Our exhibition programme kicked off in September with three major exhibitions, including Dying Planet by Daniela Attard, BioArt Alchemy: Works by Anna Dumitriu and 150 | Richard Ellis. All these exhibitions complemented the September launch. Visitors from all walks of life visited Spazju Kreattiv to see for the first time an extensive collection of photography from the Richard Ellis archive with views of Malta now long gone. Dying Planet also served as an engaging discussion on extinction and the peril of climate change, and BioArt: Alchemy, our first visual arts commission, provided a look at contemporary bio-medical research settings, interwoven with historic stories of contagion and alchemy. This venture looked to further enhance Spazju Kreattiv’s status as a catalyst in creative expression by producing an exhibition that brought together in a highly innovative manner art and strands of science and technology. Spazju Kreattiv commissioned two collective exhibitions for this year’s visual arts programme. This provided a unique opportunity for both international and local artists to showcase their work alongside their peers, offering a platform for collaboration and shared creative expression. Curated by Maren Richter, When the Moon Waxes Red featured sixteen local and international artists, all addressing aspects of the imbalance between human activities to extract resources and colonial ideologies, justifying the protection of property over people and nature’s degradation by using ecofeminism as a point of departure. In collaboration with Christine Xuereb Seidu, “What’chu Looking At? Who you Speaking With?”: A Gazing All Around, looked at the continent known as Africa as a complex, intricate and unfathomable entity.

With the guidance of Bernard Akoi-Jackson, nine African contemporary artists exhibited their works, expressing their lived realities through various mediums, materials, and technologies. This exhibition investigated these expressions and invited reflexivity towards the gaze in art. By bringing together a variety of voices and perspectives, these exhibitions created a space for dialogue and engagement, allowing audiences to immerse themselves in a dynamic and thought- provoking artistic experience.

This season showcased a compelling mix of local and international exhibitions, delving into an array of subjects within an ever-evolving societal context. Maltese artists Darren Tanti, Clint Calleja, Enrique Tabone and Ġulja Holland showcased their works in solo exhibitions titled Inaction is a Weapon of Mass Destruction, ANAMNESIS, Prestorjha and A New Gothic respectively. Curated by Melanie Erixon, Tanti’s was an art project meant to shed light on the mediatic processes utilised to spread information about war and its effects on the viewer. Spaces were cluttered with sculptural elements juxtaposed with his hyper-realistic and abstract paintings giving the viewer a jarring look into the effects of war.

ANAMNESIS by Calleja, and curated by Kenneth Cassar, looked at trauma and memory as a source for his work. Showcasing large medallions with imagery from his past and present, with paintings and installations alongside them, proved to be a captivating introspective study of autobiographical recollections that remain imprinted in Calleja’s memory. Prestorjha was Tabone’s first solo exhibition of this magnitude, showcasing her oeuvre and featuring works of contemporary art on the theme of the female figure in prehistoric Malta and Gozo, from a feminist perspective. Tabone’s signature use of plexiglass, site-specific installations, as well as video art from an intimate performance, along with art prints engaged a feminist reimagining of the prehistoric art of the Maltese Islands in present society. And, A New Gothic, curated by Andrew Borg Wirth and under the expert guidance of Kathleen Soriano, brought together Holland’s series of paintings completed in the UK, Portugal, and Malta. The broad and universal themes of gender identity, social well-being, and climate crises have been instrumental in creating this series, also featuring reactionary works by filmmaker Charlie Cauchi and performance artist Rieko Whitfield. Along with this lineup, Charlie Cauchi showcased her research on the local film industry in an exhibition titled Backlot. She used video work, photographic images, built structures and more to break down the complex possibilities of Malta’s on-screen cinematic (mis)representation. Cauchi’s work in this exhibition reclaims Maltese spaces used as a double for other locations and reframes our gaze to dispute or acknowledge the real, the recreated and the suppressed.

