There are only a few days left to see the art from the MUŻA archive that is currently on show in the building’s public access areas. The Mumenti… selection of fourteen pieces is small but perfectly formed, incorporating moments of silence, of sadness, of joy, of fear, of stillness and of peace.
The works range from an organic rough-hewn Goddess in plaster on plywood by Joseph Calleja and a more unexpected wry depiction of the islands’ Goddess in Alfred Camilleri’s Nexus, to striking photography that juxtaposes a wide-eyed young girl in a pretty top alongside religious imagery.
Within the collection there are several striking comparisons, for example Cat Sitting by Jeni Caruana, a young woman sitting on a curb in her leather trousers, with a traditional nude by Giuseppe Briffa.
One pairing, however, is breathtakingly stark, and this alone makes visiting these corridors worthwhile. The first of this large pair is History is best told in Black and White by Fabrizio Ellul which shows, in a work that’s largely black and white, a mournful abstracted view of the bodies of several children piled up roughly. It’s an unsettling and thought-provoking piece, with a perfectly-pitched title reminding us that the way history is portrayed often leaves little space for the understanding of the grey areas.
Adjacent to it Islanders is a striking piece by photojournalist Darrin Zammit Lupi which also shows people tessellated together, and the viewer presumes they are in a boat. Their rich ebony skin, which suggests that these are refugees with an African heritage, is set against bright orange-red and blue life jackets that appear to glow in Mediterranean sunshine. The extraordinary cheer of a tangerine hue seems wrong when the futures of these men is steeped in uncertainty, and it’s a sobering reminder of how close we are, on these islands, to people who live in places and conditions very different from those on the safe streets of Valletta.
The curator’s overview of the collection summarises how art assists the spectator to experience moments where they can associate or empathize with different situations. These moments, they note, can change a person’s life.
