Bank of Valletta is supporting an educational outreach programme organised by Arts Council Malta, in collaboration with the curator and the artists of the Malta Pavilion, transporting the spirit of the Venice Art Biennale to the Maltese shores. The Venice Art Biennale is one of the largest exhibitions of contemporary art in the world and Malta will once again be participating with its own Pavilion during the 58th edition of this international art exhibition.
By means of this outreach programme, children, sixth form students as well as university students, studying arts and literature in Malta and Cyprus, will be participating in a set of creative workshops, to explore diverse human issues, challenging the norm and finally producing their own works of art.
Workshops for sixth form students were launched on 27 February and are being conducted by Professor Vince Briffa, one of the three artists of the Malta Pavilion. These workshops focus on Outland, Briffa's film installation, which will be exhibited inside the Malta Pavilion in Venice this year. Students will explore human emotions and issues, the manifestation of obsessive love and desire and interweave experimentation and reflection to produce their works of art. Experimentation will focus on pushing these students out of their comfort zone, driving artists to the written word and writers to the drawing form.
Their inspiration will stem from the Odyssey, drawing upon the dual conflicts of Ulysses and Calypso's personalities. On one hand delving into a Ulysses who is comfortably numb, caught in the safe haven of an island, yet longing to return to his original life but afraid and indecisive about the perils of the sea crossing and on the other absorbing a Calypso fighting the inner struggles of both a lover and an oppressor.
Professor Briffa emphasised how artists use human conditions and recreate them to create art, how the students need to challenge themselves out of their comfort zone. "We will move from seeing the act of drawing as the only means to produce the image of an object to one that becomes part of a thinking process, generating knowledge in the course of making images, oscillating between text and image." He thanked Bank of Valletta for its support and for making these workshops a reality.
Claudette Pace from Bank of Valletta, encouraged the students to explore and be creative, never allowing the course of life to dull their creativity. She stated: "Bank of Valletta is always at the forefront of supporting Arts, Culture and Education, especially where this involves youths. What better way than to invest in the future of our country?"