What was the genesis of Diplomazija astuta? How would you characterise the exhibition's raison d'etre?

I've worked with Arcangelo Sassolino for over a decade: I curated his first museum exhibition in America (titled Not Human), wrote extensively on his practice and worked closely with him on the production of many sculptures. Three years ago, Arcangelo was experimenting with induction technology, essentially attempting to rain fire from the sky. I began to overlay biblical narrative onto the present. I thought of the Bible and God's wrath; Genesis 19; Sodom and Gomorrah and the blind spots in the humanist project across space and time. I considered the characteristics and failures of humankind that have echoed throughout millennia: deceit, media malpractice, virtue signaling, social calculi based on force corrections and the instrumentalisation and weaponisation of ideas. Then, I thought about John the Baptist and beheadings. People are beheaded for many reasons, namely when their ideas - their truths - challenge the status quo. That is to say, I thought about the likeness between John's beheading and the world today.

At that point, Arcangelo and I found it crucial to ground the project within the art historical context of Caravaggio's Beheading. I was aware of Keith Sciberras' profound scholarship on Caravaggio and we felt the urgency to create a thoughtful triad. The in-depth conversations between the three of us over the last few years, grounded in Maltese art history and culture, gave rise to Diplomazija astuta, a contemporary reinterpretation of Caravaggio's The Beheading of John the Baptist as a kinetic site-responsive installation.

It was after that stage that we explored the idea of Diplomazija astuta as a possible Malta Pavilion for the Venice Biennale. Giuseppe Schembri Bonaci joined the team as artist-theoretician, together with Brian Schembri as the musical composer in order to further enhance our collaborative ideas. Our conversations with Giuseppe created language that moved across space and time (a sculpted ciphertext) and Brian developed a percussive score that will take viewers on a visceral, subtextual journey by invoking a wide range of sources including Ut queant laxis, the Latin hymn in honour of John the Baptist and Malta’s Charles Camilleri.

As our project developed, our core team of two curators and three artists grew to include two international project managers Nikki Petroni in Malta and Esther Flury in America, and a production team of architects and engineers primarily based in Vicenza and a team of curatorial assistants in Malta. With this Malta project, Caravaggio's Beheading feels more apt than ever; our intention - our raison d'etre - is to create an immersive environment where viewers are able to understand the present in new and renewed ways. Our Malta pavilion posits that we are back in the time of John.

What are your impressions of Malta?

Malta is a magical country. I was immediately taken with how all time seemed to exist at the same time. The registers of the ancient world, the present and the future seem to collide. Malta was bathed in a specific light and cohered by the palette of geologic rock.

You've had complex and expansive roles in the art world from being the deputy director and chief curator of the Contemporary Art Museum St Louis, to being the only American who curated a Turner Prize nominated exhibition. You have also organised exhibitions for PS1/MoMA, where you were trained by founding director Alanna Heiss and legendary curators Carolyn Christov and Klaus Biensenbach, the Santa Monica Museum of Art and Laxart. You also curated two exhibitions that were awarded Top 10 exhibitions of the year for ArtForum. Essentially, the art of curation is very much specific to the spaces and places of the artwork and exhibition or museum space respectively. Therefore, how will you tackle the quintessentially Maltese subject matter of the Malta Pavilion and immerse it within the context of the Venice Biennale?

Our pavilion is very much a Malta project. The themes embedded in Caravaggio's Beheading are both quintessentially Maltese and feel applicable to humankind-writ-large. Malta is the point of origin for this work. Our intention is to bridge these ideas to the world.

Is there a psychological element which is evoked through the articulation of space during your curation?

Absolutely… I respect and pay close attention to the psychological components of artworks and how they are activated within a space. I don’t shy away from these difficulties; in fact, I embrace them. I often say I operate in the space between sphinx and chimera – it is a defining feature of my work. In Diplomazija astuta, we are echoing the aura of the Oratory onto the Arsenale. None of which could be possible without the generosity of Maltese culture, its people and its rich history.

When dealing with several dynamic elements such as percussive scores and kinetic sculpture, how does one ensure that the space is transformed without being overpowered by these elements?

It always comes down to balance and the razor-sharp articulation of ideas. 

What are the major challenges in curating contemporary art?

For me, art is not an illustration of an idea, but rather a "state" of alterity - a way of being in the world.

The main themes underlining the Malta Pavilion are the re-articulation of the biblical narrative of the 'Beheading of St John', but also the aspect of metal as a central medium to the 20th century. Even though much can't be revealed at this particular stage, how will you tackle these two contrasting elements and unite them through your curation?

Modernism forged progress (in steel) – it gave us highways and airplanes. Modernism created the world we live in: the good, bad and ugly. But progress came with a price: it showed us we were also capable of destroying ourselves (the atomic bomb, for example). In order to move forward, in order to be our future selves in the present, we must literally, metaphorically and spiritually melt the material of Modernism (steel) to create space for new progress to occur. We must create the Future’s future. That is exactly what we are doing in Diplomazija astuta.

How do you conceive or understand the role of the curator?

For me, the work of art is the work of philosophy. The curator's role is to bridge artworks to the public.

Another area which particularly interests me is the performative aspect of an exhibition. I find that the art of curation has the ability of evoking 'a presence' or 'an aura' through the artworks. Furthermore, the collective unity of an exhibition further emits this presence. How does this position resonate for you?

"I shall speak of ghost [revenant], of flame and of ashes." Our Malta Pavilion is haunted. Haunted by the spectres of John's beheading (its signal causes and consequences), competing political agendas, cultural mores, social realities and instrumentalised geopolitics... and as I mentioned, humankind's capacity to destroy itself. The spectres, the ghosts, are everywhere. Given "il y a là cendre", where does that leave the collective imaginary in 2022? How does our Malta Pavilion empower beholders to be their future selves in the present? For me, that happens by evoking "a presence" and "an aura" through art and aesthetics.

The curatorial team for the Malta Pavilion comprises of curators Keith Sciberras and Jeffrey Uslip, sculptor Arcangelo Sassolino, theoretic artist Giuseppe Schembri Bonaci, musician and composer Brian Schembri and project managers Nikki Petroni and Esther Flury. 

The curatorial project 'Diplomazija astuta' will represent Malta at the 2022's Biennale di Venezia international art exhibition. The Venice Biennale will be open to the public from 23 April to 27 November. The Malta Pavilion is commissioned by Arts Council Malta, under the auspices of the Ministry of National Heritage, The Arts and Local Government.

Image credit: Ira Lippke Studios