As a contemporary art space, the 2020|21 programme endured in engaging with innovative art forms which are currently at the centre of the artistic community worldwide. The start of this year’s season began with Proġett XX, a site-specific installation by renowned Maltese artist Pierre Portelli which explored St James Cavalier’s past, present and future which celebrated 20 years of our main base as Malta’s Centre for Creativity. This monumental occasion ushered us into the new programme which hosted an ever-growing selection of quality visual arts projects.

This year, Spazju Kreattiv bolstered its status as a stakeholder within the arts by further broadening the topics tackled within the programme. This also included exploring controversial subjects such as in the case of Dehumaneation, an exhibition by Shaun Grech which was supported by Arts Council Malta which touched upon topics within the spheres of national identity and immigration in Malta. Staying within this vein, {v}, a collective exhibition that Spazju Kreattiv commissioned this year, similarly tackled feminism by celebrating the female form. The exhibition About Order featuring work by the Berlin Artist Group provided common reflections of philosophical topics, artistic materials and different modes of production within a globalised society.

Our main gallery spaces – Space A and C – also became spots through which people could be taken to experience and question humanity; both on a local level and on a global one. Through Faith. an analogue exhibition by renowned Maltese-English photographer Amelia Troubridge, our audiences were taken on a nostalgic journey of Malta from the 1990s to the present day. SURA, by Glen Calleja and Lori Sauer, then looked at humanity through the use of doll making. Nothing Really Matters featuring works by Debbie Caruana Dingli tapped in the emotional traumas and social stigmas of mothers whose children have been convicted of a crime and locked away to serve time.

Even though the ground beneath our feet was shaken by the pandemic, we took this as an opportunity to reach out to local communities through the visual arts programme. A way in which we did this was through Mil-Lenti tal-Poplu: Djarju Kwarantina which featured submissions from all around the island done in collaboration with local TV programme, Illum Ma’ Steph. Having received hundreds of submissions from individuals young and old, this project showed how creativity can truly encourage a community to come together.

The returning MCAST ICA Festival provided an opportunity for emerging creatives to showcase their work at Spazju Kreattiv and whilst doing so have the opportunity to experience working within a professional setup. Throughout Spazju Kreattiv serves as the ideal platform wherein students could have encounters with the industry and exchange innovative ideas.

Through Art Additives which was live streamed online this year, individuals could also engage with the discussions occurring through the art shown within these spaces from the comfort of their own homes. The creation of online galleries and virtual tours also increased the accessibility of the visual arts programme.