Tkellkmet, il-Business Forum tal-Labour
Jien ma naqbilx mat-teatru ta' Piano, Marlene.
Jahasra, somebody please tell Marlene Mizzi that if you give Renzo Piano 30,000 euros and ask him to design a maisonette with balavostri, he won’t do it.
At that stellar level, you get to pick and choose your projects. You don’t run after clients, because they run after you. They don’t tell you what they want you to do. You tell them what you’ll give them.
U tal-Labour Business Forum gejja bil-baa baa black sheep u three blind mice.
Let’s put it in terms Mrs Mizzi might understand: you can’t go to Christian Dior and say ‘Look, I have 5,000 euros to spend. Please make me a dress with sleeves like this and a hem like that and in this colour. And I want these sorts of buttons and for heaven’s sake, get rid of that bow.’
No. You go to Christian Dior and you say, ‘I have rather a large amount of money to spend and I want a dress to wear to that occasion.’ Then it’s up to Dior.
You don’t give Dior a brief beyond ‘I’d like an evening dress.’ And you don’t give Piano a brief beyond ‘Here’s the space. Please fill it.’
X’qabda nies ta’ minn wara l-muntanji. I read the ‘Valletta project’ comments on timesofmalta.com and I want to sob in despair. So damn backwoods, and so very arrogant and self-assured with it.
Marlene Mizzi on timesofmalta.com
Do not blame Renzo Piano for this mess. He is undoubtably one of the greatest architects of our times and it would have been nice for Malta to have one of his buildings. BUT , he seems to be working on the brief and budgets given him and I am sure that he is doing his utmost to produce something within the brief given. This is proving to be unacceptable to many including the artists. It’s like asking Beethoven to compose a Sonata but instructing him to use 4 notes instead of 7 …. He would not have given us the Moonlight Sonata ,my friends. He would have given us Baa Baa Black Sheep … at most !!!! So do not blame the architect, blame those responsible for the brief given to him…and their hard headedness and arrogance. 3 blind mice, 3 blind mice. See how they spend….. …….
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I wish I had Dior working on my briefs.
Can someone tell Marlene that ba ba black sheep uses, in its simplest of forms, at least 6 notes ….
I’m surprised she didn’t say “Humpty Dumpty”, given the inspiration gracing our TV screens for the past two days.
Dior wouldn’t take a brief – you’re perfectly right. He would, though, ask whether the dress was for you, or for someone else. He’d ask you whether you were planning on wearing it for the Oscars, or for Alexander McQueen’s funeral. And – assuming you were paying him enough – he’d show you a sketch of the dress before sending it by courier.
[Daphne – Exactly. And this is what happened here.]
No one doubts Piano’s genius. But unless he plans on setting up his own theatre company, it sounds to me like we’ll be hard pressed to find anyone willing to perform in that theatre. That has less to do with his skill than with the PM’s lack of consultation with the potential end users.
[Daphne – Hard-pressed to find anyone to perform? Oh come on: you really don’t understand human nature. Even before that theatre is finished, there’ll be a clamouring, pushing, shoving, competing, back-stabbing queue of theatre companies gearing up to get in first. Dak li ghandhom: they’re going to refuse to perform in a world landmark theatre when it’s right under their nose and subsidised by the state. Get real, please. The theatre companies complaining so loudly now have forgotten that they were prepared to perform in the existing ruins, and some of them actually did so.]
You’re right, some of them did perform there. I watched A Midsummer Night’s Dream at the ruins. The acting was brilliant – the venue crap, to be completely honest. The fact that a theatre company is ready to use a bombed out site as a venue doesn’t mean that the replacement to that site should be as bad – even if it’s a landmark project, right under their nose, and subsidised by the state. I’ve been in theatres that satisfy none of those criteria, but which have brilliant acoustics and great stage and seating arrangements. Given the choice, I’d prefer the latter theatre type anytime.
Using your Dior example I imagine Gonzi saying to Piano; “I have rather a large amount of money to spend (not exceeding a sum which can be justified and attributed to job safeguarding) and I want a new parliament” and then he added “May be if there is something left see what you can do with the theater ruins…laqqat xi haga”
Actually I am very in favor of the project as a whole but like the majority of people I didn’t like the theater proposal. It may be stupid ok not to appreciate the work of such an big name in architecture but hey democracy only says that the side with the most support wins not the most intelligent or artistic!
