Venice Biennale, Malta Pavilion proposes homage to Caravaggio

For the 2022 edition of the Venice Biennale, the Malta Pavilion is proposing a tribute to Caravaggio to build a bridge between Maltese and Italian culture. The Mediterranean island comes to the Arsenale with a project entitled Diplomazija astuta, which reimagines The Beheading of St. John the Baptist, Caravaggio’s masterpiece housed in the Co-Cathedral of the Maltese capital, Valletta. The canvas on display in Malta is the most extensive that has come down to us among those painted by Caravaggio and is the only one signed by the artist.

In its reinterpretation set up in Venice, the famous work becomes an immersive sculptural installation in which Caravaggio’s immanent themes are placed back into modern life. The pavilion is curated by noted Caravaggist, Maltese artist Keith Sciberras, and American contemporary artist Jeffrey Uslip, and features an installation by Arcangelo Sassolino in collaboration with Maltese artists Giuseppe Schembri Bonaci and Brian Schembri. Resorting to induction technology, Arcangelo Sassolino’s kinetic installation produces drops of molten steel that fall from a structure above into seven water-filled pools, each representing a subject of the Decolation. The molten metal creates a vivid light and on contact with the water hisses, cools and recedes into darkness. To pace the time and frequency of the fall of each drop, composer Brian Schembri creates a “percussive score” based on “Ut queant laxis,” the Gregorian chant attributed to Guido d’Arezzo in honor of John the Baptist, and on rhythmic motifs derived from two hymns by Charles Deacon composed on the same Latin text and from Charles Camilleri’s “Missa Mundi.” Finally, Giuseppe Schembri Bonaci’s engravings offer a sculpted cipher, a daunting hymn that embodies a knowledge that is within our reach and, at the same time, beyond it.

The interpretation given to Caravaggio’s masterpiece and the creation of the works in the Malta Pavilion are intended to represent a glimpse of the robust Maltese sensibility to all forms of art. The deep cultural roots that are present on the archipelago have continued over the centuries to nurture the widespread passion for beauty, and today Malta, and Valletta in particular, is in its own right a world-class artistic laboratory available to the discerning tourist seeking a refined and contemporary destination.

“This extraordinary and timely installation, the result of the creative and collaborative effort between our curators and artists,” says Albert Marshall, Executive Chairman of the Arts Council Malta, “presents a pavilion that layers what is said to be past with what is still in progress. Astute Diplomazija creates a palimpsest that uniquely operates within the context of the Caravaggio altarpiece and contemporary Maltese visual culture.”

“I invite visitors to the Malta pavilion,” says Johann Buttigieg, CEO of VisitMalta, “to consider it as a starting point of a journey that will allow them to discover Malta’s immense cultural heritage rooted in more than 7,000 years of history. Ours is a culture that has evolved over the centuries giving rise today to a particular creative ferment, palpable throughout the archipelago and especially in the capital Valletta.”

Venice Biennale, Malta Pavilion proposes homage to Caravaggio

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