Once again, Malta is taking part at the Venice Art Biennale, this time with I Will Follow The Ship, the national pavilion commissioned by Arts Council Malta following a competitive call. Sunday Circle caught up with Dr Romina Delia, Internationalisation Executive at Arts Council Malta and artist Matthew Attard for some insights about the project and the impact it’s expected to have on the international stage.
What is the Venice Art Biennale?
Ever since the Biennale di Venezia was launched in 1895, countries from all over the world have offered the opportunity for curators and artists to showcase their ideas in National Pavilions. During the event’s six months, the city becomes a sprawling celebration of contemporary art, hosting themed art shows and performances, while providing access to some of the city’s most historic and sometimes off-limits buildings.
Today, the event is often referred to as the ‘Olympic Games’ of the contemporary art world. International curators compete in showcasing their artistic concepts, while artists work with different media, addressing issues such as nationhood, politics, the plight of refugees, immigrants, poverty, democracy, sustainability, social media, technology, impermanence and so forth.
What can you tell us about Malta’s relationship with the Biennale?
This is not the first time that Malta has taken part. As early as 1958, the Venice Biennale hosted a special exhibition of seven Maltese artists. In 1999 Malta commissioned its National Pavilion, curated by the late Adrian Bartolo. At the time Bartolo was one of the curators of the National Museum of Fine Arts in Valletta.
Seventeen years later, in 2016, on behalf of Arts Council Malta, I was tasked with the commissioning of the Malta Pavilion at the Venice Art Biennale. I coordinated and managed the initial meetings with the organisers, to set up Malta’s participation once again. After viewing several spaces we decided to choose the space which hosted the Tuvalu National Pavilion in 2015 in Venice.
Thus, after an absence of 17 years, Malta returned to the Biennale di Venezia with its own National Pavilion located in a central location in the Arsenale. After co-ordinating an open call for curatorial proposals at Arts Council Malta, a jury selected the Malta based artist-curators Bettina Hutschek and Raphael Vella to curate the Malta Pavilion in 2017, at the 57th International Art Exhibition. Their winning proposal – entitled Homo Melitensis: An incomplete inventory in 19 chapters – described how a poetic compilation of unique objects supposedly defined the imaginary of the Maltese identity. The 2019 Malta Pavilion entitled Maleth / Haven /Port – Heterotopias of Evocation, and the 2022 Pavilion entitled Diplomazija Astuta all received international press acclaim, garnering a host of high-profile media accolades and acknowledgements.
This year, Maltese artist Matthew Attard shall be representing Malta in Venice with his project I will Follow the Ship, while Elyse Tonna and Sara Dolfi Agostini will be co-curators and Maria Galea and Galleria Michela Rizzo shall oversee the project management. This is the youngest team ever representing Malta in Venice and we are very excited to see what they have created for us.
Can you elaborate about the concept behind the project?
The project, I Will Follow The Ship, is rooted in the historical imagery of ships etched on the
walls of wayside chapels, commonly known as ship graffiti. I am particularly intrigued by the interpretation that these drawings, found on the walls of places of worship, may have
served as ex-voto. The project commences by looking at these drawings with an eye-tracking device, offering a reinterpretation of the etched lines through the digital medium.
What makes these ship graffiti so intriguing?
I find them both humbling and aesthetically fascinating. These drawings, created by non-artists in inconspicuous locations, hold significance as traces of our Mediterranean heritage. Beyond their historical value, I view them as powerful expressions, illustrating how individuals, through acts of faith or tradition, left their mark in the form of a drawing that conveyed both hope and fear. I interpret these drawings as a human way of expressing such emotions.
You are redrawing these graffiti using an eye-tracking device. What is the thought behind this?
The use of an eye-tracking device serves as a means to understand that the device does not draw; instead, it datafies my eye movements. This represents a relinquishing of control, a form of codrawing with technology. The technology’s algorithms interpret my eye movements into data points, subsequently transformed into digital drawings by other software.
The technological process imprints its signature throughout the entire process of a drawing
that is no longer entirely ‘mine’. This process metaphorically encompasses broader interpretations, involving the power of the gaze or the concept of the posthuman cyborg, among others.
So what is your medium, primarily?
My primary interest lies in the open-ended possibilities of contemporary drawing and in expanding the notion of drawing in our current times. Drawing is a way of seeing and discovery, and it is inherently undefinable. Its processes also have flexibility of medium, and I try to be attentive to this in my artistic processes.
Where, in Venice, can the public visit the Malta Pavilion and on which dates?
The Malta Pavilion commissioned by Arts Council Malta, under the auspices of the Ministry for the National Heritage, the Arts and Local Government, is located at the Arsenale in Venice alongside several other National Pavilions and it will open on April 20 and run until November 24. •