The Malta Tourism Authority’s new advertising agency that is based in Berlin, Media Consulta (MC), “can only ‘see’ symbols like the eight-pointed Maltese Cross and the Neolithic fat lady as the main images associated with Malta”, according to Maltese ambassador to France Vicki Ann Cremona.
Dr Cremona was one of the main speakers at a seminar entitled “Cultural Diplomacy: Endorsing Identity and Celebration Diversity”, which was held in the cinema of St James Cavalier Centre for Creativity in Valletta.
Replying to a question regarding MC’s announcement that it plans to use the Maltese Cross as the key visual in the new MTA campaign, forum moderator Chris Gatt said it was not in the remit of the forum to say whether this would be the right decision or not, but using the Maltese Cross as the key visual to promote Malta would be “an easy option”.
Earlier on during the seminar, Dr Cremona spoke about the perception the French have of Malta. She said they did not generally know about the existence of Malta, but they knew about the Knights of St John – “many even think we are still ruled by the knights”.
Emphasising the importance of having quality cultural productions, Dr Cremona said it would be a good idea to use one public perception about Malta to transmit another.
As an example, she mentioned a play that was staged about two years ago at the Manoel Theatre, Ir-Rewwixta tal-Qassisin, which was based on the 1980s’ original script by playwright Alfred Buttigieg.
She acclaimed the play as a very good production that portrayed aspects of Maltese history and the story of the Knights of St John. On a negative note, she said that some regularly produced re-enactments were unfortunately very poor.
“If we are to produce anything, let’s do it well. I can never stress the importance of quality too much with regard to our cultural products,” she insisted.
Dr Cremona admitted that culture does not have immediate, direct financial returns, but it brings added value and it is what makes all the difference on a number of levels.
“Malta is extremely tough to sell, so we should use cultural diplomacy to really bring out what the country has to offer.
“We need to put Malta on the European and eventually even on the global map. We need to make ourselves visible by investing in our cultural products and correcting negative perceptions. We need to arouse people’s interest in the country and we need to take risks to invest in original, out-of-the-way, cultural products.”
Moreover, she suggested that the Maltese research their culture to find out where they come from and where they are going, because culture is this tiny country’s easiest option to become more visible.
“By concentrating our efforts on the education, social and economic sectors, we would become more discerning about who and what we are, and we would be in a better position to present ourselves. What we have to see is where culture is to be placed in the country’s list of priorities,” said Dr Cremona.
The two other speakers who addressed yesterday’s sixth and last seminar in the VCF series, were Kathinka Dittrich, chairperson of the European Cultural Foundation, an independent non-governmental organisation, and Ali Fisher, director of Counterpoint, the British Council’s think-tank on cultural relations.