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On Bodies, Standards, And Movement: Maltese Performance Artist Kicking Off New Residency At Muża

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Maltese performance artist and photographer Charlene Galea is kicking off a residency at Valletta’s Muża next month, fresh from her months of movement training in Budapest.

During her time away from Malta, she has had a lot of reflective moments, deeply contemplating how she can bring performance art into the museum space – not just through her own body, but also by collaborating with others who are interested to join her.

Lovin Malta spoke to Charlene about her experience and all that she learned in the past months, as she gears up for next month’s residency.

“This has given me a lot of privileges to research the body, movement and the importance of dance from a fine art perspective and how I can bring this knowledge back with me when I return to the island,” Charlene told Lovin Malta.

“During this time, besides the different styles of dance we have learned, every month I had the opportunity to present a short performance idea as a work in progress where I have thought of story, movement, light, clothing, and message.”

The residency’s open call, which is happening between 14th April and 14th May, invited everyone, with no need for an art portfolio or knowledge of performance.

“I was quite worried at the start, as traditional art forms are still powerful on the island, and when questioned about performance art people confuse the latter with theatre.”

“In one of my artworks in 2022 during the exhibition ‘Go Fund Me or Go Fund Myself’, I have written ‘Less Art Awards, More Art Space’ and this is my first step up on my words to share the given space and thrive towards more collaborative work.”

Why performance?

“We need a collective stand in between boxes, not inside ticked boxes of how society and power shape us, and the biggest force we can use is our body, if it is still ours,” Charlene explained.

“Using the body in movement classes has taught me that I have the possibility to make space around me and make space inside me. By using different positions in dance I have learned as well that my body has the possibility to reshuffle the order of what is top and what is bottom giving a change in structure and how things are given importance in hierarchies.”

Titled, ‘My Body (is) (not) your business card’, Charlene aims to explore concepts of what a body is, or how to live in one.

“The question of ‘What is a body?’ and ‘How do I live in my body?’ are of curiosity, challenge, and excitement in my continuous research into performance art.”

“We live in several bodies – emotional, physical, working, anatomical, conscious but often in this world divided between living online and offline – we are mostly focusing our attention on how we are presenting our image body.”

“How are we looking at each other? How looking at ourselves as well as others is not our choice sometimes but as something engrained by other external forces social, religious, political matters.”

But…

“Does it matter if you sing well or look well or draw well or dance well or pose well or create well enough – does it matter to the museum or to the Instagram post, and does it matter to the audience?”

“Who makes things matter? Who has the power? My body (is not) your business card!”

Charlene expressed how we grow up in societies where we are felt never good enough and we constantly need to buy more and try more and change more.

“We have fear online that we are not good enough. We have pressure in everyday life that we need to push further. We are never enough.”

“Besides fear we collectively live in shame bombarded to us from all walks of life, controlling our actions, our behaviors. Who are we when no one is looking? What do we think when no one is listening? Can we have a space to speak up, to let go, to be brave, and to act?”

In this way, Muża’s open space has been offered to Charlene as a shared collective playground for experimentation and radical thinking on body politics topics and activism to give power to stories one may be ashamed or fearful to discuss but that needs to be heard.

“In this period I will be using my practice as a performance artist to bring care, slow art through the possibility of chance and trust in the community.”

“The space will be changed into a living room space rather than an institutionalised spot, to host the co-creation opportunities between bodies through the mediums of voice, movement, reading, drawing, and sharing the space together.

Collaborators on the project include others from all walks of life: dance, activism, architecture, singing, and painting, and where their interests in their art practice will be shared and swapped.

During the third week, the space will be set up for an exhibition with Etienne Farell displaying several of our performance image-making collaborations in regard to body, identity, and stereotypes.

And finally, the residency will finish with a collective performance called ‘The Walk of Shame’, featuring Charlene and all collaborators.

Images: Maria Rita Galea, Etienne Farrell, Lara Hauser

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Sasha is a writer, creator, and podcast host interested in environmental matters, humans, and art. Some know her as Sasha tas-Sigar. Inspired by nature and the changing world. Follow her on Instagram at @saaxhaa and send her your stories at [email protected]

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