Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1037099
14 MATTHEW VELLA PHYLLIS Muscat has already trod the dusty lanes from the Ospizio down to the Ritirata three times today, to check on the progress of works taking place just a few metres away from the Sa Mai- son gardens. Our guided tour of the site, from above the bastions' ramparts down to the former ordinance stores, is punc- tuated by Muscat breaking off her expla- nation to speak to workers and restor- ers. She picks up where she left, always with a sense of wonderment about the magnificent project that is taking place here. For it is indeed one of Malta's most daring and exciting projects: the Malta International Contemporary Art Space, a 7,000 sq.m centre to be situated inside the former Knights' Ospizio at the San Salvatore bastion, to be completed by 2021. As we pass stacks of rocks collected from the construction works that will be re-used to pave the walkway that will take visitors to the centre, the skew arch of the fortifications above the Sa Maison garden comes into view. Through the scaffolding we can make out the yacht marina below. The arch itself, visible from the Msida seafront, is now revealed from this previously inaccessible area: a 30-foot span that is unique because of, as its name implies, its oblique skew. The arch, also referred to as Barbar's arc, spans the Ritirata from the San Salvatore counterguard on the Sa Maison gardens, but this part has now been excavated deep into the ground to provide MICAS with various levels of exhibition space. All around the multi-level terraces of the counterguard and the labyrinthine Ritirata are rooms and galleries that will house exhibitions and artist residencies. "We're just so excited about this site, about working with architects Ipostudio and the Restoration Unit, led by archi- tect Norbert Attard, because we will be regenerating this space," says Phyllis Muscat, who until recently was charged with coordinating and delivering the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Malta. "This space has been forgotten for years. It is a magnificent line of fortifications, former military installations and gardens that had been rather neglected. And now we are re- storing these gardens and the historical fortifications to give it back to the com- munity. And I think that building on 'the old' here, is what adds to the prestige." There is no doubt that this area will be reclaimed for the benefit of the commu- nity. With a ferry stop to be located near the Haywharf docks, the project could actually offer a direct link from the sea right into the cavernous belly of the for- tifications and into the Ospizio grounds, in Floriana. With its mighty cantilever sheltering the entire complex and thou- sands of square metres of landscaped areas, MICAS will provide another grandiose entrance to Floriana and Valletta. "We're restoring this entire perimeter and connecting the entire ar- ea," Muscat says, pointing out how this could well be a model for similar areas on the island. Even three years ahead of its completion, MICAS next week will mark its arrival onto the international stage with the launch of a concept sculp- ture by the world-renowned Swiss artist Ugo Rondinone, the creator of Human Nature, a collection of totemic towers of monumental stone figures first exhibited in the urban set- ting of Manhattan's Rockefeller Centre. "This is about the internationalisation of the project," Muscat says not just of Rondinone's sculpture, but of the vari- ous A-list speakers who will host MI- CAS's 'Conversations On The Rock', among them the CEO of the Serpentine Gallery, Yana Peel and curator Hans Ul- rich Oberist– again a testament to Mus- cat's role and her team's ability to rope in international art market leaders to kick off MICAS. As we move from one area to the next, the fortification's changing spaces – all originally designed to for their military and defensive utility – are being re- claimed for their new cultural purpose. Graffittos and signposts of the explosives stores are what is left of the former colo- nisers, their ghosts maybe not entirely exorcised as we pass through a burrow of connecting corridors and dark tun- nels. MICAS art director Ruth Bianco's 'Connecting Geographies' will capture this exact feeling, a swirling, sprawling piece that goes from one room to the other to explain the 'work-in-progress' that MICAS is at this point. Muscat gives me an exuberant descrip- tion of the works taking place and the vision for the bastions, but it is her pas- sion for business and art – she is herself a collector – that is driving this project forward. "A contemporary arts museum had maltatoday | SUNDAY • 7 OCTOBER 2018 NEWS Fortified artistry How Malta will make its mark in the art world This space is a former military installation that has been neglected, together with the gardens. And now we are restoring these gardens and the historical fortifications to give it back to the community Phyllis Muscat: the chairperson of the Malta International Contemporary Arts Space is leading the development of the 7,000 sq.m project Deep inside the belly of the Msida bastions, excavations are paving the way for one of the island's most exciting projects ever: the Malta International Contemporary Art Space