The world is ruled by metrics and data that measure… everything: wealth, vitals, performance, speed, even social media credibility. But what happens in a world that resists the urge to translate every single human experience into a score?
Spazju Kreattiv in Valletta is hosting the group exhibition For Want of (not) Measuring, curated by artist Vince Briffa, from Thursday to May 3. It features the works of 10 artists who will reimagine familiar tools of quantification that will contest the act of measurement, inviting viewers to reconsider the way humans gauge themselves.
By challenging the traditional view of measurement as an objective tool to understand ourselves and the world, the artists explore whether this power for clarification actually erases what matters most: context, culture, memory, emotion and lived complexity.
“By exploring the gap between hard data and our lived experience, viewers can understand how metrics simplify and control, but are then limited in capturing the essence of complexity, of a richer life, or a more humane understanding of who we are,” curator Briffa says.
“Utilising drawing and painting, sculpture, photography, installation, film, and sound, the 10 artists will show how love, loss, care, fear and wonder cannot be quantified – art instead allows us a more sensuous understanding of these important facets of our existence.”
Briffa, who has been selected as one of the artists at the Malta pavilion during the Malta Biennale 2026, will be assisted by co-curator Alexander Zammit.
The featured artists include international and Malta-based practitioners: Trevor Borg, Matthew (Matyou) Galea (Malta), Katie Sims (Gozo), Jim Hobbs (US), Patrick Jones, Davd Waterworth (UK), Canecapovolto (Italy), Kristina Huxley (Ireland), Yanyun Chen (Singapore), and Andreas Treske (Türkiye).
Briffa says the artworks will invite viewers into a world that explores the ambiguity between measurement and non-measurement.
“Metrics condition the way we ascribe value to what we see or read… social media platforms appear to rank intellectual value by likes and shares, transforming credibility in numerical form. What are we losing when we surrender our own critical judgement to the ‘objectivity’ of a metric? I think this diverse group exhibition will give viewers a newfound appreciation of complexity and ambiguity.”
The exhibition will be the subject of a forthcoming catalogue with contributions from assistant curator Alexander Zammit, Prof. Ing. Emmanuel Francalanza, and Dr Clive Zammit.
The exhibition is supported by the Department of Digital Arts (University of Malta), Arts Council Malta, Spazju Kreattiv, and VisitMalta, as well as Prevarti, Pictures & Frames, Miles Express, and Cube Relocations.