Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/614946
maltatoday, SUNDAY, 13 DECEMBER 2015 31 This Week This Week the sculptural Prometheus PUBLIC BROADCASTING SERVICES LIMITED is inviting you to an OPEN DAY at the PBS CREATIVITY HUB in St. Luke's Road, G'Mangia Meet the Junior Eurovision Song Contest Malta participants Meet the casts of popular drama Visit the Public Broadcasting Services facilities TODAY 13 TH DECEMBER BETWEEN 9.00AM AND 3.00PM first time that an international conference is being organised with a specific intent to discuss Malta's role within the interna- tional art scene. Do you hope that the conference will lead to an increased appre- ciation of his work within the wider context of sculpture? I am sure that the conference would lead to an increased appre- ciation of Kalleya's work. But not only. The conference is not a 'vet- rina'. It aims to see Kalleya within the vast European artistic context. We are seeing Kalleya as one of the various radical alternatives to the Rodinesque philosophy of art. The presence of the curator of the Musée Rodin at the conference will make it beautifully inciting. The conference will be accompa- nied by an exhibition of Kalleya's sculptures and photomontages which will take place between De- cember 15 and 30 at the Universi- ty of Malta Valletta Campus. This will allow conference participants to interact with Kalleya's works theoretically and visually. What is the importance of this kind of event being held at the Mdina Biennale? This conference is being organ- ised by the Department of History of Art (University of Malta). My objective was and is to bridge sev- eral parallel events so as to give a holistic image to such a happen- ing. Kalleya was, together with Carmelo Mangion and Antoine Camilleri, chosen to create an important historical link between the contemporary art exhibited at the Mdina Biennale (whose main partner is APS Bank) and Malta's modern masters, who determined the direction of Maltese art history. In such a manner, the link be- tween the Mdina Biennale (which is an event which also falls within the parameters of the Department of History of Art Department) and this conference is an impor- tant and vital one. Another vital link is that with Valletta 2018. We have succeeded in including this international conference within the Valletta 2018 Strada Stretta artistic programme. This makes all these events ex- citing from an academic perspec- tive, but also for the fact that this method permits the participation of different kinds of audiences. From Rodin to Kalleya THE conference, 'Peripheral Alternatives to Rodin in Modern Euro- pean Sculpture', will be taking place on December 15. This conference aims to bring together international scholars and researchers to discuss and debate the role sculpture was playing in the formulation of a new artistic language and to also analyse the various idiomatic alternatives to Rodin co-existing during the first decades of the 20th century and beyond. The French sculptor Au- guste Rodin (1840-1917) is widely considered as the forbearer of modern sculpture, whose pervasive influence proclaimed him as the authority of sculptural art. The objective is to create a trans-cultural scholarly relationship be- tween the work of European sculptors and other relevant artists. It endeavours to question and debate the artistic hegemonic relation- ship between Rodin and other sculptors. The conference is to fur- ther analyse the works of those pioneering sculptors who directed art towards original modes of representation within their respective socio-political situation and the international context. Participants include Dr Sophie Biass-Fabiani (Musée Rodin, Paris), Dr Julia Kelly (Loughborough University), Professor Joseph Paul Cassar (University of Maryland University College), Dr Jon Wood (Henry Moore Institute, Leeds), Mr Ulrich Meinherz (Kesselhaus Josephsohn, St Gallen), Dr Giuseppe Schembri Bonaci (University of Malta) and Ms. Barbara Vujanović (Atelijer Meštrović, Zagreb). For more information about the conference, log on to: https://www.um.edu.mt/events/parmes 2015 Josef Kalleya, Study for City Gate,Valletta