Your Capital City Art Fix: Valletta Contemporary Launches Two New Exhibitions
Valletta Contemporary has just launched two new exhibitions over the weekend, both available for public viewing over the next two months.
On Friday night, the capital city art space launched a collective exhibition, Rituals of Passage, in the main room, as well as JP Migneco’s Irregularity exhibition in the room situated upstairs.
Rituals of Passage is an international collective exhibition or best described as a curated project, featuring work by Ryan Falzon, Yasmine Akondo, Alexandra Fraser, Stefan Kolgen, Mladen Hadzic, and Aaron Bezzina.
The theme of this exhibition grew from a series of discussions between the participating artists and the curators. Whilst listening to each other and whilst challenging each other’s ideas, it occurred that all were intrigued by rituals and how they might bring some structure in a disrupted time.
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“Since the initial meetings in Antwerp, which were followed by online debates and plan execution, the works have aimed to dialogue, question, and serve as reflection points on the roles and acts of rituals in the present,” artist and author Falzon wrote online.
“Rituals are part of everyday life. During times of distress, they give comfort. The title is based on the fact that rituals can bring you from one stage to another physically and mentally. Post-Covid rituals can help us find balance in a disrupted society where attention to mental health and well-being has become important,” the exhibition description reads.
“The artists created the works with the exhibition space in mind, presenting them in such a way that they interact with each other and that they challenge the viewer, offering context for the audience to create their own story.”
During the opening weekend, some works will be accompanied by a performance and a discussion session about the meaning of rituals will be organised, followed by a meet and greet with the artists.
Meanwhile, Irregularity features a series of artworks that explore the relationship between natural and artificial environments.
The body of work involves a process of reinterpreting landscapes that are found near coastal areas in Malta, through the use of photography, drawing, digital media, and painting.
A method for mapping and tracing images of landforms is used to extract different shapes and tones to form fragmented compositions that combine elements of the natural and the artificial.
This process involves the use of irregular polygonal grids which derive inspiration from models of fractal terrain and biomorphic architecture.
The theme of this project delves into notions related to urbanisation and the advancement of technology. Therefore, the work attempts to evoke issues related to human-environment interaction in the digital age.
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