Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1037099
15 been on various governments' agen- das... finally, this administration com- mitted itself to creating this space. I was appointed to chair a board that had to select a capital project for culture, and MICAS was the one we settled on, and with that, also identify the area that would host it. We partnered with the Restoration Directorate and we finally agreed to select this area of the bas- tions." Muscat says her board has been crucial in securing the right connections to tru- ly give MICAS a global outlook, which is why she hopes the 'space' – and not merely a 'museum' – becomes its defin- ing feature, as a place that hosts art- ists, exhibitions, and art programmes and democratises hidden spaces. "It is a team effort, but this is the challenge I have before me: building the structure that will lead MICAS onto the international stage, creating programmes that market MICAS even while we are still working towards its completion. "My role is to lead this very small but hard- working board to choose the best strategy possible for MICAS. Ugo R o n d i n o n e ' s work..." – she points at his 'stonehenge-like' giants – "could have practically walked out of our own island's prehistoric herit- age," she says, pleased at this marriage of MICAS's networking abilities and the 'Maltese' patina of the Rondinone sculpture. Muscat's reflects on her own relation with contemporary art, choosing to ap- proach it with a child-like sense of won- derment. "When I saw Tracey Emin's 'My Bed' at the Tate I just stopped and stared and took the whole thing in... we are always faced with this question of why some- thing like this is 'art', and that is of course a challenge posed by contemporary art. For me it is something that makes you re-evaluate the way you think and your own sense of judgement and take in dif- ferent world-views. And I see that even in children – in children I see walking in contemporary art museums, seemingly at ease with these works because noth- ing to them appears 'shocking'. Chil- dren are open to this engagement with contemporary art, because there are no prejudices filtering out what they see before them." maltatoday | SUNDAY • 7 OCTOBER 2018 NEWS Top: the skew arch and excavations taking place, and right, as the interior will look like Left: right outside, Ipostudio's cantilever will cover the entire space PHOTOGRAPHY BY JAMES BIANCHI RENDITIONS BY IPOSTUDIO Inside the Polverista: these old stores housed British munitions, but until recently they had been left derelict and used as a storage space for Enemalta. At MICAS they will be turned into spaces for artist residencies Ugo Rondinone and his work Human Nature on display in Manhattan