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maltatoday | SUNDAY • 15 NOVEMBER 2020 4 ART The fracture theory focus of Blitz Valletta exhibition CREATIONS by Elena Mazzi and Sara Tirelli are on exhibi- tion at Blitz in Valletta until 7 December, as part of the run- ning The Eye of the Storm intiti- ative, featuring a different artist every month. Their exhibition, A Frag- mented World (2016), is in- spired by the fracture theory, investigated by laboratory sci- entist Bruno Giorgini for over twenty years. According to this theory, if you can predict the anatomy of a fracture you will be able to anticipate the outbreak of a crisis or catastrophe. However, in spite of his efforts, Giorgini could never determine a for- mula before his recent retire- ment. This is when, five years ago, he proposed that the two art- ists take on what science had left inconclusive, and translate the concept of the fracture in a specific geo-political land- scape through the tools of art instead, in order to draw a new conclusion. Elena Mazzi and Sara Tire- lli opted for Mount Etna, Eu- rope's most active volcano, whose activity produces con- stant ruptures and shifts in a landscape that has nevertheless been inhabited for decades. That is why the national In- stitute of Vulcanology close- ly monitors the eruptions of Mount Etna and every ten years it uses all the collected data to remap its geological surface. Pinning these techni- cal photographs as point of de- parture, and following the lead of several experts and Giorgini himself, the artists employed a drone and other filming tech- niques to shoot a runner as he crossed the fractures of Etna's main crater, a labyrinthic ever- changing terrain. The black and white aesthet- ics reinforce the timeless qual- ity of the work, which was in- spired by the daily workout of the runner on the volcano, and had no script, no beginning and no end. Just like a reen- actment, A Fragmented World (2016) represents the extremes of coexistence when crisis is just another form of living. Elena Mazzi and Sara Tirelli met after their studies, while both involved in the Venice art scene. Elena Mazzi is a visual artist with a site specific and interdisciplinary methodolo- gy. She works with geography and objects she understands as vessels to interrogate belong- ing within human and natural ecosystems. Provoked by the Venetian landscape, she has tackled cli- mate change, deforestation, extinction, food and energy production, and migration in nomadic beekeeping, always looking at local case studies through a variety of materials - iconographic, visual, sound, oral, written – to address glob- al systemic shifts. In 2009, her practice was af- fected by the earthquake that destroyed the Italian city of L'Aquila. The event and the mismanagement of its after- math prompted Mazzi to shift her exploration to the effects of crisis when ecology and biolo- gy collide with politics. Sara Tirelli is also a visual artist, but her explorations extend beyond the frame of contemporary art and into ex- panded cinema, virtual reali- ty and immersive filmmaking beyond the commercial logic of production. In her practice, technology is both a means of representation and a language whose translation of reality needs to be questioned and steered towards a more inclu- sive approach. Tirelli, in fact, attempts to develop work that refocuses the attention from what is per- ceived to those traits of reality that have remained invisible to the retinal experience. This has implications for the production of narratives with a socio-polit- ical subtext. The Eye of the Storm is Blitz Valletta's first online exhibi- tion featuring videos and films by seven international artists and collectives invited to re- think and share their artworks in response to changes due to the pandemic. It is curated by Sara Dolfi Agostini.