In the past I was fortunate enough to work directly under former Prime Minister Dom Mintoff. I have no intention of narrating a political drama here. The only point which I would like to enunciate was that amongst the many things he taught me as a youngster was the integral lesson that Malta must be aggressive in her foreign policy. We must sell our product, and sell it well. Only with such an approach could Malta win the respect of other countries.

To remain an import-based country without giving back to the world means to be a country without identity and without soul. Identity earns respect by virtue of what is offered, and this was not only engendered as a result of the historical negotiations he realized, and not only by means of the culture of exportation which he created.

I have made this principle a fundamental approach in the artistic, cultural and academic spheres.

Our university has much to offer and has already offered a lot to the cultural and academic world. However, are such achievements known and made public?

The Department of History of Art at the University of Malta is a modest and small one. Under the former Head of Department for a period of over 17 years, Prof. Mario Buhagiar, and under the present Head Prof. Keith Sciberras, the politics of the 'exportation of Maltese thought' to foreign nations has developed and proliferated exponentially. All members of the Department are highly active in this exportation exercise, promoting the history of Maltese art from prehistory up until the present. Conferences on Maltese art strongly entered into prestigious universities which are even regarded as classist and elitist such as the University of London and the Warburg Institute.

The members of the Department of History of Art are all constantly participating in international conferences, and have managed to attract academics and researchers of international calibre from institutions which are highly, and even enviously, regarded. In December, members of prestigious institutions such as the Rodin Museum (Paris), the Henry Moore Institute (Leeds) and UK universities will be coming to Malta to discuss the work of Josef Kalleya within the international 20^th century context. I would say that if all the activities of the Department had to be grouped together, there would be nearly one international event every week! This is a fortunate burden on all its students.

I am responsible for the study of modern art from the 19^th century until today, as well as the Fine Arts section within this Department. During the month of April, for example, the Department was visited by Denis Pondruel, a French artist and Professor who came over to work on his project for the Mdina Cathedral Contemporary Art Biennale. John Vella also visited, who is the Head of the Department of Fine Arts at the University of Tasmania, together with professors from the Royal Academy of Arts. On the 17^th of April I delivered a talk on the relationship between Dun Karm, Malta's national poet, and the paintings of Edward Caruana Dingli. On the 24^th April, Nikki Petroni (a doctoral student) spoke on the effect of urbanization and Malta's industrial development on the art scene. This was followed by a talk given by another doctoral student, the Italian Irene Biolchini, on the Spanish artist Miguel Barceló, one of today's most internationally recognized artists. Mrs. Biolchini is currently in Palma de Mallorca conducting research at Barceló's archive and studio.

Besides lectures, the Department has also organized film screenings on subjects such as the American artist Mark Rothko, which was held at the University of Malta Valletta Campus.

The fact that Rothko confuses spectators is a common dilemma. That which he creates from nothingness compels me to define him as the last Renaissance genius. The sense of mystery which Rothko creates, the web of intellectual intrigues together with enigmatic debates on these all engender a sort of emotional and spiritual echo. All these elements mould Rothko into a Shakespearean tragic hero, a hero who persistently struggles for a pictorial expression of human destiny.

Rothko, despite being modern, struggles to save a lost totality. He wants to once again incite unity amongst the destruction; the deconstruction of today, a today surrounded by numerous fragments and dismembered pieces. He creates to re-synthesise, to gather all into a unity which is today lost.

In fact, as defined by his son Christopher, Rothko is a painter of ideas and not objects. And here I cannot avoid comparing him to Maltese sculptor Josef Kalleya, a sculptor of ideas. Exciting elements are found in both: in their attempt to materialize an idea which is then lost: it is lost as an idea and becomes materiality.

Once an idea is objectivised as materiality, the idea is stripped of its essence as an idea. The materialization of an idea destroys the idea. Both Rothko and Kalleya are tragically touching upon the very beginnings of this transformation from idea to materiality. Both are challenging the frontier at which the idea encroaches upon its own materiality: one upon the canvas and the other in clay. And they stop there, at the frontier.

These two artists are not visual artists, paradoxically, but they are artists to be experienced. One needs to create an experience with their works. To only 'see' them means nothing. Both believed that the artistic expression of truth is a subversive action, a frightening action. One of these artists committed suicide in 1970, on the exact same day as his Seagram Murals arrived in London for exhibition at the Tate, and the other was completely emarginated by society for almost his entire 100 years of life.

I see an intriguing relationship between Rothko's Seagram murals and our megalithic civilization, and idea which we must continue to 'export', especially if we include the work by Fausto Melotti at Hangar Bicocca in Milan, together with Kalleya's intense scratches.

 

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