Throughout the year, there were other international collaborators within the programme. The most prominent project was Gabarrón, The Colours of Hope featuring a public work in St George’s Square in Valletta, an exhibition at Spazju Kreattiv and an AMBIT in Ġgantija that brought together artistic creations from Maltese artists specialised in dance, music, literature and mime together with a live artistic rendition by Cristobal Gabarrón. The exhibition at Spazju Kreattiv showcased the artist’s extensive portfolio, including his long-standing collaboration with the United Nations dating back to 1986. MARLANDS Exhibition | I Landed. Malta, Latent Spaces Reframed – Malta, and At The Table formed part of a long list of international cooperations. The MARLANDS project was created for people to exchange their experiences, to motivate them to gain new knowledge, to encourage them to conduct collective artistic work and recognise the uniqueness of the islands, as well as to spread this knowledge beyond the targeted area of these islands. The project hosted a residency with artist Edgar Sarin in Malta, following an exhibition featuring works by Lucy Orta, who did her residency in the Balearic Islands, Max Fouchy from his visit to Sicily and Sheldon Saliba in Malta. Latent Spaces Reframed – Malta was an immersive installation of site-specific works directed by Ana Baer Carrillo and Heike Salzer under the umbrella of WECreate Productions.

Featuring the hyper-local and reaching the global, this installation invited the viewer to experience landscapes from Iceland, Ireland, Mexico, the United Kingdom, and Malta. At The Table comprised ten short films showing ruptures, secret codes and open fronts of family negotiation in different social contexts and across national borders. As a transnational venture, the project traces the family table as a central place of negotiation and thus, the smallest social cell. The collaboration with projekt-il, included live performances at the Atrium by Phaedra Pisimisi and Alexander Steindorf under the direction of Bianca Künzel, Alexander Steindorf, Matts Johan Leenders and Dorle Trachternach. Spanish artist Lucía Vallejo Garay presented her works in Transparencies of the Soul, curated by María de Corral and Lorena de Corral, using the mediums of canvas and bohemian glass. Through her practice, she did something without precedent in the thousand-year history of Murano glass: she burned it during the glass-making process itself. The result is an eclectic fusion of mediums that resonates with those who experienced her exhibition. Following her visit as part of the Artist in Residency programme 2021 I 2022, Cedrine Scheidig was invited to exhibit her created photography as part of an exhibition titled INSULAR. The photographic project focused on the everyday life and destiny of young men from the African diaspora, who recently settled on the island of Malta. A new collaboration with MGRM came to fruition in December with She Said Darling with a K – Reimagining Katya Saunders curated by Roxamn Gatt and Charlie Cauchi. Three years after her passing, this exhibition highlighted the different facets of one of the first transgender women who broke boundaries in terms of sexual diversity and inclusion in Malta. Complementing the exhibition, was the launch of an official biography, penned by Ramona Depares, featuring a catalogue of photographs of Katya’s clothes and various other memorabilia depicting her life. Ongoing partnerships during this programme featured the Architecture Student EXPO 2022

in collaboration with SACES and the Faculty of Built Environment, ‘Kartolini tal-Milied’ with the Office of the Prime Minister and Arts Council Malta, the Carnival Costumes exhibition in collaboration with Festivals Malta, TNESSID – the Master of Fine Arts in Digital Arts Showcase with the Department of Digital Arts at the University of Malta, which this year included works by students from the University of Greenwich, London, and the seventh edition of the MCAST ICA Festival by MCAST’s Institute for the Creative Arts. The Art Additives series provided added value to the extensive programme by enabling the creative teams to engage in discussions about their processes while reaching a wider spectrum of the public to learn about the themes fueling the creative output. These discussions were livestreamed and recorded, and subsequently shared on our social media platforms and website. At the end of the season, a new Spazju Kreattiv podcast channel was created to further promote our collaborators’ work while also serving as a public archive. Additionally, a collaboration with ŻiguŻajg Festival and Season saw the introduction of ŻiguŻajg Art Jam and Summer Bootcamp, which is a learning programme revolving around temporary exhibitions held at Spazju Kreattiv. Walking through the spaces, participants discuss the key themes in the works exhibited and learn about the exhibition-making process from the artist to the curation in the venue. Taking inspiration from the exhibitions and used techniques, participants would then make their own artistic creations. In conclusion, Spazju Kreattiv’s visual arts programme for the year showcased a cohesive balance between Maltese and international projects, which dealt with a range of social topics, creating a space for dialogue, engagement, and a thought-provoking artistic experience.