News
Fabrizio Ellul
09 July 2009 08:55
 Photos of politicians and "representations of strangely erotic acts" left out of Malta Arts Festival
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The Malta Council for Culture and the Arts decided to exclude a Maltese artists’ exhibition of 16 photographs which put together images of politicians, including ministers, and "representations of strangely erotic acts”, claiming that the artworks were "libellous".
When contacted by maltastar.com, the artist, Raphael Vella, 42, said that foreign artists are comparing the situation of the arts in Malta with that of the Soviet Union and Germany before the war.
Dr Raphael Vella is Art Co-ordinator within the Faculty of Education at the University of Malta. He is also co-founder of ‘Start’, an art group born out from the “dissatisfaction with the existing conditions for artists in Malta.” His latest solo exhibition in Malta, 2008, “Reading Cabinets” combined religious imagery and text with war images.
The excluded artwork was to be part of a collective exhibition, “The Life Model,” curated by Patrick Fenech, which opened this week, as part of the Malta Arts Festival. Yet, the Council argued that the images are “potentially libellious” because some Maltese individuals in the images were still recognisable, despite the artist having “blurred them partially.”
Dr Vella made it clear that the content of his work is not pornographic. “I am not interested in cheap pornography as an 'art form', but I am very much interested in the fact that politics has become a bit like pornography.”
The artists explained to this e-newspaper that his works were “more like a subtle digital juxtaposition of different facets of the virtual world we inhabit. There is “no pornography as such with my images but representations of strangely erotic acts, which are ambiguous enough to represent entirely different forms of behaviour, like wrestling for instance.”
The installation consists of 16 photographic images, each of which is printed separately and covered in a plastic sheet that partially veils the image. “It is an illusion; packaged and digitally manipulated, somewhat like silicone breasts. I wanted to show that the age we live in is not even characterised by deceit any longer, so we are not even permitted to criticise the system any more.”
“Why has deceit disappeared? Because we know that the politics we engage with on TV and the internet are packaged, inevitably manipulated because the digital graphic media we use are manipulative media.”
“So the situation has changed; fifteen years ago, we would scream that the mass media are trying to deceive us; today, we smile ...because we know that, whether we like it or not, things cannot be otherwise.”
“The work has absolutely no malicious or partisan intentions - it is more like a comment about society. I wanted this to be different from some other works that are associated with the 'life model.' I feel that this age is always about the 'virtual model' rather than the life model.”
This is not the first time that the arts have been censored in Malta. In the past, the works of poet and play writer Mario Azzopardi and also of artist Caesar Attard were all censored by the state. More recently, the play “Stitching” was banned on moral grounds and the case is now in court. In February, police arrested youths who put on costumes representing religious characters during the Nadur spontaneous carnival celebrations. The arrests were made following an appeal by the Gozo Bishop.
The real controversial subjects in Malta remain politics and religion: “I am not interested in the individual or even the party but in the way we experience the political realm,” Dr Vella told this e-newspaper.
“It's a shame that we cannot make such comments about Maltese politics, and that the 'nude' is presented to the public as a controversial subject, when in fact we all know that the really controversial areas in this country remain politics and religion,” Dr Vella said.
“I feel that the Arts council lost a chance here to show a work that might have started a discussion about art and the limits of free expression; the nude alone rarely produces such discussions today.”
A foreign artist in the same festival told Dr Vella that the situation in Malta reminds him of the ex-Soviet Union and Germany before the war. "This year, I had work in France and Luxembourg and I have a show in Belgium in two weeks' time - and curators there are usually interested in my work because it sometimes deals with provocative ideas.”
“In Malta, it seems that provocative ideas are 'libellious'. No wonder some of Malta's best artists are not very interested in showing their work in their own country.”
(pic source: reading cabinet, exhibition catalogue, 2008)
When contacted by maltastar.com, the artist, Raphael Vella, 42, said that foreign artists are comparing the situation of the arts in Malta with that of the Soviet Union and Germany before the war.
Dr Raphael Vella is Art Co-ordinator within the Faculty of Education at the University of Malta. He is also co-founder of ‘Start’, an art group born out from the “dissatisfaction with the existing conditions for artists in Malta.” His latest solo exhibition in Malta, 2008, “Reading Cabinets” combined religious imagery and text with war images.
The excluded artwork was to be part of a collective exhibition, “The Life Model,” curated by Patrick Fenech, which opened this week, as part of the Malta Arts Festival. Yet, the Council argued that the images are “potentially libellious” because some Maltese individuals in the images were still recognisable, despite the artist having “blurred them partially.”
Dr Vella made it clear that the content of his work is not pornographic. “I am not interested in cheap pornography as an 'art form', but I am very much interested in the fact that politics has become a bit like pornography.”
The artists explained to this e-newspaper that his works were “more like a subtle digital juxtaposition of different facets of the virtual world we inhabit. There is “no pornography as such with my images but representations of strangely erotic acts, which are ambiguous enough to represent entirely different forms of behaviour, like wrestling for instance.”
The installation consists of 16 photographic images, each of which is printed separately and covered in a plastic sheet that partially veils the image. “It is an illusion; packaged and digitally manipulated, somewhat like silicone breasts. I wanted to show that the age we live in is not even characterised by deceit any longer, so we are not even permitted to criticise the system any more.”
“Why has deceit disappeared? Because we know that the politics we engage with on TV and the internet are packaged, inevitably manipulated because the digital graphic media we use are manipulative media.”
“So the situation has changed; fifteen years ago, we would scream that the mass media are trying to deceive us; today, we smile ...because we know that, whether we like it or not, things cannot be otherwise.”
“The work has absolutely no malicious or partisan intentions - it is more like a comment about society. I wanted this to be different from some other works that are associated with the 'life model.' I feel that this age is always about the 'virtual model' rather than the life model.”
