The historic Fort St Angelo is to provide an impressive venue for the hosting of an exhibition of contemporary art, entitled “Crossings – A Contemporary View”.
Crossings is dedicated to the poetry of movement of people, information and ideas in the modern world. The exhibition explores through the medium of artistic installations, including video art projections, the difficult role of the contemporary artist as a figure unshackled by the constraints of political, cultural and ideological divides.
Francis Zammit Dimech, Tourism and Culture Minister opened the exhibition at the new premises of the Superintendence of Cultural Heritage within Fort St Angelo. The exhibition will be hosted within the three main vaults of the fort's 16th century cavalier, as well as within part of the 19th century British barrack's buildings.
This exhibition is the first cultural event to be hosted at St Angelo since the government's decision last year to entrust part of the fort to the Superintendence of Cultural Heritage. Since then, extensive works have been undertaken with the assistance of the Tourism and Culture Ministry and the Cottonera Waterfront Group to start the process of rehabilitation of this national jewel. The fort has been cleared of about 100 tons of refuse and vegetation that had gathered within its historic buildings over the last few decades.
Plans for St Angelo include the restoration of the historic fortress, the opening of the monument to the public on a regular basis, and the removal of damaging and unsightly constructions which have been erected within the fort over the last few decades. These measures are intended to recover one of Malta's greatest architectural monuments, from the state of neglect and abandonment in which it has been allowed to descend.
The decision of the superintendence to host the Crossings exhibition in St Angelo is motivated primarily from a desire to create the opportunity for the general public to visit this little-known monument.
Even at this early stage of the rehabilitation process – with so much of the damage inflicted to this fortress still highly visible – visitors will undoubtedly appreciate the stark beauty of this military establishment and the splendid vistas of the Grand Harbour that can be enjoyed from within it.
This rather spartan and geometric setting provided by Fort St Angelo's military architecture is also a striking backdrop to the artistic installations forming the Crossings Exhibition.
Crossings includes work by 12 contemporary artists hailing from Cyprus, Egypt, France, Greece, Israel, Turkey and Germany. Two Maltese artists, Vince Briffa and Pierre Portelli are also taking part.
The exhibition is open to the public until 26 July. The public will be able to visit the exhibition from Monday to Saturday between 9am to 4pm.
After Malta, the exhibition will tour two other European venues, namely Espace Camille Claudel in Amiens (France) and the medieval castle of Colossi (Cyprus).
Crossings is a project implemented within the “Culture 2000” EU programme, and is organised by an international partnership of cultural operators, including the Pierides Foundation (Cyprus), the Superintendence of Cultural Heritage (Malta), the University of Picardie Jules Verne (France), the Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (Italy) and the Foundation of the Hellenic World (Greece).
The curators of the exhibition are Yiannis Toumazis, Director of the Pierides Foundation, and Prof. Andri Michael of the University of Amiens.