Renzo Piano’s studio in Paris on the subject of the market: “It’s a shame. It’s like making a cake and then spitting on it. I am crying.”
Times of Malta has rung Renzo Piano’s studio in Paris and asked for their views on what is happening with the market. You should take it for granted, obviously, that they weren’t even informed, let alone consulted, which shows what a bunch of backwoodsmen they are in their inability to understand that an architectural project is conceived as an integral whole.
I almost never use this word in public but in this case I have to. They’re a bunch of hamalli. They’re doing this because they’re such total, absolute hamalli. Hamalli with money, hamalli with Alfas, hamalli with up-styles, social-climbing hamalli insinuating themselves into drawing-rooms and round supper tables for votes, but hamalli all the same.
Only a bunch of hamalli would stick a market right inside a magnificent piece of art by one of the greatest architects known to history. Not only do they do it because, being the hamalli they are, they know no better. It’s also because, like extreme hamalli, they want to be as offensive as possible to make their presence felt in terms of audiovisual pain – like the way they ruin the atmosphere in restaurants by crowding together at large tables cluttered with pushchairs and horrid, rude children whining and rolling all over the floor while their parents compete at having 10 simultaneous conversations at market-trader volume while shouting down the table: “Aw hi.”
God, what a country.
There are markets and hamalli everywhere in Europe, but the Sunday markets are always in outlying areas to which you have to make a specific outing, and the daily markets are increasingly rare and in specific neighbourhoods, not in the main drag of the capital city and certainly not outside Parliament House.
Antonio Belveder, the lead architect on the project, said to Times of Malta out of Piano’s Paris studio: “What can I say? It’s a shame, I am crying. It’s like making a cake and then spitting on it. It’s not an elegant metaphor, I apologise for it, but that is what it is. So, at the end of it, we’re saying that we cleared the site to make space for a flea market?”
But Joseph Muscat, being the hamallu he is – I believe in calling a spade a spade, and he is undeniably one though his wife is much worse – of course knows better than Antonio Belveder ghax Antonio Belveder mhu xejn ahjar minnu hux u dak ghandu opinjoni u Muscat ghandu tieghu hi.
In reply to question put by Times of Malta, he said he “does not subscribe to concerns about the relocation site and believes the new site will instil life in the city”. You will understand that this reply was in writing and not written by him. Ghax fil-kcina tal-mummy Burmarrad nahseb ma tantx kienu jghidu ‘subscribe to concerns’.
There is no hope for this place.
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After reading the above I am having the most extensive attack of goose pimples I have ever had in my life. Is this all real, or is it all a bad dream?
Perhaps someone should remind me that ‘il-qahba milli jkollha ttik’. I do not mind if these hamalli choose to continue to ridicule themselves, but that they mess around with the name of my country – then I am feeling furious, and I am sure that there are thousands sharing my feeling, a good number of them form part of those ‘famous’ 36.
Jien m’iniex wieħed minn dawk il-famous 36 imma daqsek jew aktar minnek qed nibki fhiex ġabuna dawn il-famous 36.Mistħija waħda wara l-oħra.
Ma jistgħux jaqgħu aktar fil-baxx.
Imsieken aħna li rridu nitqannew b’qabda injuranti ħamalli li ma jifhmu f’xejn ħlief fil-ħamallaġni u kif se jivvendikaw irwieħhom minn dawk li ma vvutawlhomx.
https://www.facebook.com/timesofmalta/posts/10152694321613175?comment_id=10152694414078175¬if_t=like
‘..Renzo Piano’s architect is crying??!! They were paid round 7 million euros for this project, and he’s crying??!!..’
Courtesy of Charlon Gouder’s whiskered clone Mario Bonnici, all partiti and kampjonati on ONE.
As they say, l-ghira oht il-genn.
“The 7 million euros” is as far as idiots can see.
They just don’t fathom how someone owns what they do.
Owning just a monetary privilege in their envy riddled new labour minds.
Work however remains condemned to the activity of an underclass, labour. It’s never about doing, always about profit.
And profit immoral by definition ergo the process cannot provide dignity. Must be horrible having that entrenched in one’s soul.
@ Jozef
So right. So well expressed.
All that envy, and they can’t even capture the essence that gives the magnet its strength let alone master it or clone it.
Jahasra.
Another cover up too. Straight out of the master’s office again.
