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maltatoday, SUNDAY, 20 SEPTEMBER 2015 This Week 31 'Celebrating our successes is key' The Malta Film Commission will be celebrating 90 years of foreign film servicing with an anniversary concert at the Mediterranean Conference Centre at the end of the month, and they spoke to us about what this commemorative event will entail Curator of the Valletta International Visual Arts Festival Raphael Vella speaks to us about one of its flagship collective exhibitions this year – Good Walls Make Good Neighbours, which uses the Upper Galleries at St James Cavalier to explore notions of public and private space as both implied and exemplified by walls What can the audience expect from this event, and why was this particular format for it chosen? The concert will be a perform- ance by the Malta Philharmonic Orchestra, under the direction of Brian Schembri, featuring Julie Zahra who will be making a spe- cial appearance to compliment a select couple of songs with vocal renditions. Guests will experience an evening of exhilarating film culture with an exciting atmos- phere, and will be taken through a journey of Malta's 90-year film legacy. What would you say Malta directly gains from the film servicing industry, and how will this event commemorate that? Malta benefits from its film in- dustry in a number of ways. Big budget productions that come over to Malta contribute greatly to our economy. Only last month, Michael Bay's latest film complet- ed filming in Malta and injected a total of $50 million into the Mal- tese economy. Large foreign films that come over to Malta often require a substantial amount of Maltese to work on the productions, offer- ing employment opportunities to many locals in both crew and cast positions. The latest production filming in Malta Assassin's Creed is another successful example en- gaging over 1,000 extras on film. We are experiencing a record year in the film industry this year. The hard work and professionalism of those Maltese who contributed and still contribute to the ever- growing industry in Malta, the concert is a means of thanking the local cast and crew for their efforts and perseverance. Why did you choose the 90-year mark as a milestone? Can we expect more such events from the Malta Film Commission in the future? Over the past few years, Malta has made giant leaps to become an internationally recognized film destination. Large Hollywood films such as Captain Phillips, World War Z and By the Sea have capitalized from Malta's filming incentives and variety of locations both in Malta and Gozo. The Malta Film Commission saw fit to commemorate such a success- ful, record-breaking period in the film industry with the 90 Years of Film milestone. The Malta Film Commission feels that celebrat- ing our successes is a key and will no doubt hold further events to reflect the Maltese film industry's achievements. What would you say are some of the most significant developments by the Malta Film Commission over the past couple of years? Over the past couple of years, the Malta Film Commission has intensified its marketing efforts as well as continuing taking the necessary measures to invest in the local talent with the objective to strengthen and further develop our homegrown industry. Mar- keting campaigns across several industry conferences and festi- vals, as well as featuring Malta's incentives on the front cover of leading film publications such as The Hollywood Reporter and World of Locations, has increased considerably Malta's visibility as a competitive film destination. What still needs to be done? Our aim is to build a sustainable industry. This is the fastest grow- ing economic niche in the Mal- tese economy and we are work- ing hard to keep the momentum. We are proud of the achievement however we have a long way ahead in terms of infrastructure and film education. '90 Years of Film' will be held on September 25 and 26 at the Mediterranean Conference Centre, Valletta at 20:30. Book- ings: www.mcc.com.mt Binding boundaries THE GERM OF THE IDEA I started with a simple question: What do walls mean in our lives today? What do they mean to me or 'us', and what do they mean to those who live on the other side of these walls? I then thought about different connotations of walls, like private and public space, neighbours, noise, architecture and history, colonial spaces, con- struction and destruction, homes and homelessness. And I didn't look only at the work of visual artists. I also read about the legal implications of party walls and the history of the notion of 'home', and I looked at the work of some authors whose work deals with neighbours and street gossip. FITTING IN The idea of finding a 'good fit' for any exhibition is pertinent, in various ways. In a curated exhibi- tion, works of art do not merely 'fit' into a theme, but also need to fit the rooms they are located in, which often include or are adja- cent to other artists' works. Works of art have neighbours too. It's im- portant to use exhibition spaces to create new dialogues between such 'neighbours'. For instance, David Pisani's grid of twenty- five photographs of constructed and largely blank walls around Malta is next to a video piece by Turkish artist Duygu Nazli Ako- va, which refers to urban expansions and construction workers' condi- tions in Istanbul. Architect Tom van Malderen's wall with timber, mirrors and hid- den lights can be seen through the little openings in Claudia Larch- er's hanging sculptures, which members of the public can 'enter' and peep through. Brazilian artist Sonia Guggisberg's poetic video installation of a demolition job acquires new layers of meaning when experienced immediately after Yael Bartana's video about the reconstruction of demolished Palestinian houses. MALTA CONNECTION Given that the exhibition is tak- ing place in Malta, it needed a direct link to local implications of the chosen title, so the exhibi- tion starts with a wall-sized scan of a section of the Civil Code that deals with walls and neighbouring tenements as well as a video loop of extracts from literary works by Immanuel Mifsud and Clare Azz- opardi. Towards the end of the ex- hibition, one comes across three, small paintings of walls and chairs by Maltese artist Teresa Sciber- ras. And one cannot really avoid thinking of the immigration issue when confronted by Zineb Sedira's video 'Saphir', which juxtaposes the northern-bound gaze of an Al- gerian man with the movements of a French woman who returns to her country's colonial past in the Maghreb. THE UPSHOT When we think of neighbours, we tend to think of people next door or across the street. The old man whose dog always pisses at the same street corner. The mid- dle-aged woman who's always on her doorstep. The scruffy lad who's probably taking drugs. Hopefully, the works in the exhibition will make visitors think of themselves as neighbours too. How do we fare as neighbours? In my opinion, the works by Dutch artist Sarah van Sonsbeeck in the exhibition are especially relevant because they come to terms with the intrusions of people in each other's lives. Her idea of constructing an anti-drone tent that is entirely invisible to the outside world is very thought- provoking. Public tour of the exhibition: The curator of 'Good Walls Make Good Neighbours', Raphael Vella, will tour the exhibition in the Up- per Galleries of St James Cavalier with members of the public on September 22 at 12:30. Organised by 'AP Design Reviews', the tour and talk are open to the public and attendance is free of charge. No registration is required Artists featured in the exhibition: Yael Bartana – Summer Camp Zineb Sedira – Saphir Sonia Guggisberg – Samarina Sarah van Sonsbeeck – Anti-Drone Tent | Letter to My Neighbours David Pisani – The Walls of Perception Tom van Malderen (with Bettina Hutschek) – Drywall Wonders between Heaven and Earth Claudia Larcher – Panorama | Die Einzige und Ihr Eigenheim Duygu Nazli Akova – The Hive Teresa Sciberras – Circumscribed With the writings of: Clare Azzopardi Immanuel Mifsud Selection of David Pisani's 'Walls of Perception', critiquing Malta's rampant overdevelopment drive 'Last Dream', video installation by Sonia Guggisberg