[Daphne – Democracy says nothing of the sort. What you are talking about is majority rule, and that’s when choosing governments or deciding an issue in a referendum. You cannot have majority rule for matters which involve architecture, for the simple reason that democracy does not come into it and the vast majority of people are not qualified to decide. I would have been far more impressed, for example, if the that stupid petition had been signed by 128 architects rather than 128 ‘artists’ – who turned out to be nothing of the sort and even included news reporters.]
“You cannot have majority rule for matters which involve architecture, for the simple reason that democracy does not come into it and the vast majority of people are not qualified to decide.”
I didn’t mean that the majority rule (the main feature of a democracy) can be applied to determine if the proposed project is structurally sound but simply to establish if the people accept it or not. It turns out that most probably the answer is no!
“I would have been far more impressed, for example, if the that stupid petition had been signed by 128 architects rather than 128 ‘artists'”
Of course the Maltese architects won’t do it! If they did and someone asks them for their ideas instead they wouldn’t know from where to start! They only seem able to design flats and they aren’t any good at that either.
You also need to rethink what the word artist means. Since the author of ‘Li tkisser sewwi’ thinks of himself as an artist and gluing fake nails on someone’s fingers is also regarded as an art, I don’t blame the petition signers for considering themselves artists as well. Everyone is an artist these days!
MS
You are being unfair to Maltese architects. We have some very good ones and the reason they are not protesting against Piano’s proposals is because, as professionals, they basically agree with them. This was made clear from the start.
I have stopped reading the comments on timesofmalta.com, since they either reveal the level of education (or rather, the lack of it) in Malta or the sheer arrogance of people. To make it worse, Astrid Vella pops out once in a while with her words of wisdom.
No wonder nothing ever gets done in this island. It’s a small pond with too many fish in it, all so envious of each other.
If she thinks Beethoven couldn’t do that, she knows about Beethoven as much as she knows about Piano(s)
So why is she dancing to Louie Louie?
But she is just repeating what Maid Marian said, what else do you expect?
Hasn’t it already been officially pointed out that Piano was not given a brief? Even Astrid Vella accepted it (I think) and hasn’t been going on about “the brief”.
Marisa Micallef wrote a fairy-tale and now Marlene Mizzi is talking about nursery-rhymes. They must think they are talking to children.
Some people do anything for limelight. I am disappointed in Marlene Mizzi. I had credited her with more intelligence and wisdom.
Marlene’s remarks are pretty dumb.
I’m not particularly bothered about what this Piano guy comes up with, though he’s got an easy job if you ask me, ‘cos whatever he does with City Gate and Misrah il-Helsien will be an improvement on the existing crap. In these circumstances, I think €80 million is rather overpriced, but then again if you go to the Rolls Royce (or Dior) of architects, I suppose it’s to be expected.
Still, why Malta, a Cinderella country, needs a Roller when a Mercedes, BMW or even an upmarket Volkswagen would do fine is beyond me. So we can say we have something created by Piano? If we were Germany, with a surplus of €135 billion, maybe but we seem to prefer to be ostentatious. And I still believe that, like all government projects, in the end it will exceed the budgeted expenditure.
And yes, the idea of an open-air theatre in a crowded and noisy area like Valletta is pretty stupid, when you think about it. Your idolization of Mr Piano makes you lose your objectivity. Or maybe it’s your dislike of Maltese theatre?
You may find some local dance clubs will be keen to host their passing out soiree there, when their canned music can be amplified enough to compete with the surrounding racket but serious theatre or music is unlikely to be attracted.
Incidentally, this sort of nonsense design isn’t the prerogative of Mr. Piano, so don’t get your knickers in a twist if I point out these plain facts. Here in Vienna they’re building a main railway station, after over a century of having four smaller ones scattered here and there, they’ve finally decided to have a serious one in a central location but GUESS WHAT – it isn’t even going to be connected directly to the underground network. Now how is that for dumb? Concentrate as much train traffic as poss onto one point but don’t offer connectivity with the intra-city people mover. It’s total lunacy. I just wonder how many millions the guy that came up with this great idea got for his pains.
