing purpose. The argument weaves through a plethora of artistic and political happenings, and is penned with a critical yet lyrical tone, shifting from Caruana Dingli’s dream- state to Manet’s urban materiality. Ma- teriality is a subject of focus – an un- avoidable one when dealing with the kaleidoscopic contentions of realism.

The art of Caruana Dingli and his broth- er Edward is placed in conflict under the scrutiny of Schembri Bonaci’s study. Edward’s Costumbrista realism perpet- Joe the Gardener, George Fenech, 1966, oil on canvas, Off to Mnarja, Giorgio Preca, 1954, oil on canvas, pri- private collection, image courtesy: Doris Fenech & vate collection, image courtesy Obelisk Auctions uating an idealisation of rural identity, David Vella articulated with a differing approach by His inconsistency, however, has been Perov’s Troika, Kalleya’s mysticism in- of re-readings. The de-muzzling of his- Gianni Vella, is radically confronted by contextualised as reflective of his time tertwined with the material concerns of tory is a decisive tool for the organic Preca’s ‘skaz-narration’, as categorised and is not to be mistaken for a dismiss- an artist, the latter compared with the formation and dissemination of memory by the author, and the writings of Juann al of Agius’ art historical significance. diverse approaches of Hans Josephsohn that speaks about all, critically yet dem- Mamo, of which both manifest an oppos- Moreover, Schembri Bonaci entered and also Medardo Rosso; all contend- ocratically. ing reality to that pictured by Edward into George Fenech’s Van-Goghian links ing with the liberation of materiality, all Caruana Dingli. and dissonances that offer new perspec- constrained by the nature of their craft. The Unreality of Realism: An insu- tives on the Maltese artist, and likewise In Sciortino’s case, constrained by his lar perspective on the development A notable stance is that on Anton Agius’ on the Dutch master. self-limitation to manifest modernity. of modern art, by Giuseppe Schem- quest for the literal rendering of radical bri Bonaci is published by Horizons historical events using a figuration pro- The study concludes with a debate on It is admittedly challenging to encapsu- (2019). claimed by the author as inconsistent, Sciortino’s Kristu Re and Les Gav- late the several concepts presented in sometimes bordering on the mediocre. roches, Auguste Rodin’s Balzac, Vasily the Unreality of Realism, even in spite

“What is made most visible and enduring is arbitrated by power.”

VENICE Santiago Calatrava Fined

Internationally-renowned architect Santiago Calatra- va has been fined €78,000 by Venetian authorities in relation to his Quarto Ponte sul Canal Grande (or Constitution Bridge) in Venice. The fine was issued for “gross negligence”, in particular for the fact that the bridge was inaccessible to wheelchair users and for its slippery glass surface. The court in Rome found that Calatrava should have foreseen the problems that arose with his structure, given the large number of tourists in the Italian city.

The bridge, made of metal and glass and measuring al- most 100 metres, was inaugurated in 2008, and links the train station to the Piazzale Roma. It has been beset by delays and controversy, not least spiralling costs, as well as reports of accidents due to its slippery surface. Constitution Bridge, Venice, Santiago Calatrava, photo credit wikimedia

No.8__ artpaper / 20 NICOLE BEARMAN is a cultural producer, editor and curator. She is currently. Project Manager of the ZfinMa- lta project Threaded Fine, by Review / Books British choreographer Rose- mary Lee, and was previously October – December –‘19 Co-Director of Blitz, Valletta.

BOOKS

NICOLE BEARMAN Documents of Contemporary Art

‘ve always felt privi- “We could even venture, somewhat leged to be able to do ironically (citing the title of a piece by what I love. With de- the German-British artist Tino Sehgal, grees in visual arts and whose relationship to dance and cho- museum studies, and reography is quite direct), that the in- a career working as an clusion of dance in an artistic project editorI and producer in small arts organ- today (whether an object, exhibition or isations and large museums; festivals; performance) is that necessary gesture biennales; and art, design and architec- which allows it to affirm about itself: ture journals and magazines, I’ve felt This is so contemporary!”. The next big confident that I ticked the ‘dream job’ challenge facing curators and cultural box along the way. But through all of institutions, is to address the ephemeral this I have often been heard to say, “I and intangible nature of dance, which should have been a dancer”. Dance re- makes it so difficult to collect and store ally is my first love. As my career now for the longer term. takes on the discipline, I can plunge into a deeper learning of the development Fortunately, Dance, the book, is tangi- of experimental dance and its place in ble, so as my career path takes a turn, it contemporary culture, in particular its will be an object I can pore over at any relation to contemporary art. pace and carry with me for many years to come. Its place in my collection of fa- Documents of Contemporary Art is a vourites is certain. series of books published in an edito- rial alliance between the Whitechapel Documents of Contemporary Art, Gallery, London, and MIT Press, Mas- Dance is published by Whitechapel sachusetts. Each volume in the series Gallery and MIT Press. is a definitive anthology on a particu- lar theme, practice, or concern in con- temporary art. Dance, also published in collaboration with Sadler’s Wells, is “It is a curious edited by the eminent academic, André Lepecki, Associate Professor at the De- and still rather partment of Performance Studies, New York University, author and editor of under-theorised several books and anthologies on dance and performance, and curator of count- phenomenon that less international projects. His approach is philosophical and playful, drawing on dance, over the the big guns who have been instrumen- past decade, has tal in dance’s choreographic turn in the arts from the 1950s onwards. become a crucial phenomenon that dance, over the past ality, choreopolitics, and the notion of The list of artists surveyed reads like decade, has become a crucial referent dance in an expanded field, and by privi- referent for think- royalty – Merce Cunningham, William for thinking, making and curating vi- leging the voice of dancers and choreog- Forsythe, Trisha Brown, Deborah Hay, sual and performance-based art”. And raphers themselves, “still misperceived ing, making and Jan Fabre, Joan Jonas, Marina Abramov- yet, despite its galvanising presence in as non-verbal artists creating a suppos- ic, John Cage, Pina Bausch, Samuel art, he notes that at the level of critical edly ‘visceral’ art whose sole purpose curating visual Beckett, Lygia Pape, Yvonne Rainer, discourse and the public perception of is to move gracefully, flawlessly, to the and performance- Tino Sehgal, to name a few; while the dance, “there remains a lack of knowl- sound of music …”. list of writers is equally impressive and edge about dance’s own historic and based art.” includes Jean-Luc Nancy, Giles Deleuze, aesthetic developments, its immanent Why is it critical for the art world to and Barbara Browning. concerns and multiple manifestations”. catch up on dance theory? Dance sets out to place dance firmly in a contem- Lepecki begins his introduction to the Dance aims to bridge that discursive porary art context, as its own art form, – André Lepecki book with the statement: “It is a cu- gap by introducing and discussing the rather than merely a tool for visual art- rious and still rather under-theorised concepts of embodiment and corpore- ists to use. Lepecki sums it up best here:

No.8__ artpaper / 21 Untitled by Victor Pasmore (1908-1998) Feature / Malta / Cole & Son’s October – December –‘19

MALTA Inspired iconic designs on new fabric collections

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No.8__ artpaper / 23 ELEONORA SALVI is the co-founder of Diorama Editions (dioramamag. com) and currently collaborates with publishing houses and online art Spotlight / Sao Paulo / Brazil magazines. She graduated in Art History from IULM University in Milan with a October – December –‘19 master’s thesis on Post-Internet Art.

SAO PAULO ELEONORA SALVI Verdant Greens; A tour of São Paulo and Brazil

lery space – where nature and exhibi- lated to the cultural sphere of the black tion merge. These are galleries that led community in Brazil. If African emigra- to the presence of a lush Brazilian art tion in Brazil is recognised, the Japa- market in the most significant interna- nese diaspora is less known, but it prop- tional fairs. Even the galleries Galería erly portrayed in the Museu Histórico Luisa Strina and Galeria Eduardo Fer- da Imigração Japonesa no Brasil, in the nandes represent an esteemed list of Cambuci district. Brazilian and foreign artists, mainly South American, already accomplished The Museu de Arte de São Paulo, or or emerging, such as Alfredo Jaar, Cildo MASP, is located on Paulista Avenue, Meireles, Marina Abramovic or Eduardo one of the main streets of the city. It is Berliner. São Paulo is one of the capi- very famous for being one of the great- tals of contemporary art. It is a city that, est representations of Brazilian brutalist despite its various social contrasts, is architecture. The history of this muse- supported by a significant group of re- um begins in 1949, having been founded fined Brazilian collectors. Its Biennale, by the famous journalist Assis Chateau- born in 1951 is the oldest in the world briand, the magnate of the Diàrios As- after that of Venice. Currently, the city sociados group; and the journalist and is preparing for its 34th edition within art critic Pietro Maria Bardi, curator In the historiography of Brazilian archi- The city’s communities are hard-work- the liveliest and most culturally active at MASP for 45 years. The Museum of tecture, at the beginning of the 80s, the ing, with a well-educated middle-class. neighbourhoods. The much-anticipated Contemporary Art or MAC, founded by distinction between the Carioca School The more neglected part of São Paulo’s event will open on March 2020 and is Francisco Matarazzo Sobrinho in 1963 and the Paulista School was very com- society – the homeless and drug addicts curated by Jacopo Crivelli Visconti. – the same tycoon who founded the mon. The most reiterated commonplace – usually gather in the centre, as well Biennial of São Paulo – is dedicated to opposed the grace and lightness of the as in other favelas in the city. In Brazil, São Paulo is huge with countless cul- 20th century and Contemporary Art. It Cariocas forms with the heavy austerity there are 208 million people and a thou- tural wealth and social disparities ex- belongs to the University of São Paulo, of the Paulist structures. As opposed to sand contradictions, each of which are pressed by the mixture between Eu- and indeed is located on the main cam- the smoother curvy surfaces of Rio de poured into the country’s politics and ropean colonists, natives, and the two pus, near the Ibirapuera Park. Both mu- Janeiro, with its Carioca School typified administration. Everything that’s hap- great diasporas in Brazil – the Japanese seums offer a rich and orderly curatorial by Oscar Niemeyer, the Paulista work pened in Brazil’s recent history is what and the African; the latter through the path, which runs through large rooms embraced exposed concrete structures, has always happened, but Jair Bolsona- slave trade that brought to Brazil over interchanging the permanent collection chunkier massing, and rougher finish- ro’s reckless policies are having devas- 8 million Africans, mainly from Ango- and temporary exhibitions. es. The primary figure associated with tating and irreversible effects on Brazil- the Paulista School is Paulo Mendes da ian cities. Rocha, who left to the city of São Paulo one of his last projects before he died: Brazil is a green country, and not just the Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo, within its rainforests. The cities are a late 19th century building redesigned also sprinkled with flowering trees at by Rocha and located in the centre. The all times of the year. Nature is very building preserves visual art, with an abundant and even in the metropolis, emphasis on Brazilian Colonialist paint- the varieties of trees are many – you ing and sculpture ranging from the 19th can walk along tree-lined avenues, be- century up to today. tween immense ficus trees and colour- ful orchids that grow everywhere like The city of São Paulo is the most au- weeds. The beautiful neighbourhood of thentic expression of both schools – a Jardim combines modern architecture, la and Congo. Some traditions have Brazil is a huge state where the land- city that, despite its many social con- and landscape design in perfect union, survived unimpaired since the time of scape, culture, and traditions are con- tradictions, provided a carte blanche one in which the best Brazilian contem- slavery, for instance as is the case of stantly changing. Although the largest to these talented architects during its porary art galleries have found their particular Angolan dishes having been concentration of art is in São Paulo, economic boom in the 50s. A prominent stronghold. Jardim District can compete favoured in Brazilian cuisine, or some throughout the rest of the country example is the Copan Building designed with the districts of Soho and Tribeca in cults having mixed, giving birth to Can- there are museums and cultural insti- by Oscar Neymar. Throughout its histo- Manhattan for the largest concentration domblé culture. All this can be discov- tutions immersed in extraordinary con- ry, São Paulo underwent various stages of art galleries, but certainly at more af- ered in the Afro Brazil Museum, located texts – like the Instituto Terra created of urban expansion. The city tripled its fordable prices. in the Manoel da Nóbrega Pavilion, de- by the photographer Sebastiao Salgad; built area and population density in a signed by Oscar Niemeyer in Ibirapuera the amazing Parque Inhotim; and the very short time. Over time, the prole- In São Paulo, a gallery is an experience Park. Even if its curatorial path is full of Contemporary Art Museum of Niteroi, tariat increasingly expanded thanks to that transcends that of the American or lacunae, the museum offers the visitor which lies across Guanabara Bay facing the arrival of an ever-growing number of European ‘white-cube’. A good example an excellent collection. It is a good his- the city of Rio de Janeiro. They are part immigrants from Europe. São Paulo is is the Galleria Luciana Brito and Nara tory, artistic and ethnographic museum, of the best experiences that can be had like Rio de Janeiro, a city where strong Roesler or Mendes Wood DM, where dedicated to the research, preservation, in South America. differences reign among the population. green spaces are integrated in the gal- and exhibition of objects and works re-

