Valletta, crowned the European Capital of Culture for 2018, this week becomes the hub for an International Visual Arts Festival that has had an entire line-up of highly-acclaimed international academics, curators and artists flying in — among them, Mieke Bal, Michelle Williams Gamaker and Kit Hammonds. Aptly abbreviated VIVA, this festival celebrates the interweaving of local and international art and culture into a single vibrant fabric.
With the Curatorial School being the centrepiece of the Festival, the festival kicked off last week with a bang, as with the unveiling of the contemporary art sculpture Żieme by Austin Camilleri, much debate sprung up as to how and why on earth did the artwork feature a three-legged horse. Said to symbolise a maimed image of power, the artwork poignantly sits right next to the new Parliament building — a perfect way in for the Curatorial School, especially given the controversy it stirred locally.
The Curatorial School is set to offer a space for a discussion on fine arts, art education, arts administration, curating and history of art, and will run until September 6th. Participants, whether practitioners or students, will follow a programme of lectures and be able to present their curatorial ideas or artworks to fellow practitioners in this diverse field.
Running alongside this programme, there will be public events, among them the Divergent Thinkers 03 exhibition at BLITZ, the screening of Madame B and SOS and another lecture by Mieke Bal at St. James Cavalier and Pjazza Teatru Rjal respectively.
Have a happy artsy week!
Tickets for the evening events can be booked through the St. James Cavalier ticket engine: https://ticketengine.sjcav.org/ More details about the Festival can be found on this link: http://www.viva.org.mt/
