‘El Color de Los Sabores’ – works of Eugenia Marcos
Upper Galleries, St James Cavalier
4 – 23 November 2008
“Painting is like telling a story... I paint what I cook.
For this reason, there is nothing that stimulates my imagination and fantasy more than a market.
Since I was a small girl, when I accompanied my mother to La Merced, a popular market in Mexico, I was seduced by the colours and smells and the hustle and the bustle of the marketplace.
I still get so excited by it, it wakes up my senses in a way that I wonder what I’d rather do with the products I discover: should I paint them or should I cook them? The conflict is resolved when the models (fruits and vegetables) end up being culinary creations: first I paint them, and then I cook them.
The smell of dried chilies is perhaps what brings me right back to my youth and reaffirms my identity. The chili smells of life.” – Eugenia Marcos.
Redprints
No 68, St Lucy Street, Valletta, Open House from 10am to 8 pm
Until 11 November
Alexandra Pace is, like most photographers, a very personal kind of person. She lives her life in a very unassuming kind of way while producing an endless stream of stunning photography. The house in question is Number 68, a four-storey original Valletta abode (her grandparents were the last original inhabitants 30 years ago) in what is fast-becoming a very hip section of the capital in St Lucy Street. The Redprints exhibition of her latest works will serve to open our eyes to a different kind of reality, the kind that photographers see but a normal viewer normally misses. It will also open our eyes to the very personal space of the photographer.
How do you look?
Upper Galleries, St James Cavalier
29 November – 7 December
The aim of this exhibition is to highlight our perception of beauty as a visual society which is increasingly orientated towards image and its near constant use. The exhibition will also serve as a launch for SHELL, the bookazine which showcases the work of 50 local hairdressers and make-up artists working in collaboration with the Art Director and photographer, Pierre Camille.
Images produced for SHELL bookazine will be chosen to be displayed alongside images of a cross section of Maltese society.
This idea exposes the difference between the carefully arranged stylised images done by the hairdressers and make-up artists with the more street-wise looks of society in general.
There will also be a DVD installation showing the process of digital manipulation regarding a high brand advertising campaign.
‘Out of the Fire’
Ceramic Art Exhibition
Heritage Malta, Old University Building, Valletta
Seven local female ceramic artists are bringing together their work in a collective exhibition entitled Out of the Fire. The exhibition will continue to run all through November until the 8 December. The group made up of Sue Mifsud, Julie Apap, Zell Osborne, Barbara Attard Pettett, Deborah Marmara, Talia Maggi and Rosella Schembri will be exhibiting an extensive range of ceramic art work using many of the different techniques and firing methods. The audience will be offered an insight into the versatility of clay in experienced hands and the resonance of each artist’s character through their use of this medium. Glazes and forms vary widely as do the sources used for inspiration ranging from the Mediterranean environment and heritage to more introvert emotions and personal beliefs.
Open Monday to Friday from 8.30am to 4.30pm. Further information can be obtained by visiting www.clayartmalta.com
Blasted
Continues at St James Cavalier on 1, 2, 7, 8, 9 November
Director: Dave Barton , Cast: Bryan Jennings, Andrew Galea, Jo Caruana
Hailed by critics as a masterpiece and vilified by the Daily Mail as a ‘disgusting piece of filth’, Blasted is Sarah Kane’s first play. A night in a luxury hotel in Leeds for Cate and Ian gets transformed into hell with an attempted rape and the entrance of a soldier. Unifaun Theatre assure everyone that this will be the single most talked about production for at least a decade. Director Dave Barton is the maverick Artistic Director and Co-Founder of Californian Theatre Company Rude Guerrilla. He has directed numerous plays for his company to great acclaim, even being nominated and winning Best Production and Best Director Awards for his work.
Blackbird
21–23 and 28–30 November at 8pm, St James Cavalier, Tickets at e15
Presented by Masquerade Theatre Company, David Harrower’s critically acclaimed Olivier Award-winning play Blackbird will open on 21 November and run till the 7 December 2008. Ray is confronted with his past when Una arrives unannounced at his office. Guilt and raw emotions are running high as they recollect the passionate love affair they had 15 years earlier. As tensions rise, we are asked to question: when is love abuse? And can we ever break free from the shackles of the past? Hard-hitting and challenging, this is a play which provokes discussion and destroys preconceptions. Manuel Cauchi plays Ray, and Elektra Anastasi plays Una. Blackbird is directed by Anthony Bezzina.