No.8__ artpaper / 24 JOANNA DELIA is a medical doctor who specialises in cosmetic medicine. She is also a cultural consumer and Comment/ Malta / Artists’ Residencies art collector who tirelessly supports local contemporary October – December –‘19 art and culture.

MALTA

JOANNA DELIA Maltese artists-in-residency and the need for exposure.

was recently hav- had tight deadlines for the exhibition ing a conversation at the end. It was very inspirational about the reasons as it allowed me to make work in a for the ‘uglifica- new context, for a completely differ- tion’ of Malta, and ent audience. I felt that this experi- the only reason I ence allowed me to grow as an artist Icould think for it is that our architects in a way that I can’t from the comfort are simply not exposed to the built en- of my studio. I met a lot of people from vironment around the rest of the world. the arts sector – these connections are Say you are a girl who grew up in Qormi, allowing me to plan future projects no matter how incredibly genius your as the network is already in place. I architecture faculty is, how on earth highly recommend artist residencies can you know, with your daily Qormi to to anyone who is serious about a ca- Tal-Qroqq commute, what wonders are reer in the arts. One gets to produce possible when you hold the power to be work in a different context, which al- a licensed perit? Same goes for artists. lows the artist fresher perspectives.”

Artists too, have always found the need Aaron Bezzina - artist to expand their views by travelling, in- teracting and engaging with other cul- “All of the residencies I’ve been on con- tures in other places. The idea of art- free access to the print shop, includ- particularly for those at the begin- cluded with an exhibition of the body ists’ residencies is certainly not a new ing being allowed to use the materi- ning of their career, but could also be of work produced during the period. thing and unofficial opportunities for als and equipment there, as well as a phase for reflection and experimen- Some exhibitions travel, others are artists to travel and temporarily be- expert advice and training from the tation during later phases. added to the collection of the institu- long to another space has always been master printer. I went to the print- tion. During a residency, one aims around. I believe some exposure should shop every day for the duration of Darren Tanti - artist, Coordinator to take as much from the experience be compulsory. This island is laden with the residency –there was much trial and Senior lecturer at MCAST In- as one can, and one must be careful frustration-fuelled inspiration for an art- and error involved, especially in the stitute of the Creative Arts about what type of residency would ist, but it is frankly too small a zoo from beginning. In the end, I wish I could yield more ‘networking’ opportu- which to be exposed to the diversity have stayed longer, because I felt it “My time at the Virginia Centre for the nities. For instance, there are res- that is the art world. was time to leave just as I was getting Creative Arts in the USA in 2014 was idencies that are located in remote to grips with the process. quite good in terms of productivity. It areas offering the artist the opportu- Artists’ residency programmes exist took me a couple of days to adjust to nity to work in complete tranquillity; so that artists and curators can spend I find that inspiration comes through the new setting, but afterwards it was needless to say, this isn’t the residen- time engaging with their practice, often making, and very often artists just bliss. With food and housekeeping cy for you if you want to network.” mobilising entire studios in institutions don’t have the space or time to just taken care of, it was one of the best ranging from artist-run spaces to na- make and see what happens. Res- moments I’ve ever had to produce art. Wioletta Kulewska - artist, design- tional museums, outside of their usual idencies are a great way to push er/owner at VK Studio geographical area of practice. Residen- your practice in different directions To be honest, I did not ‘find inspira- cies can also be seen as sabbaticals of by changing the parameters within tion’ there - I prepared for it in Malta. “When I have the opportunity to ded- sorts, such that on offer one also finds which you usually work.” I wanted to make the best out of the icate full one month for my painting opportunities to spend time in some time alone, so I planned a number practice, I make the most of it. Art- pretty weird residencies; such as in a Vince Briffa - artist and Associate of drawings beforehand Once there, ists’ residency programmes give art- container on a merchant ship, or in an Professor and Head of Department I simply executed the works. The el- ists the opportunity to live and work isolated cabin in the woods. In other of Digital Arts, University of Malta ement of inspiration came when I outside of their usual environments, situations, artists are invited to become saw the interest that other artists took providing them with time to reflect, part of a wider network and draw inspi- “I approached all three of my residen- in my work. Their feedback gave me research, and produce new body of ration from the work and philosophies cies with a very open mind. They all strong motivation to pursue my prac- work. As a painter, it’s important for of the people they meet. provided excellent networking possi- tice. Artists must travel and meet oth- me to be part of a group of creative bilities. The best thing about a resi- er artists and people – especially true professionals to share ideas, aesthet- I reached out to several Maltese and dency is that being away from the re- for those who live on a minuscule is- ics or political views. What I really Malta-based artists to understand how sponsibilities of daily life, you can to land like ours.” liked about my residency experi- valuable they believe their experiences concentrate 100% on the work in a ence was that – coincidental or not at artists’ residencies were for the pro- way also promotes experimentation Sarah Maria Scicluna - artist, print- – there were an equal number of male gression of their practices. and risk-taking. There is also the maker, lecturer at MCAST Institute and female artists.” added bonus of being surrounded by of the Creative Arts Teresa Sciberras - artist peers, not necessarily from the visu- al arts, which extends your artistic “My productivity during my residen- “During my residency at Peacock’s focus in further discussion. Residen- cy at Youkobu Art Space in Japan Visual Arts in Aberdeen, I was given cies can be a source of inspiration, was very consistent, especially since I

No.8__ artpaper / 25 Spotlight / Stuart Semple / Q+A October – December –‘19

LONDON

MARGERITA PULÈ Dancing on a Happy Cloud

Following his exhibition DANCING ON MY OWN, at Bermondsey Project Space in London, Margerita Pulè caught up with artist, activist and all-round nice guy Stuart Semple, to ask him about his practice, philosophies and making the world a better place.

MP: You’ve become known for your pends on how you look at the work I your work together in one exhibition? tle over colour with Anish Kapoor. Why activism, public projects and for your suppose. The main thing is that I just did this mean so much to you? And do shop-selling art products. You’ve also follow the creative impulse to where it SS: It was weird and I’ve still not re- you still feel the same about it a few worked on some curatorial projects. wants to go. ally processed what happened there. years on? How has this affected your practice in The last 20 years have been full of so terms of drawing and painting? Do you MP: In an earlier interview, you said many hills and valleys and creative SS: Since I was a kid, on the outskirts mind spending time away from the stu- that the birth of your son had changed dead-ends. It would have been im- of the artworld, it’s been difficult to dio? Or do you see these activities as the way you work. Is that still true to- possible to cram everything in there, navigate because of the class system part of one artistic practice? day? And can you tell us more about it? but I was grateful to Lee Cavaliere, and the sheer wealth and power that the curator, because he managed to exists there. When it gets to the point SS: None of these things feel different SS: Yes it has, and that is more and tease out a few strong strands of my where someone can use power and from one another. What matters is the more relevant as he grows up. Initial- practice, and weirdly through him influence to dominate a material like intention in making things. For me ly it took me out of myself, and if I’m doing that it helped me make a bit the blackest black, that’s deeply prob- the very idea of art is some kind of honest there was a selfishness to me more sense of them. He really honed lematic to me. I think if anything I conversation with the viewer, so that before he arrived. Then, as he’s grow- in on the pain and anxiety in a lot feel more passionate about it because conversation hatches in different me- ing, I’m asking questions about what of the work and my personal story, it’s really opened my eyes to just how diums and different arenas. I don’t sort of world he’s going to inherit and then opened it up to the recent pub- exclusive the art world is and just really see creativity as something that how I can be a good dad. Art was my lic work. It was tough looking at some how lovely and engaged the wider should be limited. Sometimes draw- top priority and my big love but that of it. Lee made a hospital scene that art community is. I think they are at ing or painting makes sense and changed because he came along and reminded me of my near death as a odds with each other. We are at a time sometimes being in the world and now my heart is full with him – so art teenager and I wasn’t expecting to be where to make work you need huge engaging makes sense. The art shop plays second fiddle now. as shaken up as I was by that room. I fabrication budgets. I’m seeing de- could be seen as a shop, or it could be couldn’t really deal with that. gree shows where students are spend- seen as an artist-designed environ- MP: Your recent show at Bermondsey ing tens of thousands on their work. I ment and an installation. It all de- – how did it feel looking at 20 years of MP: We can’t not ask you about the bat- don’t want an artworld that is a rich

No.8__ artpaper / 26 MARGERITA PULÈ is an artist, writer and curator, with a Master’s Degree in Fine Arts, and founder of Unfinished Art Space. Her practice and Spotlight / Stuart Semple / Q+A research are concerned with the contradictions of politics October – December –‘19 and social realities.