This is not the first time that the arts have been censored in Malta. In the past, the works of poet and play writer Mario Azzopardi and also of artist Caesar Attard were all censored by the state. More recently, the play “Stitching” was banned on moral grounds and the case is now in court. In February, police arrested youths who put on costumes representing religious characters during the Nadur spontaneous carnival celebrations. The arrests were made following an appeal by the Gozo Bishop.
The real controversial subjects in Malta remain politics and religion: “I am not interested in the individual or even the party but in the way we experience the political realm,” Dr Vella told this e-newspaper.
“It's a shame that we cannot make such comments about Maltese politics, and that the 'nude' is presented to the public as a controversial subject, when in fact we all know that the really controversial areas in this country remain politics and religion,” Dr Vella said.
“I feel that the Arts council lost a chance here to show a work that might have started a discussion about art and the limits of free expression; the nude alone rarely produces such discussions today.”
A foreign artist in the same festival told Dr Vella that the situation in Malta reminds him of the ex-Soviet Union and Germany before the war. "This year, I had work in France and Luxembourg and I have a show in Belgium in two weeks' time - and curators there are usually interested in my work because it sometimes deals with provocative ideas.”
“In Malta, it seems that provocative ideas are 'libellious'. No wonder some of Malta's best artists are not very interested in showing their work in their own country.”
(pic source: reading cabinet, exhibition catalogue, 2008)
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Comments
mind boggling - 30 August 2009 10:20
While a public liberal attitude at least in art is nothing short of coitus interruptus in Malta; rather 'unnoticed' 17 year-olds doing A level English get to read some interesting and very daring ideas in a novel like Handmaid's Tale - for example, a very graphic scene where a wife rests eaglespread on the bed with the house maid positioned between her legs while the wife's husband attempts to impregnated the maid.
Joseph Howard - 18 August 2009 10:26
Niskanta meta nara certu kummenti dwar l arti u l ghera tal persuna fl arti, niskenta kemm baqgha nies li jesprimu opinjoni b dan il mod kontra din it tip ta arti, li jaffaxinani hu li il Vatikan u aknke diversi knejjes tghana huma mimlija b din it tip ta arti u dawn saru mijjiet ta sini ilu. Tghid dak iz zmien kienu mohhhom miftuh aktar mill illum?
C Borg - 16 July 2009 11:21
@ Thomas - take a break. You can always enjoy some nice grid line landscape in one of malta' great art galleries.
Thomas - 16 July 2009 08:08
Lil dawk it-taparsi artisti nghejdulhom jekk tridu turu l-ghera, morru l-barra minn pajjizna. dik mhix arti, mhix kultura, imma l-mohh pervers ta' dawn in-nies li jhossu li huma ferm oghla minn cittadin komuni. U jekk tfittex il-kredenzjali taghhom issib li mhuma xejn hlief salt arroganti. Bhal artisti li hlief ipingu nisa gharwiena ma jafux.
Ray Vassallo - 12 July 2009 11:32
PORNO-POLITICS!! Finally an innovative outlook which begs us to look closely at how we Maltese live our politics. Google up auto-eroticism, masochism and add a touch of fetishism and there you have it! Now about our religion........we would really need a new Freud to analyse that!! But perhaps catholic malta really is the only solid, physical evidence of the existence of the devil!!
joe vassallo - 11 July 2009 16:50
Thank God that we had an Art Council to tell others what's to see and how artists must work in this Island,if l am one of those MP's in Raphael's art works l will be pleased,in a world were art means art these things happeans all the time,but here in EU Malta like everything is upside down,keep it up Raphael and all the other atrists to keep trying like others did befor us in other parts of the world.
mario andretti - 10 July 2009 15:19
it s me again why you as a modern ??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? country try to live 50 years behind the rest of europe why???? you became a member ??????????????
martin borg - 09 July 2009 20:35
Isn't a government that sells its national assets like a whore selling hers.?
a. taliana - 09 July 2009 16:24
Regrettably, this incident tends to make the Malta Council for Culture and the Arts appear like another censorship board. I am certain that the Council members are not bigots. So why are they adopting this attitude when they should be promoting and defending artwork that relates to present day realities? The Council members' work would be more appreciated if they task towards breaking the ice and launching local art out of mediocrity and into the 21st century.
Would it be possible to view Raphael's work via the internet? Maltastar could help by indicating how.
Joanne Micallef - 09 July 2009 11:44
Issoltu storja, meta ser inkunu kapaci nidhku bina nnfusna f'dan il-pajjiez??
joseph zammit - 09 July 2009 10:45
We need perhaps two more generations to upgrade our mentality. Notwithstanding copying other countries in their outward "look" and behaviour, yet, our minds are still saturated with fungus and cobwebs of the middle-ages.
As I always insisted and believe, we must change the mental attitude and stupid and petrified beliefs we harbour. We must transcend our many limitations which we are very eager to keep on hugging to. We need culture and the arts--we need to evolve from our current letargy and start being Human again. We need to love our environment in the real sense, love the Arts for our own sake.
We must look at ourselves and do some stock-taking--starting from the university which is mass-producing graduates with a degree and nothing else.
Dave Rockcliffe - 09 July 2009 10:30
Who cares., there are more important factors effecting our lives then strangely erotic arts., could these critics come up with something more down to earth then going back to the days of the ark and hide behind their veil. Welcome to China.
Anthony Micallef - 09 July 2009 10:28
First and foremost I wish to congratulate Raphael Vella for his modern thinking and also wish to ask him to email me a copy of the collection in question if at all possible.
M.Brincat - 09 July 2009 09:54
Jahasra ejja ninqalghu darba ghall-dejjem mill-mentalita` antika taghna.