An art installation currently set up at Pjazza de Valette in Valletta – ‘Power Exchange’ by JP Azzopardi and Michael Camilleri – offers viewers an investigation into power dynamicsand was inaugurated as part of the recent VIVA festival.

The installation raises the fundamental issue that emerged during The Enlightenment period between the art of governance and individual freedom, lead naturally to the right of participants to criticise and consequently to influence the interplay of power between the state and free entities. This in turn allowed for the choosing of which political party is preferred to submit for election. The Enlightenment thus sought to replace its mode of governance from that of being by a singular entity, a head of state, a monarch, a dictator, tyrant or lord, to a group of democratically elected individuals.

In The Politics of Power: Masochism and Enlightenment Political Theory (2011) E. Schreiber-Byers states that this brought with it new power relations, the voluntary critical free subject and the possibility to conceive of governments to which s/he be willing to submit. Regardless of this shift of authority and this new mode of critical thinking "power relations are rooted in the whole network of the social...all forms of social interaction form the basis of power" (Foucault 1982, 345). Institutions are not merely mechanisms of control but also producers of knowledge and truth. The critical thinker then gains the right to question these effects of power, the fabrication and exercise of such facts as those that maintain and uphold the status quo. This then results and leads to an act of voluntary subordination (Foucault 1990, 35-63) wherein the dominant truths that maintain the status quo and the reason for its power become questioned in order that why such knowledge is being produced may better be understood. Simultaneously the individual yields to a social contract that will guarantee more freedom. This freedom comes about by means of negotiation and renegotiation, by voluntarily accepting what to submit to.

Here is a form of relationship then that shares similarities with the interplay of power in masochistic activity. Both entities act consensually and submit to such structures of power as availing of the means of negotiation and agreement for (the necessary) freedom. This self-identification of the masochistic interplay of power is known as Power Exchange. The main constituent of (political) masochism is the constant realignment on the limits of interaction, such as the rights and responsibilities one is willing to abide by. The individual is also required to give up some rights in order that other practices may take place. The limits of rights and regulations are thus continuously tested through critique such that this dynamic political system may continuously readjust itself by means of stipulation between the dominant and the submissive, without allowing the relationship to disintegrate.. "There is, nonetheless, a constant renegotiation, such that the will of the people shapes the will of those who govern and therefore the rule of law to which individuals must submit." (Schreiber-Byers 2011, 109). This mode of political masochism serves to protect a structure in order to assure stability. Unlike slavery the masochist's submission to such a structure, protects his/her rights. Power is an inbuilt mechanism within all relationships…something that cannot be avoided.

John Paul Azzopardi

John Paul Azzopardi (1978) was born in East London, England and currently resides in Malta. After working as an electrician for several years he returned to his studies and obtained his B.A. (Hons) degree in Philosophy at the University of Malta in 2008.

He started exhibiting work in 2004 and had his first solo show Hlejqiet in 2006. In 2010 he participated in several collective exhibitions such as New Generation at the Malta Contemporary Arts Foundation and also took part in competitions hosted by the Malta Society of Arts, Manufacturers, and Commerce. In 2011, Heritage Malta hosted Curved Silence at the National Museum of Fine Arts in Valletta and in 2012 the Museum acquired Curved Silence for their collection. In 2012 he participated in a collective exhibition titled Wicc imb Wicc – Images of the Self, exhibiting alongside local and foreign international artists; this exhibition was held at St. James Cavalier, Centre of creativity, Valletta, as part of the Malta Arts Festival. In 2013 he had his fourth solo exhibition titled Decay, a collection of works focusing on contemporary social critical issues.

Michael Camilleri

Michael Camilleri (1956) was born and currently resides in Malta. From a very young age he was inclined toward the visual arts. In 1975, in the days before the advent of the computer era, he started his own business in the commercial art, producing artwork, graphics and sign-writing. In 1989 he expanded his business to service the commercial exhibition and conference industry. 

Photography has always been one of Michael’s passions.  His favourite subjects - sexual fetishism and sado-maso - reflect his alternative lifestyle, a subculture in most advanced countries, still a counterculture and a taboo in his scrupulous and religiously dominated native Island.

For the past several years since his retirement from work, he has committed himself to his passion for photography including photojournalism providing his services The Malta Independent. He has recently combined his technical to his photographic skills producing photorealistic paintings of his photographic work.