Any bright ideas, chaps?
Some weeks ago, Heritage Malta advertised in the press with a ‘call for proposals for an artistic statement dedicated to the Maltese Republic’.
The explanation was: “This call concerns the creation of an artistic statement which is intended to be unveiled to coincide with the national festivities commemorating the 40th anniversary of Malta becoming a Republic.”
The Heritage Malta site carries project guidelines from which I quote below. The budget is Eur100,000 and the ‘artistic statement’ must be ‘site specific’ and located in Valletta.
04.2
HISTORIC BACKGROUND
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The visual to date which best stands for the Republic of Malta in the collective memory of the Maltese is the national coat-
of-arms known as the coat of arms of the Republic introduced in 1974. This featured the traditional Maltese boat (Luzzu) with two crossed agricultural implements (Midra, Luh) and a prickly pear tree. A rising sun is prominently featured in the background.
This symbol was recognized as the national coat-of-arms until 1988 when it was then replaced by the current one. A version in local stone survives to date on one of the island’s busy thoroughfares leading to Valletta. Other visuals which form part of the collective memory for the Republic feature the then Prime Minister Dom Mintoff next to the first President of the Republic of Malta Sir Antony Mamo saluting the crowds from the balcony of the Palace, Valletta.
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04.3
DESIGN PARAMETERS
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Rather than a traditional-type commemorative monument, this project concerns an artistic statement to mark the Maltese Republic. It shall be a cutting-edge, major contemporary art statement to be read, perceived and understood to stand for the Maltese republic as a statement of being, certainly not fixed in the past. Although the statement has to consider a possible ceremonial function the overriding value is identity.
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The proposed project has to be site-specific and the interface between context and artistic statement clearly required and highlighted. It shall be preferably located in Valletta and/or within the approaches to the city, including both land and sea, with a clear relation to the proposed context. The suggested parameters are nonetheless indicative and the term location may also refer to multiple sites, a major site with satellite locations or hotspots and others. Should the proposal be in Valletta, a non-space would be the preferred site so as not to imply overlapping or displacing values.
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The project has to consider relationships to its surroundings, location and context in order to create a holistic experience. It shall be understood in terms of a landmark or landmarks within the cultural landscape of the island Republic. It has to be open and accessible so as to stress communal values and empower direct engagement or participation. The artistic statement has to empower an experience engaging with varied audiences, particularly Maltese citizens and local communities to the full. Such an experience shall be sensory.
(…)
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http://www.heritagemalta.org/monuments
http://www.heritagemalta.org/monuments/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/CALL-FOR-PROPOSALS-REPUBLIC.pdf
Whoever wrote the historic background (04.2) either died in 1988 or never left the Macina.
In line with his/her (probably her) approach, one may also state that the “visual to date which best stands for the Republic of Malta in the collective memory of the Maltese” is Tal-Barrani Road or the ransacked curia. Or, the “collective” does not include half of Malta.
Daphne, I would suggest that you ask for suggestions as to who will win the ‘artistic’ competition. It would not be difficult to come up with the names of the ‘tal-qalba’ handful.
I remember that I used to joke, at the time when the 1974 coat of arms was introduced, that there were banana republics in South America and a prickly pear republic in the Mediterranean. But this is not collective memory, I guess, only my own. The folly of youth…
Mhux wahdek, kien hemm hafna fantasiji u immaginazzjonijiet fertili jallucinaw fl-istordament tal-istupur li waqghu fih hekk kif raw l-immagini.
Li hu zgur hu, li ghalkemm ghadda daz-zmien kollu minn fuq Malta u dak is-simbolu ghadha mank saret bajtra wahda Laburista sura ta’ nies. Ibda minn Mintoff u spicca f`Muscat li apparentement hu l-akbar xewka Laburista li qatt kellu dan il-pajjiz.
Unfortunately the remit is impossible to conceive in any art form.
The reason is simple. The creation of the Republic of Malta will forever be associated in the psyche of all Maltese of good will with Malta’s darkest hour.
With a period in its history when these poor little islands were run by an obnoxious pig in human clothing.
It is really a shame, but these are inalienable facts.
No visual will ever overshadow or replace history.
A huge middle finger is more appropriate.
Eur 100,000 is a low budget. But I think it can be enough as the initial capital to set up a monument that truly reflects current and future Maltese culture and identity.
In fact, I see this as a great opportunity to set up a Labour supermarket – as once suggested by Toni Abela – in Valletta.
It can consist of a roofed structure along Republic Street.