LONDON

man’s sport! I want an artworld that SS: Well actually I’m having a rest, is open and at the root of that is ma- just finding some time with myself terials. and focusing on my spirituality for "When it gets to the point where a while. I’ve made a new studio and MP: Happiness, social cohesion, a bet- I’m very slowly starting to paint but someone can use power and influence ter society – these things are obviously I have no clue where that is going, it to dominate a material like the blackest important to you. How do you think art- feels like the start of a new chapter. ists can contribute? black, that’s deeply problematic to me."

SS: I don’t think artists have to con- tribute – they should be free to ex- press whatever they like. But, if they do feel inclined, they can simply re- flect the society in front of them. I re- ally believe that when artists engage in society, we can be useful. Luckily, at least in my country, we have free- dom of speech and I think the public need artists more than ever to use their voices on their behalf.

MP: On a similar thread, I’m thinking of your ‘Happy Cloud’ project. There were some lovely reactions to it at the time – 10 years later, do you think it still res- onates?

SS: Yes, it appears to still be relevant now, we did it last year in the USA and we are gearing up to take it to Hong Kong in a couple of months. It’s interesting that I’m still asked to perform it. It’s been done most years for the last decade. I think there’s just something very simple about it that makes some kind of sense, it’s one of those chance things that just takes on a bit of a life of its own and resonates for some reason. I don’t know why it works.

MP: The more personal issues that you deal with in your work are quite gen- erational – they are sort of specific to someone born in the 80s in the UK. Do you think your experience is universal, generational or personal? And does it matter?

SS: Well I think it’s all of those. Some pieces are deeply personal and they deal with my life, but I don’t think what I’ve been through is in any way unique. I think we are all wrestling with the impact of technology; how we navigate fear; what the media is serv- ing up; how we relate to one anoth- er. Yes, my generation had its set of historic moments that might not reso- nate with the generation before or af- ter, but I hope that the work is moving with the times and addressing what’s happening now. That’s my big hope.

MP: Maybe not an original question, but what’s next for you? What are you work- ing on at the moment?

No.8__ artpaper / 27 ERICA GIUSTA is Director of Innovation at architec- ture firm AP Valletta, where she focuses on research and business development. She read for an MA in Ar- chitecture, and has a Post-Graduate Master from the Sole24Ore Business School in Milan. She contributes Spotlight / Online / Artificial Intelligence regularly to academic journals and to international architecture magazines such as A10 New European October – December –‘19 Architecture and Il Giornale dell’Architettura.

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

ERICA GIUSTA Against Interpretation – Can AI be Creative? , installation view, Emily Grundon, 2018 , installation view, Myriad (Tulips)

“The artist as a scientist exploring new boundaries of originality doesn’t need any interpretation, any validation.”

The combination of artificial intelli- ative – which forces us to question what For the time being, two main forms Visual parameters are central in the gence and creativity is taking centre creativity is in the first place. Cognitive of AI-driven artistic processes have coding processes of all AI generated stage on all platforms, and in many science and evolutionary studies offer a emerged and sparked people’s interest: works. In Memory of Passerby I by Ma- fields. From Sotheby’s auctions to MIT solid and painless answer to what could those questioning and testing AI’s role rio Klingemann, for instance, it’s easy to laboratories, artists, researchers and otherwise degenerate into an endless at large, taking into account a number guess what the training set of the GAN business managers alike are striving speculative debate. According to phi- of social, economic and political factors; (Generative Adversarial Network – an to make the most of out the (relative- losopher Daniel Dennett, “creativity is and those exploiting the seemingly inex- AI system with two neural networks, one ly) new and promising binomial. not confined to evolution in nature, but haustible power of the machine to star- correcting the work of the other on the Erica Giusta investigates its poten- appears to be a pervasive feature of evo- tle and amaze, to break a world record basis of information fed to it by the user, tial consequences on the perception lutionary processes in general”. In other or become a ‘first’ in history, from the generally referred to as ‘training set’) in of contemporary art, asking – will AI words, anything and anyone capable of AI-generated painting sold at Christie’s use looked like. Klingemann trained the lead us ‘against interpretation’? undertaking an evolutionary process is for more than four hundred thousand machine on a mixed set of works of art also capable of developing creativity. It dollars, to the first solo exhibition of a from European masters from the 17th, As recently stated by Arthur Miller in comes as no surprise then that today’s robot at Oxford University earlier this 18th and 19th century, a very curated The Guardian, “machines are redefin- AI, equipped with artificial neural net- summer. What the two have in common choice to assure a consistent aesthetic ing what it is to be living, not merely works that work out the ‘rules’ as they is the focus on the production process to the everchanging final outcome. With human, beings”. And they are raising go along rather than being taught, dis- and what art critics usually identify as Myriad (Tulips), Anna Ridler trans- a lot of questions in doing so. When it play creativity as they find unexpect- form as opposed to content, or rather, formed the thousands of photos that comes to art and creativity, the most ed solutions to complex problems and the appearance and materiality of the she took – catalogued and used as the popular hypothesis, surely, is if these manage to create something new, orig- final outcome. training set of her work Mosaic Virus intelligent machines can really be cre- inal, of potential artistic value. – into a piece of art in its own right, to >>

No.8__ artpaper / 28 Art News / International October – December –‘19

>> both show the enormous human efforts becomes more interesting than the con- (still) required by generative systems, tent, over which critics and intellectuals Tribute – Philip Chircop 2009 as well as to ennoble the production usually obsess in their mission to vali- process as something of great artistic date art with their interpretations. The Abstract Expressionist potential. These and many other works conflictual relationship between form Philip Chircop passed were discussed at the Barbican in oc- and content seems to slowly resolve it- away in August. Chircop casion of the exhibition AI: More than self in an almost organic way: the artist > was a key figure in Maltese Human, while the humanoid robot with expresses them both as a whole, at all Abstract Art, whose work developed artificial intelligence named Ai-Da was stages of the process, from choosing the throughout his career to intuitively celebrated in Oxford for managing to data for a training set to adjusting the al- make use of colour, form, and texture. produce a series of beautiful drawings, gorithm. The artist as a scientist explor- Work by Chircop is held. at perma- paintings and sculptures which look like ing new boundaries of originality doesn’t nent collections at MUZA in Valletta, art. But were they? need any interpretation, any validation. at the UNESCO Building in New York, as well as at many other international Even though the debate generally tends Borrowing Susan Sontag’s words about collections. to revolve around the artistic validity cinema in Against Interpretation, of the processes of production of gen- these AI pioneers are “making works of A critical analysis of his work – Philip erative art, the aesthetic qualities of its art whose surface is so unified, whose Chircop – Abstract Expressions – final outcomes are always central to de- momentum is so rapid, whose address was published in 2010 by Prof Joseph ciding what should be considered art in is so direct that the work can be…just Paul Cassar. Untitled, Philip Chircop, 2009, mixed media on canvas the first place. As a result, the process what it is”. and the form of the work of art suddenly

MUNICH LONDON POSITIONS – Orbit Tower in Munich Art Fair Debt

ArcelorMittal Or- bit, the gargantu- an metal sculpture > and observation tower, built for the 2012 Lon- don Olympic Games, and de- signed by Anish Kapoor and Cecil Balmond, is now report- edly €14.4m in debt.

The 114.5-metre high sculp- ture, which reopened per- manently in 2014 and was repurposed with wraparound slides by Carsten Höller, was expected to recoup losses from visitor fees to the sculp- POSITIONS Berlin Art Fair 2018 © Clara Wenzel-Theiler ture. However, visitor num- bers have fallen, leaving the The first edition of the new POSITIONS POSITIONS Munich Art Fair and Paper debts linked to the tower to Munich Art Fair will take place from 17 Positions consciously focus on a sa- accumulate. – 20 October 2019 at the Reithalle Mu- lon-like exhibition format, engendering nich. After two successful editions of a communicative and interactive event. The work was a pet project ArcelorMittal Orbit, Anish Kapoor & Cecil Balmond, with slide by Paper Positions Munich, the fair will POSITIONS Munich Art Fair 2019, fea- of then London Mayor Boris Carsten Höller, photo credit wikimedia now be expanded to POSITIONS Mu- turing Paper Positions, is on from 17 Johnson, and was conceived nich Art Fair, presenting international to 20 October 2019 at the Reithalle in to rival international land- galleries and showing work in all me- Munich. marks like the Statue of Lib- dia, with a special section dedicated to erty and the Eiffel Tower. the medium of paper. www.paperpositions.com

No.8__ artpaper / 29

Years at the Forefront of Global Trade

Spotlight / Events / Malta October – December –‘19

VISUAL ART EXHIBITIONS A selection of curated events in Malta + Gozo 10 - 12.19 Events until January 2020

10.10.19 19.10.19 19.10.19 24.10.19 01.11.19 29.11.19 Until 17 October Until 8 November Until 17 November Until 7 November Until 4 December Until 5 January 2020

