I am aware that my readers must be fed up with my constant criticism of the ubiquitous rubbish which we are creating around ourselves, rubbish which results in an equally undermining definition of our own identity. However, there are moments - though unfortunately rare and isolated moments - when other forces attack all this rubbish with work which is both beautiful and contemporary, which is likewise sincere and provocative.

Such was, for example, Austin Camilleri's Zieme, which besides being an excellent work, incited a national discussion on art, something which, if I am not mistaken, hasn't occurred since the time of the Moviment Qawmien Letterarju at the end of the 60s/beginning of the 70s. This was also located at City Gate and its surroundings.

I was forced by my own students to attend a photography exhibition by Alex Attard, and since this forms part of my professional duties, I could not negate my own responsibilities. So I went. I had an interesting meeting with Toni Sant, Artistic Director of St. James Centre for Creativity, and thus went slightly earlier to visit the exhibition which took place at the same venue.

As soon as I entered, I immediately noticed that this was an important event for the Maltese art scene, and a contribution which in my opinion was greatly underestimated, as is the artist himself. I am ashamed to admit that this was my first encounter with the work of Attard. I was also glad to see that the show was curated by Vince Briffa who, like Keith Sciberras yet from another sphere in the study of art (both at the University of Malta), is significantly contributing to the historical development of art in our country.

I understood that I was witnessing a surgical operation, yet one of artistic importance. A brilliant idea which Alex has been working on for two whole years, one which involved the recording of the reactions of the hidden, ambiguous and anonymous, of the people involved in the construction of the new Parliament building, together with the relationship of these protagonists - who never appear - from the work that they are realizing by means of industrial machinery and tools, together with the transcendental plan of the project itself. 

A brilliant idea, not only because Alex Attard avoided a documentary approach, but also because in an aesthetically rational manner he managed to transform all this into works of art. Although based on a documentary process, he managed to transcend the facts to create art.

Only in this manner can a work be selected over another. Only in this way can something be defined as a work of art. Art is a monopoly of King Midas, all that he touches turns into art. Yet this is another story for another time. 'Low', 'poor', 'cheap' materials became an art exhibition. 

Not only. Alex paradoxically managed to 'deconstruct' Piano through Piano's own idiom, applying the same philosophy. The basis of Piano's artistic philosophy, which made him an international master that he is, consists of the exposing of the material interiors of a project. That which was hidden over centuries by decoration is brutally exposed and manifestly thrown out in the open. The skeleton which was always concealed by classic art is crudely manifested in Piano's work, sometimes even aggressively, and always without compromise.

Pipes became part of artistic projects manifestly exposed, at the Pompidou Centre in Paris for example, a phenomenal project by Piano realized together with Richard Rogers and Gianfranco Franchini. The internal metal and glass structure of the Shard, towering 309 metres above old London, is on explicit display and is an integral artistic component of the whole project. Concrete together with the structural metal which is supporting this monster became the building's artistic expression. Pjazza Teatru Rjal is built upon this principle, and likewise is City Gate and the new Parliament building.

All is transparent, as is the historical opening of City Gate, for the first time being an inclusive and not exclusive entrance, as it always was in times of siege and war.

Alex Attard with these photographic works is directly responding to Piano with the architect's same philosophy. Here we are placed within a paradoxical situation wherein Piano's fundamental philosophy to show the interior of a project is exposed by Alex who shows what Piano himself hides. This aspect made Attard's exhibition exciting and intriguing. He has introduced an analytical debate which must continue for us to start discussing art on a serious level.

From his perspective, Alex was interested in the relationship between the quotidian protagonists, between the workers and the machinery and the tools which they made use of, without limiting them to a documentary existence, as already stated in this article. In fact, this is also interesting as an important aspect in Marxist aesthetic theory. It would make for a beautiful study if these works were to open up a discussion on the aesthetic theory of Marx together with the proto-Dadaist theories of Duchamp. A beautiful paradox.

The exhibition, as I have attempted to say, provokes a multi-level of analyses and interpretations, something which is greatly absent in Malta. An example is how the work shows the element of chance, of an unconscious action whilst work is in progress, but it must be the artist who himself decides the particular moment and place this on an artistic level. Alex correctly stated in his presentation that these haphazard chances are proof of raw expression. However, there is always need for the eye and the choice of the artist for these raw elements to mature into a brilliant exhibition as was Alex Attard's. Thus we have a paradoxical relationship between chance, reality, and the perception of different actions by different workers on different levels.

An exhibition such as this instils in me the courage to continue with my thoughts and intellectual pursuits.

Article edited and translated by Nikki Petroni

Giuseppe Schembri Bonaci is the artistic director of the Mdina Cathedral Contemporary Art Biennale which will be held between 13 November 2015 and 7 January 2016. APS is the main partner of the Mdina Biennale