Everything will be free. It will be accessible to everyone.
Once inside, one can experience a Labour heaven.
Shelves will carry a wide range of free goods and services, such as:
1. Jobs with government, including positions on boards, commissions and conventions, as well as ambassadorships.
2. Preferential promotions and transfers for government employees. Those working with the Armed Forces can get as many as 4 promotions bundled in one package.
3. Vouchers that can be exchanged for special appointments as envoys in New York and Shanghai.
4. Small quantities of medicinals that are otherwise out-of-stock, or subject to “pending orders,” in the POYC system.
5. A wide range of MEPA permits. Permits covering new buildings in ODZ areas, others allowing unlimited heights in residential areas.
6. Hunting licences that allow the shooting of protected birds without enforcement.
7. Maltese and EU passports, with a free 0.99% discount voucher that can be exchanged on property purchased from Henley & Something Estates.
Mixing art with politics? That’s no good at all. Not when a government does it.
Yes but we’re now emulating the likes of China’s communist dictatorship ; after all they do own 70% of our soul don’t they ?
And where are they going to stick this wonderful monument? I have some ideas if they don’t.
Especially the prickly pears …..
Smajtu jekk hux ser isir xi haga ghal 50 sena mill Indipendenza? Qed nistaqsi dan ghax sa fejn naf jien settemru qabel Dicembru u smajna fuq jum ir republika u xejn fuq x’ser jigri ghal 50 sena ta Malta Independenti.
It seems Muscat can’t manage the real anniversary, 50 years, without pandering to the Mintoffjani.
A monument to mark 40 years is by definition an admission of weakness.
Then there’s the minor issue of choosing the perit’s lacklustre attempt at design and try to slick it all up. Because semiotic, symbolic and synthetic it ain’t.
The work of someone who wouldn’t be told his limits were just that, limits.
I don’t know who should take more offence, those who hate that naif piece of literal rendition of a thrid world country or the Mintoffjani who saw in it their path to social acceptance.
The bridge to nowhere had a function, restore space, what will this ‘multi-located’ piece do, if not become an incessant cacophany of Mintoff’s ultimate failure, that of designing that which could exist in time and space?
The brief goes to great pains to justify why Mintoff’s piece has to change, why Muscat tends to align himself but can’t get himself to commemorate the past. That’s called a pastiche.
On with the subliminal ideological enforcements then. Once nothing Mintoff ever made stood the test of time, let’s just have a mental wank. Pitiful.
L-ewwel dal-gvern hexa lil Malta b’mod wiesgha. Issa ser jibda jahxiha b’mod aktar ‘site-specific’.
Certament, ikun x’ikun l-artistic statement, bhal ma huwa kollox li jaghmel il-Partit Laburista, dan iservi biex jpaxxi lil xi hadd, jifred il-poplu, jkerrah l-ambjent ta’ madwaru u, idejalment, iwaqqa lin-nazzjon ghan-nejk.
I thought the prickly pear lives in Burmarrad
Prickly pair.
On 1st May there will be free entrance to all Heritage Malta museums and sites.
Finally all those mejtin bil-guh can go to a museum without spending a single euro.
This way of reasoning is so obnoxious.
I’m Maltese so by right I shouldn’t pay for what is Maltese as if money will start raining like manna in the desert. So annoying.
How about a large bronze facsimile of a tin can of that delicious Ma Ling luncheon meat from the golden 1970s.
You know, when the consumer had real choice at the tiny corner grocery store with that old sticky fly-trap strip.
I mean what was old is new again and with China being so prominent in Maltese lives again.
Oh. My. God.
http://idata.over-blog.com/0/54/25/50/art/shit-artist-caca-boudin-merde.jpg
An iced bun no doubt
Keep an eye also on the Eur1million co-production fund that has been set up.
Something along the lines of Piero Manzoni’s famous canned masterpieces aught to be quite appropriate. On a larger scale perhaps. The LNG tanker clad in black should be able to produce a suitable sample.
They don’t need to spend a hundred thousand euro. A sign with the words DON’T PROVOCATE ME will do and will explain a lot of the national psyche.
Oh yes ..collective memories hux…like mine trying to go home one Saturday evening and finding the main road leading to my street blocked with huge public works gaffef placing mounds of dirt and soil and rubbish in preparation for welcoming Eddie (Fenech Adami,not Privitera ) the next day.
For 100,000 euros I think I can just about manage a giant raspberry installation in St George’s Square, audio and visual included.
Did they say cutting-edge? How about a guillotine?