Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1039277
15 CULTURE maltatoday | SUNDAY • 14 OCTOBER 2018 with the dynamics of displace- ment in the Mediterranean – appeared to dovetail perfectly with the overarching feeling of the 2019 Venice Biennale, which artistic director Ralph Rugoff articulated as such: "An exhibition should open people's eyes to previously un- considered ways of being in the world and thus change their view of that world, where the meaning of artworks is not em- bedded principally in objects but in conversations – first be- tween artist and artwork, and then between artwork and au- dience." It's a viewpoint that perfectly matches 'Evoking Heterotopia' in its bid to explore notions of migration, exile and displace- ment beyond what is dictated by established narratives, us- ing Malta's position in central Mediterranean culture – the area being, not-so-incidentally, the subject of Suppiej's doc- toral thesis – to create a space where an apposite artistic ex- pression can flourish. Such an approach certainly appears to be evident in Vince Briffa's film installation work, 'Outland'. Projecting video onto pools of water while also employing sound – "the only sound in the pavilion" – Out- land draws on the myth of Ca- lypso and Ulysses to dig into the subject of displacement. Through a deliberately trun- cated visual narrative, Briffa aims to get at the state of, "Be- ing comfortable in your com- fort zone, but still yearning to leave... which I believe is a very human thing that all of us can relate to." He's also quick to point out that any explicit association with the Ulysses and Calypso myth – which details how the goddess seduced the Ancient Greek hero into a Gozitan cave for a number of years – has nothing to do with superficial or "tourist-friendly" approach- es to the subject. "Like every artist, I needed a starting point into the work – and this was mine. While I un- derstand the pitfalls of choos- ing the myth to get the work going, I am confident that my approach is subtle enough to avoid them." For Briffa, it is water that is the main "combining ele- ment" linking the his work to the myth. It is, of course, easy to overstate the centrality of water in the Mediterranean narrative, and another concern that would crop up when con- sidering 'Evoking Heterotopia' is its apparent focus on such an obvious element of Mediterra- nean life. Thankfully, Trevor Borg also appears to be avoiding stylis- tic cliches with his proposed work, 'Cave of Darkness: Port of No Return', which seeks to allegorise the so-called 'migra- tion crisis' by going back to prehistory. The title being a reference to the Ghar Dalam Cave in Birzeb- buga – which holds many fond childhood memories for the artist – the piece appears to be taking at least a small tear away from the Homo Melitensis book by being primarily based on sculpted objects, drawing from prehistory in a way that evokes somewhat of a cryptozoological approach to the artist's chosen narrative. "Since there was no Ice Age in Malta, we had plenty of migra- tion of various large elephants who travelled over here to find shelter during that period – even the likes of elephants and hippo- potami. But due to the climate conditions here, they started to morph and shrink in size – that's why we have dwarf elephant remains – and eventually died out." Unsurprisingly, Borg allies this to a contemporary parallel, of migrants arriving to Malta in the hopes of building a new life, with a lot of them "not finding the right conditions" in place for them to thrive as human beings. To create the 'cave of darkness', Borg will use a mix of ceramics, 3D-printed objects and actual bone and skulls. "I will start by using and grinding down bone to create fantastical creatures and mysterious artefacts, while also crafting objects that suggest contemporary conditions and concerns. My hope is that people will be able to leave the cave with an impression of this juxtaposi- tion between the ancient and the current," Borg said. The exit from the cave, and the perceptions that would then arise, appear to be as important for Borg as people walking inside in the first place, and this ellip- tical, holistic approach is what appears to inform the ethos of 'Evoking Heterotopia' as a wholesale project. "Works of art not solitary ac- tors – they are not solitary trees in a forest," Hesperia Iliadou Suppiej said. "The ideal pavilion should be a garden, where the plants entwine their branches with each other to create a holis- tic experience."