What a coward Joseph Muscat is not to own up to hopeless, disgusting taste.
If he doesn’t subscribe to concerns, he’s definitely incapable of what these are; vandalising the nation’s public space delineated by the geometry of the place.
Yes, geometry’s invisible forces which make us gravitate towards place and its locus leaving us fulfilled and safe. Not so with Muscat, he must be in the way.
This Lewis turned out our useful idiot; the prime minister engaged in the aesthetics of a market stall.
And he thinks he’ll save face. I half expect him to justify his decision by reminding us how the market was huddled against the palace so what’s wrong.
The ultimate ara x’ghamiltu inthom. Of this is our PM made.
Let’s try to be optimistic.
This is another reason to vote the lot out in three years time.
Thankfully this is a situation that can be reversed.
Min fommok għal fomm Alla. Mhux li kien. Nittama li dawk il-famous 36, jiftħu moħħhom u għajnejhom u jerġgħu jaraw id-dawl.
Forget it. The PN does not have the guts to reverse this decision.
This country is held to ransom by minority groups hunters, trappers, hawkers, poachers, you name it.
This is a sad loser country and anybody harbouring hope for better days had better face reality.
Besides I fail to understand how anybody can be surprised at this and similar obscenities since that is what the majority voted for. The end justifies the means – we were warned. Enjoy.
Simon Busuttil has confirmed today that “A Nationalist government would not allow the monti to set up in Ordnance Street Valletta or anywhere near the Piano project”.
I was afraid he would pander to the market traders next and offer them apologies as he did earlier this week to the developers, of all people.
Glad to say you’ve been proved wrong, and you should be glad too. Dr Busuttil has declared himself on the matter, that he’ll never have the market there under his watch.
I have not read all the comments on this blog on this insane decision of locating the market near the new parliament but, I am of the opinion that people should vote with their feet. Don’t shop there.
Hekku, matul il-ġimgħa f’ħafna postijiet madwar Malta jkun hemm swieq oħra tajbin. M’għandniex għalfejn nidħlu s-suq tal-Belt.
Where are all those cultured people who aired their comments on the roofless theatre? Is all this okay by their standards?
Those ‘cultured’ people have gone numb. I take it they do not want to jeopardise any possible iced bun. Shame on them and shame on everyone who is not seeing what Malta is being reduced to. Who said the Maltese ‘died’ for their country – I never believed that and never will. The god of patriotism in Malta is money.
“Mitna ta’ xejn.”
Hamalli kienu fi zmien Mintoff. Hamalli kienu taht Alfred Sant. U hamalli ghadhom taht Joseph Muscat. U jibqghu hamalli.
Ikunu kuntenti jghixu f’mandra tal-qzieqez u jekk jghixu f’palazz, kapaci jaghmlu l-palazz mandra.
Il-kapolavur ta’ Renzo Piano jsejhulu hakkieka. Ma naghtihomx tort! Mohhhom ma jwassalx biex japprezza l-arti.
Imma ibqa’ cert li toghgobhom bicca pittura taz-zejt imdendla fuq is-sufan kollu porporina, f’salott li jintuza biss fil-festa tar-rahal, u jitghaxxqu jharsu lejh qishom qed jaraw xi pittura ta’ Michelangelo. “Xtrajtha minn fuq il-Monti! €40, hoj!”
U x’cuc hu Renzo Piano.
Il-problema hi li Mintoff qatt ma ried jeleva lil hamalli u jedukhom, izda ried ibaxxi lil min kien edukat u inexxielu kief qed naraw.
History repeating itself. There is definitely no serious reflection on how we appear to the world.
This is more than a lack of appreciation for the spectacular city entrance Piano created. This is a deliberate act of hdura, Labour’s single defining trait for the last few decades.
Agreed. The motive cannot be just votes.
The hdura in this case entertained by those who condemned the republic’s right to delineate itself along Valletta.
The uglification of Malta is the ideology, not its consequence.
Those who delved into the subject lately, how’s that for whitewashing, were themselves reluctant to the conclusion.
All those who bought Muscat’s fantasy complained about a roofless theatre.
Bought it and sold it too. Some remain without a conscience.
What they owe the rest of Malta is a clear denunciation.
Loud.
Repeated.
Now.
Let’s hear it then.
You are right – Labour colour should be green and not red.
And what is going to happen when we have an activity going on in the theatre, the one that since March 2013 has changed its name from “teatru bla saqaf” ?
