‘We Can Choose To Make Malta Green’ – Vibrant Exhibition Foregrounds Environmental Struggle
A collection of recent paintings by Rune Bo Jakobsen – Green City – will be hosting its opening at 7pm tonight, for display throughout August at the Phonecia’s Palm Court Lounge.
The artist’s urgent, central message, expressed in this exhibition, is elegant in its simplicity, and seeks to inspire hope: “We can choose to make Malta green”.
“I’ve been in Malta since 2002,” Rune told Lovin Malta.
As an architect, Rune helped develop a design for Dock 1 – a beautiful development which has become a green-lung in the heart of the city. His paintings and sculpture seeks to continue in this vision.
“This exhibition isn’t about highlighting the negatives,” said Rune, explaining that development and progress do not have to come at the expense of human space and happiness.
“It has a lot more to do with hope. Hope is a big thing to me.”
In times of political, infrastructural, social and environmental turmoil, Jakobsen’s paintings are refreshing and hopeful beacons portraying space, “with emotion, capturing dappled light and reimagining a soft regenerative ambience.”
Jakobsen is an artist, sculptor and architect who was born in Denmark, but who has lived and been inspired by scenes and social contexts across Europe, and the world.
Given that he was born in Denmark, Rune is accustomed to the prioritisation of cycling and pedestrian infrastructure.
“If we were to connect Maltese villages and spaces with paths people can use, and want to use, we’d be making our spaces more welcoming, and more humane. We’d also be giving ourselves the chance to be healthier.”
“There are so many parts of Malta that are inaccessible to pedestrians. That doesn’t make sense, in such a small country, with so much potential for beauty. We don’t need to limit ourselves.”
In his Green City exhibition, iconic landmarks such as Mdina, Robert Sammut Hall, timber balconies and church steeples are evident – and all are bathed in the warm Mediterranean sunlight.
This light permeates all of his work, and he uses it to enhance the vibrant colour Jakobsen sees and feels all around him.
'Green Heart' - Rune Bo Jakobsen's Sculpture, on display in The Phoenicia Malta Gardens
For his sculpture, Rune reclaimed industrial materials and transformed them into something else entirely. Rather than taking, or stifling life, this work reinvigorates material and injects a whimsical and hopeful spirit.
Green City will open at 7pm tonight, and will remain on display at the Phoenicia until 30th August.
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