Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1174220
THIS WEEK ART maltatoday | SUNDAY • 6 OCTOBER 2019 4 Having curated an upcoming exhibition by Italian artist Alex Urso, Margerita Pulè speaks to TEODOR RELJIC about this playful and subtly topical exploration of the European imaginary, which will be on show at Studio 87 in Valletta under Pule's Unfinished Art Space banner Teodor Reljic What makes Alex Urso's work so powerful for you? As a curator, I'm interested in artists who are engaged in contemporary contexts and political realities. I find Alex's work is very engaged with what's going on in the world – it reflects equally on local and art-world events, as well as what's happening in the wider world. He doesn't shy away from engaging with people. For ex- ample, I thought his perform- ative action in London – The Welcome Project – departed from a place of curiosity and openness, without being di- dactic or containing a 'mes- sage' in a conventional sense. Alex spent time knocking on Londoners' doors, asking them to swap their doormat with his 'Welcome' mat, col- lecting the donated mats for a subsequent exhibition. On the other side of the world, the exhibition he curated with Maess Anand – the Bi- ennale de la Biche on a micro- scopic island off Guadeloupe – is quite a radical act, creat- ing a biennale on a tiny scale to comment on the huge scale of the art world's biennales. His Grand Hotel Europa project struck a chord with me, both in its content, but also in its form; a study of the conflicting identities of Eu- rope simultaneously as a ho- tel and a fortress. How did you first get in touch with the artist, and why did you deem him to be an appropriate fit of the Unfinished Art Space residency? Alex reached out some time ago, looking for a partner for his Grand Hotel Europa pro- ject. His work interested me immediately, so we started speaking online, and hit it off. He struck me as determined to see the project through in a Mediterranean country. Unfinished Art Space had just been set up, so we offered to host his residency here in Malta. Since we first spoke, we've been in contact over the months, discussing the project, and working out the practicalities of his stay here. Speaking of which, what can you tell us about the residency, and how it relates to the overall operations of Unfinished Art Space more generally? Well, Unfinished Art Space is a very new initiative – this is only our second project, and we hadn't expected to host a residency so soon. The great thing about working on an independent art space is that it's so flexible and can adapt to whatever is appro- priate for each project. So, in our eight months or so of op- eration, we'll have produced three or four exhibitions, col- laborated to produce a critical writing workshop, and hosted an artist in residence – all de- pending on the needs of that particular artist or project. Do you think Alex Urso's work is relevant to Maltese audiences? I think Alex's work is rele- vant to all audiences – world- wide, and not just in Malta. His work is also relatable – the imagery of the hotel, with an element of melancholy, is a strong symbol of a Europe that perhaps does not still hold the qualities that it once stood for or attempted to achieve; like stability, safety, and even a sense of elegance. We're watching history play out day by day, a recent story that has defined our times and sown the first seeds of what is now the European Union, created following the end of the second world war. Grand Hotel Europa engages with this swing of history that is evident here in Malta too. How do you think it engages and expresses its stated subject (the rise of far-right "The great thing about working on an independent art space is that it's so flexible and can adapt to whatever is appropriate for each project" Capturing a snakily shifting Europe 'Grand Hotel Europa' by Alex Urso Margerita Pulè