The Ggantija Temples were transformed during the first activity by the Ars Vitae Ensemble, held on the evening of the Summer Solstice. Through this project, artist Victor Agius and composer Mariella Cassar successfully merged their talents in art and music to create a unique evening inspired by the UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Guests were free to wander around the Temples as the sun set, listening to Cassar’s musical composition, with the full moon casting exciting shadows on the megalithic site and Agius’ latest artistic offerings. In this project, Agius looks to the Temples for inspiration and reinvents his reaction through installation and intervention.
The Project curator Dr Vince Briffa stated that ‘’Victor Agius’s sculptural and media installations, redefines today’s meaning of collective ritual through a combined process of production and reaffirms man’s innate regard for the creative process as a distinctive means of realising a higher state of being’’.
Cassar’s composition further projected this contemporary exploration, of a site dating back thousands of years. Whilst exploring the Temples, guests found different musicians in every chamber. The musicians were seated all around the site and conducted by Cassar, producing a sound further enhanced by the acoustics of the site itself.
Dr Briffa comments ‘’The ambiguity of this evocation is further heightened by the visceral sonority of Cassar’s composition which manages to concurrently evoke the primordial desires of our ancestors while contemporaneously speak in a modish language.”
The musicians included Hungarian violinists Ernise Toth and David Lang, percussionist Renzo Spiteri, cellist Simon Abdilla Joslin, pianist Gisele Grima, Alistair Attard on the synthesizer, and Alan Cordina, playing the didgeridoo.
The music was also accompanied by the haunting voice of soprano Miriam Cauchi, who walked amongst the guests within the temples. In tune with the topic of the evening, Cauchi sang ‘Ggantija’, a poem written for the occasion by writer Immanuel Mifsud.
During the event, guests remarked on the unique remarkable experience of Ggantija by night, with others sharing their awe at the sheer power of the temples, which were enhanced through art, light and music.
The illustrated booklet relating to the Ggantija Project, which includes an introduction by Dr Vince Briffa, curator of the project, as well as a poem by writer Immanuel Mifsud, can be obtained for free through Heritage Malta office in Gozo, The Museum of Archaeology in Valletta, Gozo Cultural and Information Office at the Banca Giuratale or via email [email protected].
The event at Ggantija is the first of a series of events inspired by the heritage site, which will be held in Malta and Gozo. The Ars Vitae Ensemble, after its first collaborative success, looks forward to a series of workshops and an exhibition which all form part of Ggantija 2013 Project, which will continue to inspire the public in appreciating our national treasures - in the light of with contemporary art, music composition and literature.
The Ggantija 2013 Project is hosted by Heritage Malta and kindly supported by The Malta Arts Fund, Banif Bank (Malta), Gasan Mamo Insurance, Gozo Culture & Information Office, Xaghra Local Council, Abraham's Supplies and The Janatha Stubbs Foundation.