Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1013924
16 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 12 AUGUST 2018 INTERVIEW 2017 was the first time Malta participated in the Venice Biennale since 1999; and before that, the last time was in 1958. What was it like to take on such a daunting project? It was also the first time we had a proper 'Malta Pavilion': and a very big one, too, around 300 square metres. Our pres- ence in previous editions was on a smaller scale. Naturally that represents a big improve- ment; but at the same time, it's also a huge challenge. It's a bit intimidating, in fact; especially when you take into account that the budget, by Venice standards, is not that big. By Maltese standards, it's good... and there are other countries which are comparable to us in that respect. But when you start comparing with bigger European countries, it's hard to really compete. Not in terms of budget, anyway. Luckily, how- ever, there's more to it than how much money you spend. Or at least, I hope so... At the same time, Malta does seem to be investing more in the arts today than in previous years (when we didn't participate in such events at all). How do you account for this renewed interest precisely now? Part of it is due to pressure by the Arts Council itself. By 'pressure', I mean pointing out that 'this [the Biennale] has to happen – we have to be on the global map'. And I also think there has been a movement, in recent years, towards a greater internationalisation of the local cultural sphere. On a political level, there has been cognisance that, if we want to really be part of the global cultural game, we can't continue playing this game in a very isolated way. To name one example where I was involved myself: in a few weeks' time, there will be the fifth edition of the Malta Cura- torial School, where we invite international curators to come to Malta. I think it would not be an exaggeration to say that, before this started, most inter- national curators didn't even know that Malta had a contem- porary arts scene. I would go to Venice, and people would ask: "You actually do contemporary art in Malta? Don't you spend all your time sipping cocktails on the beach?" There was this perception of Malta as an exot- ic, almost 'Caribbean' country. In a way, we had to break that stereotype; and the only way to do that is to invite them here, but also to export something of our own overseas; and to make sure this 'something' doesn't remain 'our own', only in the most insular or nationalistic way possible. And yet, traditionally it has always been hard to define what, artistically, can be defined as 'our own'. Was this part of the idea behind the chosen title of the Malta Pavilion, 'Homo melitensis'? One change we have expe- rienced, in the Biennale as a whole, is that the 'national pavilion' is no longer neces- sarily dominated by national artists. You find national pavil- ions where an artist represent- ing a certain country wouldn't even come from that country. Something we introduced in our own pavilion was, in fact, to feature artists who are not based in Malta; who might not even have Maltese citizenship. They will have a link to Malta: for simplicity's sake, we refer to them as 'diaspora artists'; from Australia, or based in London, or somewhere else. But the idea behind 'Homo melitensis' was also partly tongue-in-cheek. We started looking at how na- tions look at themselves, but also how things in general tend to get classified or defined. It's a play on the notion that there is this very strict – even biologi- cal – way of classifying nation- alities into 'subspecies' of the human genus, so to speak. For us, it was a joke, up to a point. Are we so 'special', that we are afraid to mix with others... or scared of immigrants, because we think they might destroy the so-called 'purity' of Maltese culture: our race, our language, and so on? And if we really were to be 'destroyed'... then what would the world have lost? That's the question we were asking, really. So we started to classify – as I said, in a very tongue-in-cheek way – what the Maltese are. We decided to go for a subtle, more ironic ap- proach, where you exaggerate the sense of national identity so much, that it becomes 'absurd' or 'nonsense'. And through the nonsense, we understand that it doesn't, in fact, really make much 'sense'. People are chang- ing all the time. My father was very different from what I am today, even though he was Mal- tese, and I am Maltese as well. There's no tragedy in that: to be 'Maltese' is a work in progress, at the end of the day. There does, however, seem to be a renewed interest in the Maltese arts scene at both local and international levels. EU membership, for instance, has opened up new avenues of funding, new markets for local artistic products, etc. How has all this impacted the scene itself? Malta has definitely become part of a global possibility of expanding one's artistic hori- zons, and even one's own ar- tistic career. Increased funding for culture is one of the most significant improvements we've seen in recent years. Many peo- ple who work in the arts, do so on a freelance basis; they will be fishing around for funds eve- rywhere. It's no longer a small local pond, where you might, if lucky, land something to work for the next six months or one year. Now, your fishing pond is the entire world. And there's also a political aspect to it. One other recent change we've seen is an interest in any kind of ar- tistic project that has a social dimension: i.e., art that is not simply a case of self-expres- sion, where the artist works in a studio, alone in front of the canvas. Lately, we've seen that funding is very often attached to the possibility of linking your project to a larger com- munal goal: getting people on board, perhaps involving them in the production of the work... or at least, to participate in an interactive way, as opposed to Malta's arts scene appears to be going through a revival in the wake of V18. But artist and curator RAPHAEL VELLA – who, with Bettina Hutschek, curated the Malta Pavilion at the Venice Biennale 2017 – cautions against over-dependence on government funding Giving the arts a stronger Raphael Vassallo Art is not there to make us 'happy'. It is also supposed to bring out the conf licts within us, to make us aware of them... not to sweep them all under the carpet rvassallo@mediatoday.com.mt