Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1004621
4 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 15 JULY 2018 THIS WEEK PHOTOGRAPHY WIĊĊNA ('Our Face') will be a book of around 200 photographic portraits of individuals from different backgrounds, generations and ethnicities, who cur- rently reside in Malta, many accompa- nied by a short caption taken from the individual's answer to the often compli- cated question "Where are you from?" With photographs by Zvezdan Reljic in a volume designed by the same, the book will also feature aesthetical, an- thropological and literary essays on aspects of physiognomy, identity and photography, each written in a differ- ent language that has influenced Malta throughout its history: Arabic (Walid Nabhan), English (Alexandra Pace), French (Philippe Parizot), Italian (Vir- ginia Monteforte), Maltese (Leanne El- lul), and Spanish (Antoine Cassar). The brainchild of Yugoslav-born, Malta-based analogue film photogra- pher Zvezdan Reljic, Wiċċna will be launched with an exhibition at Blitz, Valletta in November – where the ac- companying volume will also be pre- sented for the first time. The project received an initial finan- cial boost with the help of the Malta Arts Council – allowing Reljic to set up a small team in his small Sliema studio to coordinate photo shoots and cover the expenses of equipment and tools. Thanks to the Arts Council's support, the Wiccna team have got to know and photograph over 200 persons and over 300 films and contact prints were devel- oped. Now, the Wiċċna book requires a fur- ther injection of funds to become a re- ality. To this end, the photographer has turned to the Zaar crowdfunding plat- form in an attempt to gather up the necessary funds, which will go towards producing an eye-catching coffee table volume that will also have a strong lo- cal provenance. Should the funding drive be successful, Reljic will be enlist- ing the boutique bookbinding initiative Kotba Calleja to craft the volume from scratch, complete with a limited edition slipcase. "We would like Wiċċna to be an ex- tended snapshot of the nuanced – nei- ther limited nor diluted – diversity of contemporary Maltese society. There are a number of questions I would like the book to attempt to answer, through the presentation and juxtaposition of portraits and captions, and through es- says written in response to them," Reljic says. "How wide is the palette of facial features that define the look of a people, insofar as such a definition is possible? How many faces can a people contain? How many peoples make up a face?" Describing the lith printing process which characterises the Wiċċna pro- ject, Reljic explains how this, his chosen technique, is often presented as being "shrouded in mystery". Zvezdan Reljic's Wiċċna pins its hopes on a crowdfunding drive to capture the multicultural reality of the Maltese islands Hand-printed silver gelatin lith prints by Zvezdan Reljic. Wiccna is supported by the Malta Arts Fund. For more information on its crowdfunding campaign, including how to donate, log on to: http://www.zaar.com.mt/projects/wiccna/ Large-scale photography project to define diverse Malta