It seems that the hamalli have upset you, Daphne, and rightly so.
What upsets me is that the Maltese voted, and will vote again, for them in their thousands.
Are we as a nation so blind, so lacking in taste, so ignorant, and so enamoured of our politicians, that can they drag us down in the muck with nary a whimper?
No Vanni, it is just a question of making money, and more money and a perception that if there is corruption up top, why can I not have a share of it too.
People, it seems, will vote in any politician will provide it. Flus qabel kollox u mhux Malta l-ewwel qabel kollox.
You may be right, etil, but I think that it is even more basic than that.
Too many Maltese have sadly no standards, no pride in themselves, and I say this with a heavy heart, but we are so ignorant as a nation.
We have a jewel of a building, but we hasten to tackify it, just like we did with our country. We corrupt, not only through our greed, but through our ignorance and selfishness, to say nothing of our shortsightedness.
Why are we surprised at the cultural dregs leading our country? They know no better, and are elected by the people of the same ilk.
Corruption is to be deemed very wrong if I cannot partake!
A small recommendation to all those who care: take one or two switchers who you know and challenge them again on the reasons why they decided to switch, emphasizing the true gains and true losses of their decision, and draw a balance.
I think many (if they can be honest) might just have to admit what a royal mess they have gotten us all into, perhaps they might feel slightly responsible for yet another LP blunder.
Waste of time, they’ll never own up to having f#cked up.
And so, we are still going to be stuck with Labour for another three long years. There is no going back now since we are a democratic country and we can only get rid of hopeless politicians through elections.
What a disgrace. A singular opportunity to showcase our capital is completely wasted for a few matchstick boxes covered in red eight-pointed crosses. Gvern tan-nejk.
I disagree, not GVERN tan-nejk, but POPLU tan-nejk.
If our politicians are the cream of the Maltese crop, and since more than half of Malta voted for them, than it stands to reason that the majority of the Maltese approve of their antics.
Ergajna waqajna ghan-nejk.
Who was it that said “Tisthi li int Malti”?
The PN previous government spent millions to have the best plan possible and this labour bla kultura is spitting angrily on it. We will never see another project like this in our lifetime
Imagine Petticoat Lane market in London being relocated to Parliament Square or The Mall in front of Buckingham Palace.
Valletta is Camden Lock.
[Daphne – The Valletta market is not even remotely like Camden Lock’s. The closest comparison is to the markets in East Ham and on the Roman Road.]
I mean the wall-to-wall (bastion-to-bastion) bazaar atmos.
But I get your point. Camden Lock Market at least contains some real “artigjanat” and more than a few objets d’art. Valletta’s market is just counterfeit tat, and the shops all seem to sell souvenirs and more tat.
I don’t live far from East Street Market Camberwell off Old Kent Road. That market is not as tacky as the one in Malta, even though it is in a slightly deprived area of SE London. I quite like this market because I can buy ethnic food.
Pearls before swine.
With apologies to Abraham Lincoln Malta has a government of the hamali, by the hamali, for (the benefit) of the few.
Might as well continue and say it: for the benefit of the hamalli.
Mill-bidu hekk kont ngħid li li l-monti jitpoġġha hemm hija vendikazzjoni kontra l-proġett.
There are probably people – Astrid Vella comes to mind – who think Antonio Belveder’s opinion is irrelevant because he’s a foreigner and does not understand “us Maltese”.
Well, the Monti certainly represents some of “us Maltese”.
The Mintoffian drivel that his nanna fed him has made Joseph Muscat the Philistine that he is.
Valletta is special city but it has never been given the love and respect it deserves. Especially with these hamalli in power.
A capable person who has also loved and defended Valletta is Mrs Miriam Cremona. I wish that she would start again appearing on the media to defend our precious city.
Surely the public can occupy the public spaces and stop the government from installing those kiosks?
But then we are not Hong Kong…
I reinforce my belief that the Malta Labour Party is a plague on this country.
For a long long time to come, Catharsis. Shame.
We are really Maltese gemgem. Moan moan moan. No action.
Ciccio is right, we should occupy the site.
The disgraceful stalls would be a gross injury to any environment they would be allowed to pollute. Locating them cheek by jowl to a building of the calibre of Renzo Piano’s parliament is an insult of the highest order. The type of insult that only culturally challenged hamalli can make.