Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1545608
The following are excerpts from the interview. The full interview can be found on maltatoday. com.mt as well as our Facebook and Spotify pages. PHOTOS: JAMES BIANCHI / MALTA TODAY 5 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 28 JUNE 2026 INTERVIEW One of the exhibition spaces you manage is il-Kamra ta' Fuq. Can you tell us a little bit about how that was created? It's a very strange exhibition space. It's situated on top of a traditional Maltese bar. It's quite a funny story how it all started. I had just completed some courses with Sotheby's Art Gallery, focussing on curation, on running a contemporary art gallery and also on art business and I was very eager to find a couple of rooms, but in Mqabba. I was speaking to Antoine Farruja, an artist, who runs the New Life Bar below and when I told him, what I wanted to do, he thought I was losing my mind. But then he slept on it and he remembered that on top of his bar there is an unused room. There was just a hole in the ceiling and the ladder, so no one knew about it. It was like a time capsule. And then the pandemic struck and when everything was closed down, Antoine restructured the access to this room. It was quite a gamble, let's say, but every artist who came to visit the space was immediately very eager to exhibit there. And since then, we've had around 75 exhibitions back-to-back. What has the public reaction been? A thing that I really like about it is that, is that the people who frequent the bar downstairs are elderly men who have never experienced contemporary art in their life. Since we started, every exhibition, I take them upstairs, I explain. And after a few exhibitions, they started having their own opinions. They're very straightforward, like: "I don't like this artist." But the development has allowed them to start experiencing contemporary art. And not only that, sometimes I do exhibitions in other spaces, like Spazju Kreativ or Musa, and I like to organise these cultural tours for them. And they eagerly come to see other exhibitions, much bigger exhibitions also in other places. We promised them beer afterwards, but they do come. So, I think that's something that I'm really proud of— we managed to give a new experience to the locals. Because the truth is that sometimes people are scared of contemporary art. The first thing some people tell you is, 'I don't understand that', 'I don't want to, it's not my thing'. But in reality, with the right atmosphere, then people really get into it. Malta has a very unique but relatively small contemporary art scene. From your perspec- tive as a curator, what do you think are the strengths of the Maltese art community? And where do you think there is still room to grow? I would start from education. There are quite a lot of people who are not into contemporary art. And I think maybe the problem comes from a young age because we're not exposed to it. In other countries, kids are more exposed to contemporary art. And I think that makes a difference. And so, I think we need to work on that. I mean, of course, kids have excursions to museums, and that's great. But I think there should be also more focus on actual contemporary art. There are many, opportunities for artists. Nowadays, there are many galleries and new galleries opening very frequently. There are also huge opportunities for funding. So, I think the scene is changing a lot. So, we're here at the Crafts Vil- lage in Ta' Qali and right next door there's going to be one of your new exhibition spaces. Why did you decide that you're going to create another exhibi- tion space? We are at Mani, which is a huge, huge complex. It's the opposite of il-Kamra ta' Fuq. Joe Galea, who owns this place, contacted me a couple of months ago to collaborate on organising art exhibitions. And there will be three areas. There will be an area near a cafeteria. There will be a huge area, which is also being used as a conference hall, and also an outdoor space which can be used for art exhibitions. We are aiming to have at least four quite big collective exhibitions with around 40 artists each time perhaps. So, let's say it's a different playground for me. When one tries to get a space for creating exhibitions in Malta it's quite difficult, unless you own a space. If you have to rent a space, it is very difficult to make it work financially. But if you have a space and there is another raison d'etre for it to exist, like at il-Kamra ta' Fuq, which has a bar below, it becomes manageable. Like here, there is a huge shop. So, like this, you know, the financial burden is less and the curator is freer, the artists are freer to create. I wanted to ask about your role as executive coordinator at the Malta Biennale 2026 since it's concluded. How was that expe- rience compared to being the main curator on a project? It was a fantastic experience. The fact that you can work with local artists and so many international artists, it's fantastic. It was also an opportunity to work in cultural sites and creating this dialogue with contemporary art and architecture as well as artefacts from museums. I was involved in the logistic problems. Project management is mostly dealing with problems. It was easier for the artists who are residing in Malta because, of course, there is less logistics and transportation and customs… We did have two projects that didn't make it to Malta because of the conflict that had just started right before the Biennale. The works were stuck in Beirut and another one, I think, in Egypt or Jordan… The biennale opens a lot of doors for Maltese artists to be able to exhibit aboard Exhibiting abroad can really open the door for a lot of artists to get other work abroad. For example, an artist was telling me he had a solo. He said, Mel, I went there. They asked me to go like 30 minutes before and I find so many members from the media wanting to interview me. And I mean, in Malta, we have coverage by the media. But there isn't that stardom feeling. I know that AI is becoming a big concern for some artists. Are you finding AI is now part of the conversation among artists? Yes, a lot. However, I think most people are using it as a tool. I have seen it being used a lot to generate ideas and proposals. The artist has an idea and instead of sketching and doing, they create it with AI, which provides a perfect visual of what they have in mind, which is good. I use it a lot, for example, for proofreading. On the flipside, sometimes I see something which feels incredible. And then I realise it's AI-generated and this is happening so often. I think it gives people unrealistic expectations and it is a bit depressing because I constantly have to check if everything I see is real or not—it takes even more time now. But do you see AI as a useful tool at the moment? So far, yes… actually, I think it might have, it might backfire in the sense that we will even crave more the authentic; you know, the skill. And so, I think in reality, you know, it might… we will have so much overdose of AI that we will want the real thing again.