Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1367395
maltatoday | SUNDAY • 2 MAY 2021 5 ART THE Eye of the Storm is Blitz's first online exhibition featuring videos and films by six interna- tional artists and collectives in- vited to rethink and share their artworks in response to the so- cial challenges exacerbated by the pandemic. In the physical galleries, the visiting experience is themat- ic or chronological and always marked by the specificity of the spaces that make the institu- tion. Blitz is a townhouse which retains most of the traditional features of a local home, from the wooden beams to the Mal- tese balcony, from the motley tiles to the fireplace. Here, the curatorial display follows a se- quence, time follows space, as the public stops and walks in front of most of the artworks. Online, the window is a stand- ard, neutral space without his- tory, and the public is on or off; it is the click that determines the visiting experience. With- out time, there is no space, and that is why we decided to pri- oritize time, for the artworks to be experienced in a sequence that collectively draws the viewer inward to a full under- standing of the project. From June 3, one artwork will be available monthly until November, when the last work will be revealed. Then, during the month of December, all previously shown works will be made equally available, includ- ing this catalogue whose texts were edited last May, during the first wave of Covid-19. The exhibition will close at the end of the year, a symbolic date because that is when tra- ditionally a collective contem- plation of what we are leaving behind emerges, together with optimism for new beginnings. Wherever we will be then, as we live day by day reacting to fast-changing public health regulations, we hope that The Eye of the Storm will provide food for thought as we progress into the unknown. Featured artist David Claerbout participat- ed in The Eye of The Storm - Blitz's first online exhibition, part of the new online initia- tive OPEN - with Oil workers (from the Shell company of Nigeria) returning home from work, caught in torrential rain (2013). In this artwork, Claer- bout deployed 3D and new media technology in order to turn a photographic instant in- to endless repetition and con- front visual perceptions, yearn- ing for change and hope. As the act of waiting unfolds into an existential, cyclical condition rather than a one-time event, the artwork becomes the per- spective from which to exam- ine productivity and capitalism in relation to the workers and ourselves, even more now that the Covid-19 pandemic has al- tered our sense of the passage of time David Claerbout focuses pri- marily on photography, video, sound, drawing, and digital arts, as well as large-scale video installation. In his works, the reconfiguration of images be- stows a socio-political weight while questioning at the same time sensory authenticity and the now-disappearing system of trust between reality and its representation. The conversa- tion will focus on Oil workers (from the Shell company of Nigeria) returning home from work, caught in torrential rain (2013), the evolution of Claer- bout's practice since, and his seminal text The Silence of the Lens (e-flux journal, 2016). About Blitz Valletta Blitz Valletta's online initia- tives are collectively entitled OPEN. The chosen name for our virtual space is a statement of our intention to stay in touch with you despite the necessary closure of all galleries and mu- seums. Art shall continue to be part of our lives, especially now as we grapple with the reper- cussions of this sudden rupture and the way it is shaking all our behaviours and beliefs. Think of art as liberation of thought from the strong grip and boundaries that are containing our physical selves. Art bears the potential to take you where your mind and body need to be, in spite of the confinement. 'The eye of the storm': Blitz Valletta's first online exhibition Artist David Claerbout (left), Curator Sara Dolfi Agostini (right)