Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1499951
16 maltatoday | WEDNESDAY • 24 MAY 2023 NEWS ACROSS 1) Chocolate substitute 6) FDR's successor 9) "The King and I" king- dom 13) Sports venues 15) Rap sheet acronym 16) Falco of "Nurse Jackie" 17) Computer storage medium 19) Traveled on horseback 20) Shell out 21) Night vision? 22) Guiding principle 23) Worm's home 24) Breath fresheners 25) Nabokov novel 28) "Hogan's Heroes" setting 30) App-loaded Apple 31) Farm machine pioneer 32) Take a course? 35) Like a pastry chefs cake 39) Adventurer Nellie 40) Maximum bet 41) Old Italian money 42) Fumbles (for) 44) Cheese shredder 46) Letter closing 47) Forest females 48) Orators' spots 49) Wield a baton 51) Chocolate unit 54) Similar (to) 55) Batman foe aka "Two- Face" 57) Campbell of" Scream 3" 58) Another Nabokov novel 59) Make a gift 60) Elated 61) Atlas page 62) Directory listings DOWN 1) Rough it 2) Specialty, so to speak 3) "Ratatouille" rat 4) Artist who married a Beatie 5) Actress from Paris 6) "Oh, that's funny!" 7) Milk selection 8) One of a brewpub array 9) Tennis star Williams 10) "Huh?" 11) Senate staffers 12) Run across 14) Neighbor of Jordan 18) Animator's frame 22) Floor layer 23) "Them" or "us" 24) Painter Chagall 25) Place for a tire swing 26) Autumn birthstone 27) Peeping Tom's eyeful 28) Final Four matches 29) Trial balloon 31) Stadium topper 33) Farm measure 34) "__ she blows!" 36) Plant life 37) Jobs for tailors 38) "Sad to say ..." 43) Beyond repair 44) Hurt at the corrida 45) Have faith in 46) Simple fellow 47) Section (Abbr.) 48) Bit of hunger 49) "I did it!" 50) Rolled sandwich 51) Gymnast's perch 52) Pot starter 53) GPS readings (Abbr.) 55) Easter entree 56) "CSI" evidence F Solution to last week's crossword The answers to today's crossword will be published in next week's Midweek edition Weather Rather cloudy Visibility Good Wind East Southeast force 3 to 4 becoming East Northeast force 5. To the South of Malta: East Southeast force 4 to 5 becoming East force 5 to 6 TOMORROW Crossword WEATHER WINDY WITH ISOLATED SHOWERS 21 0 / 16 0 TODAY MAINLY CLOUDY 21 0 / 16 0 FEELS LIKE 21 0 FEELS LIKE 21 0 MATTHEW VELLA ARTIST Keit Bonnici's balancing act on the Valletta barriers outside parliament has created a conversation on the implied barrier between citizens and the institu- tion of democracy. The barriers are used to keep protestors away from the parliament building when- ever manifestations are held in Freedom Square. Bonnici, whose perched chair at a Val- letta al fresco restaurant on Merchants' Street in 2020 served as a protest against the occupation of public land, climbed onto the 36mm-wide barriers outside the House of Representatives, and walked across six of them. The performance is being shown at an exhibition in Vienna. The barriers have been in place ever since the 2019 crisis provoked outrage and mass protests, leading to the resignations linked to the assassination of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia. They remain in place four years later. Bonnici, whose acts of civil protest high- light the gulf between citizen rights and institutional unfairness, posits the physical barrier as the opposite of what the space outside Malta's parliament should serve for. Bonnici described his performance, 'Thirty-six Millimeter', as a performative intervention about the "fragility of democ- racy". "I placed my body on the barriers be- tween the complexities of democracy, in- stitution, state, public and collective pub- lic memory," he said. "I am questioning the thirty-six millimetre. Why is it there? What does it mean to be there? How is public space thought of? What is Freedom Square?" In 2021, Bonnici used a personal, hand- made postcard to ask Queen Elizabeth II about the prospect of removing the statute of Queen Victoria – her great-great grand- mother – from Valletta's Pjazza Regina. "Although Queen Victoria was known as the grandmother of Europe, many people in Malta view her statue as a sign of op- pression. And in the wake of statues being removed in the USA, the debate whether to remove her statue from Valletta has ap- peared," Bonnici said. His response was to send a postcard to Victoria's great-great granddaughter, Queen Elizabeth, to find out what her thoughts were. Bonnici hand-made the postcard and wrote the message in Mal- tese. In 2020 Bonnici erected a wooden chair with unusually long back legs to be able to actually see what's happening inside the redesigned of Suq tal-Belt's newly elevated terrace. Bonnici's installation, Perch, was a protest at the gentrification of the Val- letta market. "I explained that I wanted to look and grieve at what was stolen from us. They sipped on their beer." Bonnici on the rails: artist walks the 'democratic barrier' Artist Keit Bonnici balanced on the Valletta barriers outside parliament (Photo: Joanna Demarco)