‘Minn Wara Z-Zipp’
28-30 November, Sir Temi Zammit Hall, University
of Malta
Due to popular demand, Unifaun Theatre will be reprising the black comedy by Trevor Zahra which deals with male sexuality. Tickets at e15 are available. www.unifauntheatre.com.
Music at St Catherine of Italy Church
Thursdays at 12.30pm and Sundays at 11am
The lunchtime concerts in this exquisite venue are in their fourth series now – held twice weekly they last about 50 minutes. They have become very popular with both the local audience as well as tourists. The entrance is by donation of e5 which goes towards the restoration fund for St Catherine of Italy Church. On Sunday 2 November at 11am the world premiere of L-Ghanja ta’ l-Imnikket, a song cycle by Alex Vella Gregory, will be held. This song cycle is a setting of several poems by the Maltese poet Ruzar Briffa, who was one of the giants of early 20th century Maltese literature. The work is being performed by soprano Pauline Longo together with the St James Consort, and includes some of Briffa’s most popular poems including a performance of three settings written by Joseph Abela Scolaro.
Cafè Brasil
Botafogu featuring Catia Wernerck
21, 22 November, MITP,
St Christopher street Valletta at 9pm
Fringe! Productions presents Cafè Brasil, the annually anticipated concert which exposes passion and virtuosity in Brasilian music. Last year’s event was a massive success with audiences who filled the concert hall on two nights, thirsty for the emotion of Brasilian style. Cafè Brasil 08 presents Botafogu, an exceptional quartet of Paris based jazz musicians led by the French bass player Jacques Figueras. Their music is a tribute to the great composer and multi-instrumentalist Hermeto Pascoal and to other major Brazilian figures such as Tom Jobim. This year’s line-up includes pandero extraordinaire Segio Krakowsky, flutist Jocelyn Mienniel and guitarist Sandro Zerafa. Special guest for this concert is the Brazilian singer Catia Werneck, who performed in Malta last year and is one of the most prominent Brazilian singers in Paris at the moment. Tickets can be found at the door or from St James Cavallier and Trabuxu Wine Bar Valletta. e12.50. Ticket info: 7940-4134/ 2122-3216.
The Orphanage
1 November at 3pm and 6pm; 7 November at 9pm
The Orphanage is a Mexican-Spanish suspense-drama film. It stars Belén Rueda as Laura, a woman who returns to the orphanage where she stayed for a period as a child. She purchases the house, with plans to turn it into a home for disabled children. Everything seems to be going well for Laura, her husband Carlos and their son Simón. However, the parents soon realise their son has an imaginary friend and horror begins to unfold. The film is directed by Juan Antonio Bayona and presented by Mexican director Guillermo del Toro. It was chosen as Spain’s nominee for the 2007 Academy Award for Best Foreign Film, and was nominated for 14 Goya Awards, out of which it won seven.
Away From Her
2 November at 3pm and 6pm; 11 November at 9pm
Canadian actress Sarah Polley makes an impressive directorial debut with Away From Her, adapted from the Alice Munro story “The Bear Came Over The Mountain.” The plot concerns the way in which the 50-year marriage of Grant and Fiona (Julie Christie) deteriorates with the progression of Fiona’s Alzheimer’s disease. Rich scenery, intimate cinematography, and familiar songs like Neil Young’s “Helpless” create a private world of two people enviably in love. Polley’s film portrays its characters as multifaceted people filled with wisdom and true beauty, thanks to their age and not in spite of it.
Brideshead Revisited
5 November at 3pm
and 6pm
Though director Julian Jarrold’s adaptation of the Evelyn Waugh novel Brideshead Revisited spans decades and continents, it’s a taut film that never drags and can excite contemporary audiences. Matthew Goode stars as lower-class Londoner Charles Ryder, an aspiring artist who is beginning his studies in history at Oxford in the 1920s. A chance encounter with dandyish aristocrat Sebastian Flyte changes the course of his life. The two embark on a close, intense friendship that is further complicated by the introduction of Sebastian’s beautiful sister Julia and his overbearing, extremely religious mother, Lady Marchmain (Emma Thompson).
Death Defying Acts
6 November at 9pm
Celebrated director Gillian Armstrong (Little Women) helms this film about Harry Houdini’s romance with a con woman. In his attempts to contact his dead mother, the magician (Guy Pearce) meets a beautiful psychic named Mary (Catherine Zeta-Jones) who isn’t all she appears. Joined by her daughter, Mary tries to con Harry out of his $10,000 reward, an effort which is complicated by the love that grows between them.
The above films are all being held at St James Cavalier. Bookings can be made on [email protected] or by
Tel. 2122-3200.
This information is correct at the time of printing. [email protected]