GRAND HOTEL THE DAWN SOPHISTIKÓS TESSIE FORGET AARON THE KOLAZ- EUROPA OF MALTESE Artists Fox Daniels, SJ Tessie is a photographic BEZZINA KTIRO Italian artist Alex Urso MODERN ART Fuerst and Tomas Hed will project by Giola Cassar, This exhibition takes its title COLLECTION exhibits in Malta for the first This show will introduce play with ideas of simplicity with written contributions from a reverse campaign- BUILDINGS IN time, with the culmination Carmelo Mangion – a and sophistication in this by Glen Calleja, inspired like experiment, occurring TIME of his 3-stage project, Grand pioneer of Maltese Modern joint exhibition. Themes of by the life and stories of a year prior to the opening, Artist Damian Darmanin Hotel Europa. Through Art – to the Gozitan public, artificiality, elegance and a 102-year-old woman. spreading around the uses his sharp eye to drawing, collage and with works from Mangion’s pretended naturality are Portrait by portrait, capital of Malta, Valletta, amalgamate diverse installation, this body of vast artistic corpus being explored, as is the eternal the project creates a with stickers reading images, combining them work reflects on the political exhibited on the island search for style and eternal biographical collage that exactly that: FORGET into imaginary edifices. and humanitarian crises that for the first time. The youth. A touch of irony spans more than a century, AARON BEZZINA. When He meticulously creates the EU has experienced in exhibition selection, though and mystery is contained with a photographic an artist decides to exhibit the non-existent from recent years. Each series small in number, will serve in their work, asking is narrative accompanied by work it inherently is a play the existent, transferring of works included in the as a pleasant revelation we want to hide what we textual fragments. Tessie on one’s ego and identity, fragments of reality into project explores the rise to many who have never consider ugly and natural is both the storyteller and irrelevant of how broad virtual entities. Darmanin of nationalistic feelings viewed any works from this through a veil of vanity and the embodiment of all the both terms could be defined acts as an alchemist, from different perspectives artist’s outstanding output. illusion, or if we simply seek places, objects and people as. Therefore, this show creating seductive images and philosophies, with a to empower our natural she talks about. attempts to explore various collated in spatio-temporal particular focus on the Where: art..e Gallery, Gozo skills. Attractive, magnetic A book has been created facades and interests equations. migrant flows through and Monday to Saturday: and powerful women will from the project, containing making up the (the past This solo exhibition around Europe. Urso’s visit 9.30am to 12.15pm inhabit exhibition walls, carefully constructed and current) practice of presents a global expression to Malta will follow the first Sunday 10am – 12 noon each with a touch of irony, sequences of original and the artist, who has decided of solidarity, unity, diversity two chapters of the project, mystery and, of course, found imagery, as well to reside on the island in and culture, and shows which have already taken Image: Self portrait (detail), sophistication. as delicate portraits in which he was brought up. Carmelo Mangion, oil on work which portrays the place in Belgrade, Serbia masonite, undated dialogue with composites continual exploration of and in Ustka on the Baltic Where: Arthall: 8, triq from old family albums. Where: Valletta globalization, religion and Coast. Agius de Soldanis, Contemporary, Valletta creativity. Victoria, Gozo. Where: National Archives Tuesday to Saturday: Where: Studio 87, Valletta Wednesday – Saturday: of Malta, Rabat 11:30am - 7pm Where: Spazju Kreattiv, Every day: 10am to 6pm 10am -1pm, 5pm – 7pm Monday – Friday: 8am - www. Valletta Sunday: 10am -12 noon 2pm vallettacontemporary.com Monday: 9am – 5pm www.unfinishedartspace. Saturday: - 8.15am – Tuesday – Friday: 9am – Image: © Aaron Bezzina org www.arthallgozo.com 12.45pm 9pm Thursday & Friday: 3pm Saturday – Sunday: 10am Image: Grand Hotel Europa. Alex Image: Smile, SJ Fuerst - 7.30pm Urso, Installation view at Baltic – 9pm Gallery of Contemporary Art, Sunday: 10am - 1pm Ustka, 2019 www.kreattivita.org www.giolacassar.com Image: Damien Darmanin, courtesy of the artist Image: © Giola Cassar

12.10.19 Until 31 January 2020 PIERRE HUYGHE: EXOMIND (DEEP WATER) The Malta International Contemporary Art Space (MICAS), in collaboration with the Serpentine Galleries, London, proudly presents the exhibition Exomind (Deep Water) by ground-breaking artist Pierre Huyghe. Situated within the dynamic ecosystem of Wied il-Luq, Buskett, Exomind (Deep Water), 2017, lies between the continuity and separation of interconnected systems. It comprises the cast of a sculpture of a blinded, crouching, female figure, a living beehive, and a set of exchanges with the flora and fauna that surround it. Monday - Sunday, 9am - 3pm www.micas.art

Image: Exomind, 2017. Concrete cast with wax hive, bee colony, orange tree (Daidai), plum tree (Tobiume descendant), plants, sand, stones, calico cat, ants, spider, butterfly, concrete pond with waterlilies (Giverny descendants), axolotl and insects. Photo credit: Ichikawa and Kei Maeda. Courtesy of the artist; Taro Nasu, Tokyo; The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo; and the Dazaifu Tenmangu Shrine.

No.8__ artpaper / 31

Spotlight / Events / Global October – December –‘19

PAINTING + SCULPTURE A selection of art events from around the world 10 - 12.19 Events until February 2020

28.06.19 12.09.19 25.09.19 27.09.19 16.10.19 24.10.19 Until 19 January 2020 Until 3 November Until 17 November Until 6 January 2020 Until 10 February 2020 Until 24 February 2020

FREUD PROJECT, REMAINS TO BE ALEXIS SUBTITLING GRECO LEONARDO DA LIFE ABOVE SEEN AKRITHAKIS: VINCI EVERYTHING: TSIKI-TSIKI Cape Verdean artist Irineu A retrospective of El Destourelles works at the LUCIAN FREUD The first presentation of Greco’s work, and the first To commemorate the Mona Hatoum’s work in intersection between film, major exhibition dedicated AND JACK B. This exhibition marks 500-year anniversary of London since her show at the occasion of the 80th text, and – occasionally – to his work, is showing in the death of Leonardo da YEATS Tate Modern in 2016, this anniversary from the birth, drawing and painting. This France. El Greco – born Vinci in France, the Musée exhibition includes new and 25 years from the body of work focuses on in Crete – undertook his du Louvre is holding a Life above Everything is and recent installation, passing, of the Greek artist issues of representation and initial apprenticeship in the major retrospective of a major exhibition that sculpture and works on Alexis Akrithakis. It is the language, with the artist Byzantine tradition before the painter’s career. The brings together the work paper. Hatoum’s work first systematic presentation exploring the perpetuation refining his training in exhibition illustrates how of two acknowledged reflects on subjects that of Alexis Akrithakis’ work of colonial practices and Venice and Rome. However, Leonardo placed utmost masters, Lucian Freud and arise from our current devoted exclusively to one their impact on both it was in Spain, where importance on painting, and Jack B. Yeats. Exploring global condition, including of his most recognisable cognitive processes and he was attracted by the how his investigation of the the affinities and inter- systems of confinement, the techniques, the ‘tsiki-tsiki’, the formation of social and promise of the El Escorial world, which he referred to connections between these architecture of surveillance, as writer Kostas Tachtsis power relations, placing site as commission, that as ‘the science of painting’, two artists, the exhibition and themes of mobility and named it in the mid-60s. central importance on the his art flourished. He was was the instrument of draws the work of these conflict. In this major new The exhibition features a experience of discursive influenced Titian’s colour, an art through which he two markedly individual installation, titled Remains significant part of his ‘tsiki- violence. The project has Tintoretto’s audacity and sought to bring life to his painters into dialogue, to be Seen, heavy, industrial tsiki’ works created from also been developed from Michelangelo’s heroic style. paintings. Alongside its own placing them side by side building materials are the mid-60s to the early 70s, Destourelles’ own condition El Greco holds unique place collection of five paintings for the first time in 70 years. transformed into a light, and projects that will be of as part of a diaspora and in the history of painting, as by Leonardo – the largest A substantial number of oil suspended cube. Created particular importance for from his social experiences the last grand master of the in the world and 22 of his paintings by both artists (33 from rows of steel rebar the creation, development in the urban spaces of cities Renaissance and the first drawings – the Louvre will by Freud and 24 by Yeats, as that are punctuated with and differentiation of his such as Lisbon, Mindelo and great painter of the Golden display nearly 120 other well as a range of works on what looks like chunks of characteristic style from the London. Age. works, including paintings, paper) will be exhibited. concrete flooring, it hovers beginning and throughout drawings, manuscripts, Unique to the exhibition are just above the ground in his career. Calouste Gulbenkian, Grand Palais, Paris sculptures, and objets d’art. seven paintings by Yeats, vertical and horizontal Lisbon www.grandpalais.fr which Freud recommended alignment. Benaki Museum, Athens www.gulbenkian.pt Musée du Louvre, Paris for acquisition to a friend. www.benaki.org Image: Opening of the Fifth www.louvre.fr White Cube Bermondsey Image: Several Ways of Falling Seal (The Vision of Saint John), Irish Museum of Modern Ordered Differently, 2019, video courtesy of Rmn-Grand Palais www.whitecube.com Image: The Dream of Pylades, still Image: Portait of a Young Woman, Art, Dublin Alexis Akrithakis, 1967, ink on Leonardo da Vinci, wood, Paris, paper © 2019 The Estate of Alexis Musée du Louvre, INV. 778 © www.imma.ie Image: Remains (chair), 2017, Akrithakis RMN-Grand Palais (musée du Wire mesh and wood Louvre) / Michel Urtado Image: Jack B. Yeats, The Flapping Meeting, 1926, © Estate of Jack B. Yeats, DACS London / IVARO Dublin, 2019. Private Collection. Photo: Denis Mortell

Newly Re-opened Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) The Museum of Modern Art in New York will re-open its doors this Pope.L, 1978–2001, showing the work of multidisciplinary artist October to reveal its expanded and restructured building, unveil- Pope.L; and Betye Saar: The Legends of Black Girls Window, ex- ing the new space as a culmination of structural works ongoing ploring the work of Betye Saar. since 2017. New spaces include the Paula and James Crown Platform, which The re-opening will reveal MoMA’s reinstalled collection in new- will act as an experimental, creative space to explore ideas, ques- ly-opened gallery spaces and will see MoMA hosting multiple in- tions, and art processes that arise from MoMA’s collection. augural exhibitions. These include Sur moderno: Journeys of Ab- www.moma.org straction, showing the museum’s collection of Latin American art; Image: Black Girls Window, Betye Saar, 1969, assemblage

No.8__ artpaper / 33 Interview / Malta / Art + Design October – December –‘19

MALTA I meet Tom on a sunny afternoon in Valletta. His cool demea- nour masks a frenetic work schedule in the run-up to his next show. Tom van Malderen is an artist, designer and exhibition designer. He came to art through a circuitous route, studying architecture and practicing as an architect with AP Valletta for many years. But the distinction between these disciplines is – as it is for many practitioners – blurred; he tells me that his training in architecture informs his art practice, which in turn informs his design work, and vice versa. The blurring of the lines between art practice, design, and of course, life, has al- A lowed him to segue easily from architecture to art; from a prac- tice that endeavours to make life easier, to one that challenges and disrupts the status quo. Quiet RevoMARGERITA PULÈ - lution- ary

Sallyanne Morgan in her studio, photo: Nadette Clare-Talbot

No.7No.8__ artpaper / 34 MARGERITA PULÈ is an artist, writer and curator, with a Master’s Degree in Fine Arts, and founder of Unfinished Art Space. Her practice and Interview / Malta / Art + Design research are concerned with the contradictions of politics October – December –‘19 and social realities.

