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26 maltatoday, SUNDAY, 17 AUGUST 2014 THIS WEEK CULTURE | TV | FILM CINEMA LISTINGS FOOD | WHAT'S ON THIS WEEK TAKING care of someone else's things is a big responsibility. Ryan Pillow knows about that. He is the chairman of the Bieganski Founda- tion, an entity that manages the vast and varied collection of artwork belonging to Zdzislaw Bieganski, a Polish engineering magnate and collector who has lived in Malta for over 40 years. A fraction of that collection is cur- rently on display at the Mediterra- nean Conference Centre as the first Bieganski Art Festival, which runs until the end of the month. Setting the exhibition up in the gargantuan Sacra Infermeria hall was truly a labour of love. 900 wooden pallets, 9,000 screws, a kilometre of electri- cal cable and three weeks of back- breaking work went into it. Still, looking at the result, it seems like the hard work has borne fruit. Works from across the globe and across genres sit side by side. A massive sculpture greets visitors at the door. Delicate portraits rub shoulders with vivid, almost manic splashes of colour. Pieces from the Bieganski collection share the room with loaned works. How would a piece of art make it into the festival? The answer, it seems, is elegantly simple. "This piece here," Pillow says, pointing to a canvas bearing bold arcs of colour. "It is unsigned. We don't know who made it or what it is called. But it is doing its job as art and so we chose to display it." Its job? "People notice it, people want to look at it and they want to buy it," he explains. "That is, it is do- ing its job." The focus on the aesthetic beauty of the pieces is evident. "The works in the collection are not purchased because they are made by famous artists," Pillow explains. Indeed, some works like the aforementioned anonymous contribution, are of completely unknown provenance or were made by artists who are not as well known to the casual art lover. Some works in fact belong to artists who are still finding their feet in the world. The exhibition shares the hall with a section of artworks being of- fered for sale. The works of students and hobbyists are displayed here and illustrate a range of technical skill, ideas and media. "We wanted to give more people a chance to exhibit," Pillow says. Making art itself more accessible is perhaps one of the Festival's under- lying aims. "We want to put Malta on the international map. It is al- ready a hub of culture," says Pillow, "we just have to promote it as such." Promotion has been something of an obstacle for the Festival so far. With a limited budget and just two spon- sors helping to offset the costs, Pil- low says that more could have been done to get the word out there. Opening night had a very good turnout but, he says, the weather and the fact that many go on holiday at this time of year worked against them. The reason the Festival began when it did, however, was worth the risk of a low attendance (though Pil- low is quick to say that he was not unhappy with the turnout, just that there was room for improvement). The Festival is really composed of three areas. The exhibition upstairs shares the hall with the section of artworks for sale while the lower hall contains a section dedicated to World War I. "It was important to us that the Festival opened on the 100th anniversary of the beginning of the war," Pillow explains. "Ours is the only event commemorating it." The slightly darker lower hall is the perfect venue to exhibit art and artifacts related to one of the dark- est periods in human history. The war claimed the lives of ten million combatants and seven million civil- ians. It was, by all accounts, a brutal, drawn out war that remains to this day one of the deadliest conflicts in history. To associate things of beauty with it seems almost paradoxical. A contradiction it may be, but the WWI exhibition manages to bring past and present together while weaving in a narrative on a very personal level. Works by students of MCAST are flanked on either side by art from the period, including some exquisite pieces by the French trench artist Gaston Pierre Galey. "I wanted to show how 100 years plays out in art," says Pillow. Com- plementing these works are cases The Bieganski Art Festival, running until the end of the month, brings together over 1,000 pieces in an exhibition and a series of cultural events that span genres and ages. Rachel Agius caught up with the chairman of the foundation, Ryan Pillow, to find out how an arts festival comes together. Art doing its job Ryan Pillow: We want to put Malta on the international map