Tim Ripard
How long have you been away from Malta? Valletta in the evening is not at all noisy. You must have been thinking of New York perhaps, or London.
Antoine, granted that Valletta is not particularly noisy in the evenings but as far as I know efforts have been and are being made to attract people to the capital in the evenings. Unless South Street is closed to traffic even one car every 5 minutes could prove to be a distraction, especially if it’s an old banger or a souped-up model, both of which are fairly frequent.
Then we have the (abysmal) noise of fireworks from anywhere around the Grand Harbour, which means at least half the weekends in summer will be disrupted. Hopefully some will coincide with the Delicata Wine Festival, Notte Bianche or Magiche or whatever and the fireworks festival, not to mention many other events.
Having been involved in open-air theatre at the relatively quiet San Anton Gardens on many occasions, I can assure you that it will be difficult to find productions that will not be affected by any kind of ambient noise – unless they are loud musical events themselves.
As I’ve said, I’ve nothing against getting the best and most expensive architect in the world to bless Malta with his designs – though you must admit, the timing is rather unfortunate – but his idea of an open air theatre strikes me as being unworkable. As our friend says, the proof of the pudding…
That’s easily solved: stop all firework displays.
The part of South Street next to the theatre site is not open to motorised traffic.
San Anton Gardens is in a particularly bad location because Lija and other fireworks-happy villages are so near. I have attended performances in Argotti Gardens and they were not at all disturbed by fireworks being let off for the Hamrun and Msida feasts.
I think Renzo Piano said that his studio has gone into the acoustics of the proposed theatre and the removable transparent “walls” to be set up play a key role in this.
We have to remember that this is not the first theatre and open-air venue that Piano has designed and I don’t think he would associate his name with a project that turns out to be a flop.
The anti-theatre hullabaloo seems nothing more than a crusade, politically motivated, against Mr. Piano and the government. Leaving the government out of it, that leaves Piano as the scapegoat. Let us for a moment assume that Piano retreats and the government cancels the whole project. A few years go by and the idea of the Valletta project is revived under a Labour government.
Since Labour places Malta first and foremost, one would assume that a call for fresh designs by Maltese architects, of course, be submitted in a nationwide contest.
Which Maltese architect in his right mind would even dream of participating unless he is a sadist and willing to go through the garbage his fellow Maltese will drag him through as they did Piano?
The other thing which is conveniently ignored is the fact that the bombed site is far too small for a sustainable multi-purpose theatre which the minions don’t seem to understand.
The Labour Party has once more thrown the stone and hid the hand that threw it because one has to be somewhat stupid not to figure out who the behind-the-scenes s**t disturbers are and who at one time or another held hands with the LP. The Labour Party should remember that what goes around comes around and having been bitten so many times, they should know better, but I suppose, they are too thick to think beyond the tip of their nose.
The same Labour Party has once more merged with the GWU and participated in the two day protest of sorts while the GWU and the MUT had the cheek to say that the protest was non-political!
The second last paragraph should read ‘….to see beyond the tip of their noses’.
Now that one of the grand ‘architects’ (pardon the pun) of the Nationalist Party, Serracino Inglott, has also intimated that Piano’s designs need tweaking, perhaps the blog author might take a different stance?
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20100303/local/serracino-inglott-insists-theatre-without-a-roof-is-useless
[Daphne – My different stance, as you put it, is widely known. Without wishing to be rude, nobody in his right mind would ever take Peter Serracino Inglott’s advice on matters of aesthetics. Nor should they take his advice on opera. Half the audience walked out of the sole airing of his opera The Maltese Cross during the break for the bar. I find him to be an extremely self-satisfied and irritating man who is largely detached from reality. He has had very little to do with the Nationalist Party for years now, which is largely why the party has been so successful.]
Re your comments about Peter Serracino Inglott, possibly the Nationalist Party would do a better job and be even more successful if you were to stop supporting it blindly and at all costs. It would appear that you have never heard of the benefits of constructive criticism.
[Daphne – I don’t work for the Nationalist Party.]
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