As we speak, I realise how thoughtful Tom’s practice bles for the One Percent, at first glance, Tom’s work philosophers, we touch upon the art scene in Malta, is. His works are deceptively simple in form as well does not look like ‘art’ – rather it resembles strange or and collaborating with craftsmen. Tom reveals his as in colour, but as he talks about his practice, he de- distorted furniture. He himself admits “I like it when love of beauty and good design, saying that a beauti- scribes it, foremost, in conceptual terms. He’s fasci- objects are ambiguous”. ful piece of craftsmanship feels to him like poetry – a nated by how humans try – but fail – to organise our nod towards aesthetics, but also again, revealing an world, and to bring a sense of order to space. This, A development of this aesthetic is evident in Tom’s instinctive rejection of compartmentalising anything, he learnt through his work as an architect, but he most recent exhibition (in collaboration with artist, from disciplines, to life, and artistic practice. So even now uses this knowledge, and his sense of mischief, Kris Van Dessel) - titled GOOD CONDITIONS, it when he makes a piece of furniture, it’s as much a to create work that plays with this need and shifts an played with the notion and practicalities of holding piece of art as a functional object, as well as a combi- audience’s preconceptions. His 2018 show at Malta an exhibition and selling work – creating an art-fair nation of emotional and rational thought. Contemporary Art (MCA) in Valletta, Except for Ac- environment, overloaded with a huge number of sep- cess Only, is a perfect example of how his aesthetics, arate pieces. Here too, wood, plastics, metal and a Slowly, Tom reveals a broadness of thought, and a qui- design principles and quiet socialism combine. The ti- carpenterly style is evident; as is a sense of irony, and et revolutionary drive, concealed behind a light man- tle speaks volumes, but upon closer investigation, the a tongue-in-cheek challenge to a status quo. It seems ner and a cheerful pragmatism. His ideas encompass exhibition revealed a depth of thinking that belies the that Tom enjoys playing with audiences, gently con- political ideologies as well as design principles, and he pieces’ simplicity. Tables were presented as a symbol fronting them and disrupting their expectations. does not differentiate between thinking and making for excess – a space-filler for excessively large villas, work. Maybe Tom’s practice is a reflection of his per- and a signifier of wealth in themselves. The tables In recent years, Tom has combined his practice to also sonality, or maybe Tom is a personification of his own themselves were altered, none of them rectangular, work on exhibition design, working with Blitz in Vallet- practice. But either way, his work – like himself – is a and many of them stepped, but still retained the trap- ta (on an exhibition called Maltese Confabulations), pleasure to meet. pings status-rich marble table-tops. and also designing the exhibition at Malta’s pavilion at the Venice Biennale in 2017, as well as Land of Many years as an architect – which Tom says he en- Sea, the exhibition heading the cultural programme joyed immensely – left him questioning the architect’s of Malta’s Presidency of the Council of the European “His works are deceptively need to create a frictionless world. If this is an archi- Union, at Bozar in Brussels. He seems to have relished tect’s role; to facilitate cohesive living and societies the separate challenge of each one; from budget con- simple in form as well as that exist happily together, it is the artist’s role to straints (which, he says is extremely satisfying on an disrupt this comfortable existence. Tom is quiet – intellectual level), to geographic realities, demanding in colour, but as he talks he speaks in a measured tone, but behind a façade extreme efficiency and logistical skills from him as a of Belgian equilibrium, I sense a deep belief in social designer. He says that he was challenged enormously, about his practice, he de- equality, as well as a tendency and mischievous lean- but also says it with a smile on his face – he clearly ing towards disrupting the status quo. enjoyed the experience. scribes it, foremost, in con- ceptual terms.” This coincidence in practice is reflected too in an We talk about lots of things, from the beauty of an overlap of materials and aesthetics. As with the Ta- architectural feature in a Maltese gallerija, to Belgian

GAZEBO, sculpture at EXCEPT FOR ACCESS ONLY, solo show Tom Van ERNST NEUFERT II, sculpture at GOOD CONDITIONS, duo show Tom Van FAKE BRITTLE REALITY, mirror sculpture at GOOD CONDITIONS, duo Malderen at MALTA CONTEMPORARY ART, Valletta, Malta, 2018 - Picture Malderen and Kris Van Dessel at DWM Art Space, Antwerp, Belgium, 2019 - show Tom Van Malderen and Kris Van Dessel at DWM Art Space, Antwerp, credits: Dustin Cauchi Picture credits: wedocumentart.com Belgium, 2019 - Picture credits: wedocumentart.com

No.8No.7____ artpaper artpaper // 35 Art News / Australia / Brazil October – December –‘19

MELBOURNE

Gallery Dedicated to Women Artists Opens in Melbourne

Divine Assembly, Louise Paramor. Courtesy of Finkelstein Golden Gibbon Hands, Lisa Roet. Courtesy of Gallery & the artist. Finkelstein Gallery and the artist.

Finkelstein Gallery, Australia’s only contemporary art gallery dedicated to women art- ists has opened in Melbourne with an inaugural group exhibition.

Founded by art consultant and advocate Lisa Fehily, the gallery will present works from some of Australia’s most exciting emerging and established female artists including Cig- dem Aydemir, Lisa Roet, Louise Paramour, Monika Behrens, Kate Rohde, Kate Baker, Deborah Kelly, Coady, and international artists Kim Lieberman and Sonal Kontaria.

Fehily opened the gallery, inspired by the under-representation of female artists in Aus- tralia’s institutional collections (state museums show only 34% female artists in their collections) and the National Museum for Women in the Arts in Washington D.C cam- paign #fivewomenartists. Finkelstein Gallery will focus on nurturing the careers and promoting the works of its eight Australian women artists and two international artists both in Australia and particularly internationally.

The gallery represents artists from a range of disciplines including performance and video artist Cigdem Aydemir, renowned for her socially and politically engaging works; emerging pop artist Coady; and established visual artist Deborah Kelly, who explores lineages of representation, politics and history in public exchange across a range of media. www.finkelsteingallery.com Happy Pack, Coady. Courtesy of Finkelstein Gallery and the artist.

SÃO PAULO Contemporary Art in Brazil

The Contemporary Art Biennale Sesc_Videobrasil, mainly focused on show- ing work by artists from the Geopolitical South, is currently taking place in São Paulo, Brazil. The Biennale, which was established in 1983, has become respected as a platform devoted to spreading, fostering and reflecting on art productions from regions including Latin America, the Caribbean, Africa, the Middle East, Oceania and a selection of countries in Europe and Asia.

55 artists and collectives have been selected by a curatorial team – led by the biennale’s founder Solange Farkas – to take part in this edition, entitled Imagined Communities. Artists include Ahmad Ghossein, Gabriela Golder, Maya Shurbaji and Tiécoura N’daou.

Sesc_Videobrasil is on until 2 January at Sec May, São Paulo www.bienalsescvideobrasil.org.br

No.8__ artpaper / 36 RICHARD ENGLAND is an architect, poet, artist and the author of several books on art and architecture. His Opinion / Fine Art buildings have earned him numerous International priz- October – December –‘19 es and awards.

MALTA

RICHARD ENGLAND A Work for All Time Richard England eulogises on one of his favourite 17th century art works, The Ecstasy of St Teresa by Gian Lorenzo Bernini at Santa Maria Della Vittoria, Rome

ian Lorenzo Bernini was not describes the angel as “marvellously beautiful with a only one of the most promi- face which shone as though he was a seraphim,” and nent artists of his time, but also then continues that “I saw in his hands a long golden a multi-disciplinarian practi- spear… this he thrust several times into my heart and tioner of all the other visual it penetrated to my entrails. When he drew out the arts. Apart from his superb sa- spear it left me all on fire with a wondrous love for cred and secular buildings, his God”. The Saint refers to her experiencing a pain both G body of works of sculpture in excruciating yet also sweet. marble remain among the most impressive of all time and many consider them incomparable. So great was In Bernini’s sculpture, the Saint is depicted in ecstasy his reputation during his lifetime that he was often swooning in spiritual bliss – or is it sexually charged, referred to as the Michelangelo of his century. Even erotic exhilaration? While the angel is lithe, delicate at an early age, Bernini was already working for pow- and sylphlike, the sculptor’s depiction of the Saint’s erful and wealthy patrons and was soon even receiv- facial expression of divine joy reads almost as if she ing Papal commissions. His sculptural work in marble were experiencing a physical orgasm during her spir- pioneered a new approach to architecture, with his itual awakening. Bernini however, was not only con- dynamic exact realism and theatrical composition. His cerned with the design of the sculpture, but much David, and Apollo and Daphne, are perfect manifes- more so on its setting. As such, he designed the chap- tations of his genius engulfing the marble with not only el as a small theatre and as a choreographic show case a life-like intensity, tension and torsion, but also with to focus on the sculpture as the main focus. Theatri- overall ethereal rapturous quality. In contrast to his cally illuminated by shafts of natural light filtering in rival Borromini’s brooding character, Bernini appears from concealed top lights and further adorned by the to have been a cordial, congenial personality condu- artists golden heavenly rays, the sculpture appears as cive to maintaining affable relationships with his many an emblazoned Divine apparition. The whole is an ex- clients and patrons. travagant Baroque setting in a magnificent combina- tion of all the visual arts. My favourite work of this unique artist is his Ecsta- sy of St Teresa in the Cornaro Chapel in the church and ablaze with incandescent light beams descending Laterally, the chapel holds theatre boxes rendered dedicated to Santa Maria della Vittoria in Rome, rep- from the high-level lunette. Bernini’s handling of the in polychrome marbles with members of the Cornaro resenting the spiritual rapture of the mystical Spanish Saint’s drapery is magical in its delicacy and frailty, family participating in the whole theatrical setting. In Carmelite Nun (1515-1582) at her encounter with an with its depictions of folds and creases of her loose Bernini’s sculpture, divinity intrudes on humanity; the angel. This extravagant Baroque piece may be con- garments, as if to make one think that the figure is heavenly meets the earthly and the spiritual encoun- sidered a total choreographic work where painting, actually clothed in real vestments. So superbly and ters the materialistic. Bernini’s ambiance and dramat- sculpture and architecture are one inseparable whole. meticulously carved is the marble that Teresa appears ic setting, together with his virtuoso treating of the Rudolf Wittkower uses the term ‘Gesamtkunstwerk’ in her dematerialisation as if she is clothed more in sculpture itself, makes this whole ensemble perhaps totality of the arts. Bernini’s treatment of the whole silk than in marble. What is even more astounding is the apogee of this master’s work. I do not think that ambiance makes the Chapel more of a theatre than a the way Bernini renders the saint’s ecstasy. The artist on my numerous trips to Rome I have ever missed sacred venue. Here the master alloys in an exuberant, recounts that he was inspired by the Saint’s own spiri- visiting the Cornaro chapel to pay homage to what I theatrical narrative, a euphoric combination of art, tual account of her visions and modelled the sculpture consider to be one of the greatest artworks of all time. sculpture and theatre. The sculpture itself is ignited on her narrative. In an almost erotic language, she

“The sculpture itself is ignited and ablaze with incandescent light beams descending from the high-level lunette.”

No.8__ artpaper / 37 Review / Belgium / Colonialism October – December –‘19

BELGIUM

AKAREN GRECH successful metamorphosis?

The Royal Museum of Central Africa in Tervuren, Belgium Africa Museum, previously known as the Royal Museum of Central Africa, Tervuren, outskirts of Brussels, Belgium Africa Museum, previously known as the Royal Museum of Central Africa, Tervuren, No.8__ Artpaper / 38 KARIN GRECH is an Austri- an-born teacher of English and a part-time sculptor with a passion for art and art history. Review / Belgium / Colonialism She lives in Gozo and travels regularly to art shows and exhi- October – December –‘19 bitions around Europe.

BELGIUM

New Breath or Burgeoning Congo, Aimeì Mpane, placed on a pedestal in the middle of the Rotunda within the Africa Museum

The Royal Museum of Central Africa, known as the Belgium’s history of colonisation in the Congo Riv- director in 2001 that the process of change began. He Museum of Belgian Congo at its inception in 1910, er Basin starts in the latter part of the 19th centu- says that “confronting a colonial legacy in a building was, for a time, the last colonial museum of its kind in ry when Europe directed its imperialist expansion constructed to glorify it was an enormous challenge”. Europe. Belgium could have just closed it like all the towards Africa. Representatives from 14 European other former colonial powers did with theirs. Instead countries attended the Berlin Conference of 1884-85 In the museum, wall texts have been cleaned of con- they decided to confront the ghosts of their past and to decide how to go about colonising Africa – effec- tentious words like ‘pioneers’ or ‘hut’, and the new opted for a five-year, 70 million euro re-modelling ex- tively sharing its resource-rich lands between them- displays highlight the colonisation’s many problems. ercise. When the museum finally re-opened in Decem- selves. King Leopold II of Belgium took this as his cue Seeing itself as a “centre for knowledge and resources ber 2018, it was to a mixed reception. Critics implied to claim as his personal fiefdom an area 80 times the on Africa”, the museum’s focus is on education, pro- that the challenge had not been satisfactorily met. size of Belgium. He called it the ‘Congo Free State’ motion of sustainability and giving support and help and, under a philanthropic cover, set about exploiting where it is welcomed. Thus, the museum now mar- Undoubtedly, the task was an extremely difficult one. the country and its people. His reign of terror is re- kets itself as a forum for debate, which condemns co- As the museum’s director, Guido Gryseels, said in an ported to have been responsible for the death of up to lonialism as a system. interview, “[e]ntire generations of Belgians came here 10 million Congolese through abuse, starvation, over- and got the message that colonialism was a good thing, work and disease. The curatorial concept of arranging the collections that we brought civilisation and welfare and culture according to ethnographic themes is aided by the lay- to Congo”. The project of changing what the museum Leopold II used the World Fair of 1897, held in Brus- out of the building, with the exhibition halls grouped stands for has so far taken ten years. It involved the sels, as a propaganda tool for his Congo project. The around a central courtyard. The display starts with input of experts from the African diaspora, allowing colonial exhibition was set up at his country estate in languages and music; covers landscapes and biodi- them a chance to tell their side of the story. There Tervuren, on the outskirts of Brussels, and went so far versity; rituals and ceremonies; taking in resources; is also an effort to show pre-colonial African history, as to include the deplorable staging of a ‘human zoo’. and, not least of all, history, including colonial history making the point that Congo had a rich culture and and independence. It genuinely makes for interesting history of its own, way before any colonisation took Still, the exhibition was such a success that Leop- viewing. place. old saw the need for a permanent museum, and set about building it with funds derived from his horrific Before entering the main exhibition halls, the visitor Gryseels admits that the process of ‘decolonisation’ is exploits in the Congo. Eventually Leopold’s projects passes through an introductory space with interactive a slow one and is sometimes hampered by the mu- ran into debt and the international outcry over abus- displays that place the colonisation process in a crit- seum building itself. For example, one of the muse- es committed became so strong that in 1908 he had ical light. Gathered in one dark side room are all the um’s most prominent rooms, the Rotunda, has gilded to transfer authority over his colony to the Belgian outright racist sculptures that used to be scattered bronze sculptures embedded in niches that depict government. throughout the museum. By putting them there, out Belgium’s ‘civilising mission’ in the Congo. Since the of the way, the museum distances itself from its racist museum is protected by heritage laws these contro- The Museum of Belgian Congo opened in 1910, a year and pro-colonial past. versial statues cannot be removed. A solution was after Leopold’s death, showcasing mainly the valuable found by commissioning contemporary Congolese resources – rubber, ivory, wood and minerals – that Another display focuses on the manner in which many artist Aimé Mpane to produce a work to juxtapose the the colony had to offer. Over the years the collection of the exhibits had been obtained. The legality of ac- offending statues. His piece, entitled New Breath or expanded, adding artefacts, preserved samples of quiring the objects is often questioned – and not just Burgeoning Congo, has been placed on a pedestal in wildlife, and photographic material. Yet the viewpoint by the museum itself. After the opening of the Africa the middle of the Rotunda. for presenting it always remained the white colo- Museum, the DRof Congo demanded the restitution nisers’ perspective. It was only when Gryseels became of the art works that were appropriated by Belgium. >>

No.8__ Artpaper / 39 Review / Belgium / Colonialism October – December –‘19

ONLINE

>> “Gathered in one dark side room are all the out- right racist sculptures that used to be scattered throughout the museum. By putting them there, out of the way, the museum distances itself from its racist and pro-colonial past.”

A visit to the Africa Museum throws up many questions. Could the condemnation have been more pronounced? Does it have to be more pronounced? Do we need to look at pictures of atrocities to be able to condemn them? Doesn’t the history of the place speak for itself?

On the walls of the tunnel that connects the visitor centre to the main museum, the following quote is written in six languages: “Everything passes – except the past”. Therefore, as we cannot change what has passed, shall we let this museum be what in the German language is so aptly called a Mahnmal - best translated as ‘a warning from history’? It is never easy to confront the bitter truth of one’s past, once it is known to all. What can make a difference though, is trying to make amends. Despite all the criticism the museum still receives, it can be posited that the Belgian Africa Museum is on the right path to a successful metamorphosis, if it can change the way its visitors perceive this difficult legacy of humanity. www.africamuseum.be

SWITZERLAND An exhibition of work by Swiss Bauhaus artist Johannes Itten is on show at the Kunstmuseum Bern.

The exhibition is the first to present Itten’s utopian Bauhaus vision of achieving a unification of art and life. It retraces his career’s development from Switzerland, through the periods he spent in Germany, Austria and the Netherlands, much of which have not previously received attention. Juxta- posed with leading works of his painted oeuvre, the exhibition illustrates a new angle on Itten’s hitherto concealed understanding of the world, and on his intrinsically linked artistic working processes.

Key exhibition pieces are Itten’s newly researched diaries and sketchbooks, which were integral to his artistic practice from 1913 onward and have never Kinderbild, Johannes Itten, 1921/1922, oil on wood, Self-portrait, Johannes Itten, 1928, oil on canvas, been shown on such a broad scope before. Kunsthaus Zürich, 1964 © 2019, ProLitteris, Zürich, private collection, © 2019, ProLitteris, Zürich www.kunstmuseumbern.ch photo: Kunsthaus Zürich

MALTA Tribute / Ganni Bonnici . Sculptor Ganni Bonnici passed away, aged 86, in August. The Times of Malta described Bonnici as “a pioneer in the use of ceramics in Malta”. Bonnici also created monu- ments, as well as medals and coins, in bronze. He set up the Malta School of Arts and . Crafts at Targa Gap in 1974, leading it until his retirement in 1992.

Bonnici’s best-known public work is the Independence Monument in Floriana, inaugu- rated in 1989 and measuring over eight metres high.

. Independence Monument, Ganni Bonnici, 1989

No.8__ artpaper / 40 ANN DINGLI is a freelance art and design writer, content consultant, and media strategist currently living in London. She writes and edits for Opinion / Art / Environment various cultural publications and runs her own design blog, I think I October – December –‘19 like it (think-like-it.com).

MALTA

ANN DINGLI Art in the Time of Climate Crisis

Instead, Rakowitz’s Footprint of Contemporary Art’ (de- installation, Dull spite Kate Brown’s protestations that Roar (2005), de- Everyone at a Place Like Art Basel Is scribed within said Complicit: Artists May Be Making Art booklet as “an in- About Climate Change, But Nobody flatable tower block at the Fair Wants to Talk About It, as >inspired by a 1950s high rise estate in published by artnet News in June. Com- Missouri that aspired to end poverty but panies like Rokbox are finding ways to ended in demolition,” greeted me forth- reduce the carbon footprint of biennales rightly. I encountered it in flaccid state, and fairs through mitigating the impact halfway between complete collapse and of art transportation – in their case, full inflation. The air within it was still specifically through re-usable and re- whistling out, the smell of its rigid fabric cyclable art crates. At the 58th Venice persisting through its downward jour- Art Biennale, the Lithuanian Pavilion, ney as it decomposed inertly beneath Sun and Sea (Marina) – a beach op- me (a raised timber walkway had been era about climate change – won the cov- constructed around the installation to, eted 2019 Golden Lion award for Best I assumed, induce this exact elevated National Participation. Things are hap- viewpoint). pening, action is being exercised. But is it enough? Is it fast enough, is it power- After a few minutes of awkward suspen- Dull Roar, Michael Rakowitz, 2005 ful enough – can it compensate for the sion, a ‘dull roar’ indeed took hold of the carbon demands the art world itself is This is by no means an attempt to call This specific conundrum speaks to a room. The puddle of grey began to rise placing on the planet? out Rakowtiz’s show singularly – it was larger theoretical question, one that has up, quite quickly, being inflated steadily exceptionally stirring and effective in existed as long as morally-driven art by a loud, automated pump. Within sec- When faced with the threat of the insur- addressing the issue of holistic sustain- has been produced – can a work of art onds the synthetic structure was stand- mountable, with the reality of a crisis ability within diverse realms and on be powerful enough to catalyse or mo- ing pertly, the simplicity of its form and that is apparently so far gone that there unexpected levels. But the strength of bilise change? Can art, with its ability design echoing in diagrammatic format is little chance that the “sun, space, and climate awareness had successfully in- to communicate with viewers implic- the Pruitt-Igoe building – St. Louis’ in- greenery” so famously expounded by Le vaded my personal gallery-going experi- itly, on a level unreachable by political famous housing project designed by Mi- Corbusier could be enjoyed in the same ence; even here, within the haptic grasp or civic rhetoric, on a level of emotion noru Yamasaki. Even in its rudimentary way again by our children and grand- of themes that were deeply profound rather than reason, speak louder than articulation, it was easy to recognise the children – at least not without radical and important, all I could think of was: any number of messages conveyed in building’s kinship with the modernist policy change – it’s hard not to feel the carbon footprint. traditional media? Art has revealed its principals of Le Corbusier’s ideal resi- air deflating out of our own personal didactic power in diverse formats over dential habitat; a housing ideology that systems. But art cannot be monothe- A few weeks earlier I’d visited Tate Mod- centuries of moral catastrophes. Goya, sought to incorporate “three essential matic, it cannot tackle just one problem ern’s stimulating showcase of Olafur Picasso, Turner, Haring, Banksy, Ai Wei- joys of urbanism: sun, space and green- at a time. It exists to address nuance; Eliassion’s work: In Real Life – a show wei, and countless other artists have ery”. Before long (I would guess no to find the many dark, ignored, malin- that directly addressed the themes of made the fight for some segment of so- longer than 30 seconds), those ideals gered woes of humanity and give them a climate change and which highlighted cial justice at least part of their artistic would depress into practically nothing, home. It somehow needs to go on doing the practice of an artist who has been pursuit. Their bodies of work and theo- signifying the death of a utopian vision that whilst adapting to a world that re- overtly concerned with the effects of retical offerings eventually did contrib- of desegregated living. As the struc- quires less stress placed on its resources carbon excess on the planet. Like the ute to change. But is ‘eventually’ good ture’s air began to be expelled, I wit- and less exploitation of its environment. Whitechapel show, it was satisfyingly enough and how long does ‘eventually’ nessed the installation’s deflation, this Art, it seems, doesn’t merely have to potent in delivering messages that ap- take to play out? Is the ‘eventually’ of time from start to finish – a mournful, make a theme out of the climate crisis; it pealed to both senses and intellect. But the Land Artists from the 1960s and 70s fairly silent process that effectively in- has to radically re-invent itself and look again, I couldn’t easily shake questions finally materialising now? Probably not. duced feelings of grief and hopelessness to be created within a more sustainable on how much energy the large-scale At best, it’s reached its teenage years. at the failure of humanity to realise the framework. If it can manage that, then it exhibits themselves required to be on dreams and structures of progress that can really start to make a change. Then display for the length of the show. Was But speed is the word of the day when had been built for it. Once the graceful maybe we could start to get things right, the message of climate awareness more it comes to the climate crisis – or cli- folding of the inflatable block had end- for once. important than the carbon impact of mate ‘emergency’, as Tate referred to ed, I was left to contend with two major the exhibition itself? In a time where an it earlier this year when it declared its personal reactions – one, why do we so omnipresent assurance that we are fac- commitment to “reducing its carbon rarely get things right? And two, how ing one of the greatest ever ecological footprint by at least 10 per cent by 2023 much energy must this installation be crises persistently looms, how can any and […] switching to a green electricity using as it inflates and deflates system- subsequent messages of art remain un- tariff across all four galleries”. The UK atically several times a day for the dura- obscured? institution is not alone. Art Basel’s ‘Con- tion of the entire show (approximately versations’ series tackled ‘The Carbon two months)?

No.8__ artpaper / 41 Art News / International / Art Market October – December –‘19

PARIS USA Nicolas de Staël

Nicolas de Staël’s masterpiece, Parc des Princes, Princes measures 2m x 3.5m, and is an abstracted will be offered for sale by Christie’s in Paris during figurative composition of football players, executed FIAC week (International Contemporary Art Fair), with de Staël’s palette knife. with an estimated value of €18-25m. The painting has remained in the family of Nicolas de Staël since his The sale takes place on 17 October 2019 at Chris- passing in 1955 and constitutes a key element in the tie’s in Paris. www christies.com history of post-war art. Completed in 1952, Parc des Nan Goldin, photo credit wikimedia Nan Goldin Activism Persists

US artist and activist Nan Goldin has continued to protest against big pharma companies and the pre- scription of addictive drugs, seen as responsible for the current opioid crisis in the US. Her campaign- ing is largely credited with pushing art institutions to rethink large donations from the Sackler family, owners of Purdue Pharma, the manufacturer of the controversial drug OxyContin.

Following a highly visible and international cam- Nicolas de Staël (1914-1955), Parc des Princes - €18,000,000 – 25,000,000 paign, the Louvre recently removed the Sackler name from its galleries, while the Tate Museum Group, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, and LONDON the Metropolitan Museum of Art all announced that they will no longer accept donations from the Sack- ler family.

20th Century Art & Middle Goldin was arrested in August, along with fellow protestors in New York, while calling on the State Department to approve the setting up of overdose East Sale prevention centres.

Sotheby’s 20th Century Art / Mid- dle East sale will include rare and MALTA sought-after artists’ work from the modern era to the contemporary pe- riod. A cohort of masterworks is pre- Tribute: sented, spanning an array of countries and regions rarely seen, including works by Antoine Malliarakis Mayo, Dame Tempra Hassan Hajjaj, Marcos Grigorian, Mah- Art historian, collec- moud Said, Shirin Neshat, Massoud tor and critic, Dame Arabshahi, and Manoucher Yektai. Françoise Tempra passed away this Sep- The sale takes place at Sotheby’s in tember. Dame Tempra London on 22 October. lived in Malta for al- www.sothebys.com most 30 years. In the Death of a Child, Mahmoud Sabri, sold for €992,000 late 70s, she founded the Malta Internation- al Biennale, present- ing Maltese work in- ternationally, and later founded the Tempra Academy.

No.8__ artpaper / 42 KAREN ELIZABETH STEED, author of ‘Malta: The Beautiful Hour’, has lived in Malta for a decade and has a long-time fascination with new S Review / France / Virtual Reality science and old science. She is currently at work on a novel about the baroque period.

FRANCE

KAREN ELIZABETH STEED The Technology of Noticing Oneself

In Provence this summer for the Aix There’s a big element of trust in this One message Lanier wants to get across green things, trees? But I did notice Festival, I decided to drive up to Châ- experience and some of it has got to do is that virtual reality is not so much an things differently when I got home, not teau LaCoste in Le Puy Sainte Répa- with the way you relate to an avatar. La- ‘escape’ from the real world, but instead all the time, but especially to do with de- rade to take in one of the more unusual nier warns that some creators of virtual an intriguing puzzle for our much-un- tail and light. I found myself examining acts on a crowded schedule of opera: a reality fall into what is known as the ‘un- derused brains. Instead of being on shadows for no good reason. I found a 15-minute virtual reality opera called canny valley’: ‘When an avatar is weird the outside, for example, thinking of grasshopper and gave it to a friend. She Eight, which had premiered at the Hol- but expressive, the brain is intrigued. a molecule, get inside and ‘think like a seemed surprised. land Festival in June. I’ve been reading When an avatar is just slightly off, then molecule: your brain is waiting for the books by Jaron Lanier, one of the inven- the brain panics.’ I noticed the avatars chance’. He says it’s a good thing we are Eight is a collaborative project with tors of virtual reality – he’d given me the never looked directly at me, they kind living in the age of fake news on social Michel van der Aa and designer idea that I could actually go into a virtu- of stared off over my right shoulder – media – essentially mis-stated text, un- Theun Mosk and The Virtual Dutch al reality installation and come out alive. weird. I got a bit braver as the experi- substantiated claims – because what’s Men, featuring singer-songwriter ence went on, but never quite stirred up coming is ‘fake reality’, a combination Kate Miller-Heidke and the Neder- Though it’s billed as a virtual reality op- the courage to touch an avatar. If I did it of sensory and visual stimulants that lands Kamerkoor. era, Eight is actually a mixed reality en- again, I might. will be very hard to detect. We’ve got vironment, using song as the audio. La- to educate our senses to know what is nier talks about early experiments with But I did trail along with them, trusting, real and what is not. This is not a game virtual reality sound, and I understand through a rockfall and the ghostly pres- anymore: technology firms including “Eight is a it’s still beyond the technology to get an ence of figures just beyond vision. At one Facebook, Apple, Amazon and Micro- avatar to realistically engage in conver- point, I was standing at what seemed to soft have backed a Partnership on AI sation. Thus: singing, which is more of a be the edge of the world with a huge, to launch a ‘deepfake challenge’, with mixed reality flow of sound than speech. Mixed reali- sweeping vista at my feet and there was leading universities including MIT, Cor- ty has always been the hardest way to no way I was going to advance another nell and Oxford. The legitimacy of on- present virtual reality; it requires phys- step despite the avatar’s friendly en- line information and perhaps the health environment, ical presence and the devilishly human treaties, because I felt I might fall a very of democratic institutions are at stake. sense of haptics – the ability to under- long way down. I did agree to sit on the using song as stand something by touching it. And so, floor with an avatar child, under a table, There is another element to experienc- you enter the Eight experience by walk- while she sang away. Eight is so-named ing virtual reality that Lanier calls ‘the ing between two wafting walls of fabric because if you write eight as a numer- technology of noticing oneself’. He says the audio.” and there you are greeted by an avatar, al and put it on its side, it’s the symbol that virtual reality’s greatest value is as and she is singing. for eternity. Eternity in 15 minutes? a ‘palate cleanser’, which is to say that The composer/director, Michel van der it takes you so far out of the humdrum For the next 15 minutes, decked out in a Aa, says that anything shorter than 15 of daily life that you can’t help but view major headset and earphones, I walked minutes would be ‘unsatisfactory’, but it with fresh eyes after a virtual reality along a little path into other worlds. The longer might make people feel sick. La- experience. I was secretly testing this story is that you are greeted by a wom- nier says people used to compare virtual idea as I drove away from Château La- an who invites you on a journey through reality to hallucinogenic drugs because Coste: did the world look different? Un- her earlier life and so we meet her again they could both make you throw up. For fair question, really, as I’ve lived in Malta as a younger woman with limitless pow- a while Timothy Leary was a big fan. for 10 years and I was driving through er and as a child full of wonder, and fear. French countryside. Were all those

No.8__ artpaper / 43 Spotlight / Norway / Sculpture Park October – December –‘19

NORWAY

Finn Blythe goes to see Bjarke Ingels’ Twist - the latest addition to Kistefos, one of Scandina- via’s largest sculpture parks. The Twist, image: Laurian Ghinitoiu The Twist,

FINN BLYTHE

Nestled deep among the pines of Jevnaker, some fifty miles north of Oslo, a shimmering contortion of alu- minium and glass spans the winding Randselva river, connecting two forested riverbanks at Kistefos – the largest sculpture park in Scandinavia. This beguiling and inhabitable sculpture is the latest vision from Danish architect Bjarke Ingels, whose design was A Twist chosen following an international competition held by Sveaas and is the company’s first completed project in Norway.

“The Twist is a hybrid spanning across traditional cat- egories,” explains Ingels, “it’s a museum, it’s a bridge, it’s an inhabitable sculpture. As a bridge it reconfig- ures the sculpture park, turning the journey through in Nature the park into a loop. As a museum it connects two

No.8__ artpaper / 44 FINN BLYTHE is Junior Features Editor at HERO + HEROINE magazine Spotlight / Norway / Sculpture Park based in London, writing about art, film October – December –‘19 and music.

NORWAY “It’s a museum, it’s a bridge, it’s an inhabitable sculpture”

distinct spaces – the vertical gallery its fluid profile, the aluminium cladding down from the northern gallery, reveals the water. The new exhibition space, shaded from sunlight and the horizontal that gives the appearance of stacked one of the building’s most ingenious accessed via pathways leading through gallery with panoramic views across the playing cards is formed entirely of design elements. This hidden base- the surrounding mystical woodland, will river. A third space is created through straight elements (developed in collab- ment, lined with concrete and glass, represent a natural extension of the the blatant translation between these oration with Baumetall) that honour sits beneath the structure and not only existing programme. two galleries: the namesake twist, rep- the site’s industrial history. Inside, houses art, but also the museum’s bath- resenting a new challenge for the ex- the museum combines horizontal and rooms – providing what must be among To inaugurate this landmark art ven- hibiting artists and artworks to engage vertical spaces, with a central intersti- the finest of toilet vistas looking out ue, its opening exhibition pairs the with. The resultant form – complex tial gallery at the point of its 90-degree over the park’s sublime natural scenery. late British painter Howard Hodgkin yet simple – integrates as a newcomer twist. Approaching from the south (1932-2017) with the conceptual artist among the sculptures of the park.” bank of the Randeselva (the museum Founded in 1996 by Norwegian busi- Martin Creed for the first exhibition of An astonishing feat of mathematics is accessible from either side), visitors nessman and art collector Christen Hodgkin’s work since his death. Cu- and geometry, the museum’s structural are met by a vast, monolithic entrance, Sveaas on the former site of his family rated by Guy Robertson and featuring torque bears some resemblance to the inside of which a windowless, double wood pulp business, Kistefos comprises works from public and private collec- group’s soon-to-be unveiled Vancouver height cavern reveals itself as an ideal an industrial museum and exhibition tions (including from Christen Sveaas’ House – a 493-foot cantilevered resi- space for housing larger works. De- galleries as well as an 80-acre sculpture collection), Inside Out centres on the dential tower described by Ingels as a, scribed by Ingels as “introverted”, the park. Located in an area of extraordi- dialogue between these two artists and “contemporary descendant of the Flat- vertiginous proportions are juxtaposed nary beauty and unique industrial heri- celebrates their shared conviction that iron Building in New York.” The Twist, by the south end of the structure: a tage (the site’s 19th century paper mill art offers a framework for expressing however, will host an international single-storey, “extroverted” space with is the oldest of its kind left in Norway), our complex emotional lives. It’s a programme of contemporary art exhibi- panoramic, floor-to-ceiling glazing that its mission is as much about conserving fitting choice for a building that pays tions that will only further enhance the tapers with the contour of the building the buildings that had fallen into ruin as tribute to the contingency between art, reputation of Kistefos Sculpture Park to form a skylight that naturally illumi- celebrating the best of Norwegian and landscape and a building that is itself as one of the most exciting venues to nates the gallery. international contemporary art. testimony to our compulsive response showcase the work of leading artists. to the visceral power of natural beauty. Not only does the design provide artists Walls and ceilings are clad in local The park already features nearly fifty with a stimulating space to respond Douglas fir slats that reference the sur- site-specific works by artists including www.kistefosmuseum.com to, but as an indoor facility, The Twist rounding vernacular of country homes Tony Cragg, Anish Kapoor, Marc Quinn, allows Kistefos greater flexibility for and barns, while concrete bearings and Jeppe Hein, Philip King, llya Kabakov, artist programming, given the harsh structural joints, designed to accommo- Lynda Benglis and, as of May this year, seasonal conditions that currently limit date the building’s movement, are left a polka-dotted, tentacle-like Kusama the museum’s opening times. Despite exposed. A concrete staircase, leading sculpture that seemingly grows out of

The Twist, image: Laurian Ghinitoiu

The Twist, image: Laurian Ghinitoiu

No.8__ artpaper / 45 Spotlight /Zimbabwe / Artists Rising October – December –‘19

ZIMBABWE

CHRISTINE XUEREB SEIDU Zimbabwean Artists Rising

While researching Zimbabwean artists, I came to realise the sheer number of established contemporary artists coming from this country. The development of Zimbabwean artists’ careers is probably due in part to its consistent participation in the Venice Biennale ever since the 54th edition in 2011, with Raphael Chikukwa being the chief curator each year, and 20 artists having benefitted from this opportunity so far. The 1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair, the Zeitz Museum of Contem- porary African Art, and art galleries in Zimbabwe – including Gallery Delta’s Helen Leiros’ pivotal role since 1975 – have also added to much of the success received by Zimbabwean artists.

Despite the large number of artists coming out from the Zim- babwean National Gallery Visual Art Studio and the Harare Polytechnic, installation artist Wallen Mapondera and former curator of Tsoko Gallery, Merilyn Mushakwe realised that many artists didn’t know much about self-promotion, and that’s when they felt the need to found the Post Studio Arts Collective in 2012. Village Unhu, founded by artists Georgina Maxim, Gareth Nyandoro and Misheck Masamvu, also focuses on art production markets and how the artists need to pres- ent themselves, often offering residencies, workshops, intern- ships, exhibitions and meetings. The Njelele Art Station is a meeting place for critical dialogue, where ideas generate into projects that make way for discussion and engage with the general public. Similarly, the Maonero Visual Arts group began in 2016 by a group of artists who work on various projects to FINN BLYTHE improve the lives of visual artists in Zimbabwe whilst showcas- ing Zimbabwean contemporary art to the world. Black Chalk & Co is a boutique creative agency founded by writer Tinashie Mushakavanhu and artist Nonsikelo Mutiti, operating between Harare and Richmond, Virginia, bringing artists, academics and technologists together to engender a new culture and new forms of creative production. Major art galleries in Zimbabwe include the National Gallery of Zimbabwe, the Catinca Tabar- cu (CTG) Harare gallery, Gallery Delta, First Floor Gallery and Tsoko Art Gallery, among others.

Although Zimbabwe is known for its stone sculptures, espe- cially the great Zimbabwean soapstone-carved birds derived from as early as four centuries ago, most contemporary Zim- babwean artists are seen to have explored other artistic me- diums besides sculpture. Today, we still find many practis- ing Zimbabwean stone sculptors, and galleries in Zimbabwe specialising in this artform include Stone Dynamics Gallery, Matombo Gallery, Zimsculpt Gallery, Prime Art Gallery and Shona Sculpture Gallery. Many Zimbabwean artists have also ventured into contemporary sculpture. Amongst these artists are the stone sculptors Sylvester Mubayi, Gideon Gomo and Tapfuma Gutsa; sculptors of different mediums and found White Lies, Neville Starling, 2019, installation view at the 58th Venice Biennale, photo courtesy of the artist

No.8__ Artpaper / 46 CHRISTINE XUEREB SEIDU founded Christine X Art Gallery in 2004 after a university degree in Art History and Anthropology. Spotlight /Zimbabwe / Artists Rising She has returned to Malta after a year in Ghana where she explored October – December –‘19 African art and culture.

ZIMBABWE

Gallery representing Portia Zvavahera, amongst others. The Latitudes Art Fair featured the Zimbabwean First Floor Gallery, representing their own Zimba- bwean artists, as well as a solo presenta- tion by Wycliffe Mundopa, Black Chalk and Co. participated in the curators’ Underline Show in Johannesburg, and again at the New York Art Book Fair this September. The list of established Zim- babwean artists is never-ending but it’s also worth looking out for other Zim- babwean artists, many of whom have had their works exhibited at the Zeitz MOCAA in Cape Town, South Africa – among them Anthony Bumhira, Berry Bickle, Calvin Dondo, Charles Bheb- he, Chikonzero Chazunguza, Cuthbert Mukononyanga, Dana Whabira, Doris Kamupira, George Masarira, Gresh- am Tapiwa Nyaude, Janet Siringwane, Lovemore Kambudzi, Moffat Takadiwa, Rashid Jogee, Richard Mudariki, Tawa- nda Reza and Virginia Chihota. Their determination to succeed is exemplary. The road of opportunities for Zimba- bwean artists can only soar higher! objects Terrance Musekiwa, Masim- Gallery of Zimbabwe will host the annu- and Admire Kamudzengerere amongst ba Hwati and Voti Thebe; and welding al exhibition with various Zimbabwean others. The South African gallery SMAC sculptors Arthur Azevedo and Michele artists. It’s through the local galleries will also be participating in the 1-54 and Mathison, whose works usually form in- that many Zimbabwean artists are get- the Artissima Art Fair. A collaboration stallation artworks. ting involved in international shows and between the Zimbabwean project space fairs. Village Unhu and 31 Art Project in Paris Galleries and collectives in Zimbabwe formed the exhibition We Are Here Pa- are ensuring the establishment of Zim- Currently in Venice, the Zimbabwean masonga launching on 20 September babwean artists internationally. The national pavilion at the Venice Bien- in Paris, with artists Misheck Masamvu, First Floor Gallery recently hosted nale – which is on until the 24 Novem- Evans Mutenga and Epheas Maposa. A the international art event Emerging ber 2019 – is featuring the works of booth at the Also Known As Africa art Painting Invitational in Zimbabwe, well-established contemporary artists fair in Paris between in November 2019 featuring the two Zimbabwean artists Neville Starling, Georgina Maxim, Cos- will also see a collaboration between Amanda Mushate and Epheas Maposa. mos Shiridzinomwa and Kudzanai Vio- Georgina Maxim and 31 Art Project. Village Unhu recently hosted a group let-Hwami. A group show hybrID at the South Africa is also supportive of Zim- exhibition with works by Epheas Ma- Kunsthaus Hamburg – open between babwean artists, particularly through posa, Evans Tinashe Mutenga, Nyasha the 3rd September and 17th November the FNB Art Joburg Fair and the Lati- Marovatsanga, Kenny Maruta, Tawanda – will be showcasing the work of Admire tudes Art Fair, both of which took place Takura and Lawrence Duri, and is cur- Kamudzengerere. The Catinca Tabaca- recently. The SMAC Gallery exhibited rently holding a one-man show for stone ru gallery of Harare, Zimbabwe, partic- at the FNB Art Joburg Fair represent- sculptor Gideon Gomo. Later this year, ipated in this year’s 1-54 Contemporary ing Masimba Hwati, Wallen Mapondera Gundamusaira, Wallen Mapondera, 2019, photo courte- the Post Studio Arts Collective will be African Art Fair in London in early Oc- and Gareth Nyandoro. Also exhibiting sy of the artist and SMAC Gallery hosting solo shows for the artists-in-res- tober and will take part in the Artissi- were Goodman Gallery, representing idency Takudzwa Guzha and Clive ma Art Fair in Torino in November, Mischeck Masamvu, Kudzanai Chiurai Mukucha. In December, the National representing both Terrance Musekiwa and Gerald Machona, and the Stevenson

“Galleries and collectives in Zimbabwe are ensuring the establishment of Zimbabwean artists internationally.”

No.8__ artpaper / 47