AARON BEZZINAGABRIEL BUTTIGIEGRYAN FALZONJAVIER JOSEPH FORMOSAADRIAN GAUCIIZAXAJENNIFER MALLIASTEPHANIE SANTDARREN TANTIELISA VON BROCKDORFF

curator: raphael vella

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An A©enzija Ûg˙aΩag˙ exhibition, in collaboration with St James Cavalier Centre for Creativity, Valletta19 October - 10 November, 2013

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A©enzija Ûg˙aΩag˙Divergent Thinkers

St Joseph High RoadSt Venera SVR 1012, Malta

Tel: +356 2388 6139Email: agenzija.zghazagh@gov.mt

© A©enzija Ûg˙aΩag ,̇ Raphael Vella and the artists

No part of this work may be reproduced or used in any form or by any means - graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping, Web distribution or information storage retrieval systems - without the written permission of A©enzija Ûg˙aΩag ,̇ Raphael Vella and the artists

Thanks to Dr Vince Briffa and Mr Patrick Fenech for their kind assistance.

Photography credits: The artists

Published by A©enzija Ûg˙aΩag˙

foreword

It gives me great pleasure to write this foreword for the second edition of Divergent Thinkers. The project was launched last year, as part of Aġenzija Żgħażagħ’s youth empowerment programme, and its success both among aspiring young artists and the general public was considerable. I am confident that this year’s edition will enjoy equal success and hope that the project becomes a yearly event in the arts’ calendar.

Divergent Thinkers endeavours to provide young Maltese visual artists with a platform and public space in which they can exhibit work in various media. Significantly, the project does not determine particular aesthetic themes or outcomes, but rather aims at supporting and inspiring young artists in exploring and presenting different ways of thinking about and making art.

‘Mirrors and Windows’, which Aġenzija Żgħażagħ published last year, was the first study in Malta of

young people’s perceptions of themselves, their families, communities and society. The results of the study concluded that cultural and artistic pursuits were not as common as might be generally thought or desired.

The Government is committed to further support and promote the arts and culture. Divergent Thinkers is a practical example of such support. We are convinced that the arts and culture have a vital role to play in national life. We have embarked on drafting a new national youth policy and this will address such issues as arts and culture and the proactive and life enhancing role that they can play in the lives of young people.

I commend Aġenzija Żgħażagħ for its vision in initiating Divergent Thinkers and in particular I want to thank St James Cavalier Centre of Creativity and Dr Raphael Vella for their enthusiasm and continuing commitment to the project.

Stefan BuontempoParliamentary Secretary for reSearch, innovation, youth and SPort

art and emPowerment

As part of its Youth Empowerment Programme, Aġenzija Żgħażagħ initiated the artistic project Divergent Thinkers in 2011.

The aim of the Youth Empowerment Programme, which operates at both national and local levels, is to serve as a medium through which young people are given tools to understand issues that are influencing their quality of life and that empower them to take action.

While the project was but one of a number of projects initiated, it presented a number of particular challenges. It was obvious that such a project was not feasible without the enthusiastic and committed support of a number of individuals and St James Cavalier for Creativity as well as that of Aġenzija Żgħażagħ.

The exhibition, which was held at St. James Cavalier Centre for Creativity in Valletta from 27 July to 2 September 2012, was consequently the result of a cooperative effort by many people.

All of this endeavour would have been to no avail if young Maltese artists had not responded with such enthusiasm. Adrian Abela, Aaron Bezzina, Emanuel Bonnici, Giola Cassar, Luca Cauchi, Patrick Mifsud, and Michael Xuereb in their different methods, styles and approaches - from sculpture and drawing to video, installation, digital media and photography - provided a feast for the eye, ear and mind. The resounding success of the project and exhibition was in large part a result of their enthusiasm, hard work, vision and creativity.

This year’s participating young artists are employing painting, drawing, sculpture, video, photography and installation to provide us with an exhibition every bit as evocative and challenging as that of last year. 

I am fully confident that this edition of Divergent Thinkers will, in its own unique way, be equally successful.

miriam teumachief executive, agenzija zghazagh

The hardest and probably the most frustrating part of organising an exhibition like Divergent Thinkers is preparing some kind of exhibition rationale for prospective participants. An event that celebrates ‘right-brain’ creative thinking simply doesn’t fit into predetermined rationales, hence straightforward questions like “what is it about?” or “what are artists expected to do?” are generally answered in the negative: the exhibition is not about a specific theme, nor is it about a specific medium, and so on. Another possible (and evasive) reply is “please have a look at last year’s exhibition catalogue”. Not very helpful, perhaps, yet this predicament captures the essence of the whole event.

From the outset, the project was meant to transgress familiar ideas and solutions — to present the unfamiliar before our eyes not as some sort of freak show but as an eye-opener. Many things around us are as they are because that’s exactly how they were designed to be, but they can be redesigned, remodelled, made to operate in different ways and solve problems that they weren’t meant to solve. Not only can things change, but they can change in astonishing ways — creative insights are not always planned and they occasionally occur in the most unexpected or unfocused situations. The freshest ideas are those that surprise their own authors.

Creative thinkers do not only dream up new ideas but also expand on older ones, often simplifying them or making them more intricate. They probe deeper to generate offshoot concepts and possibilities; they take risks; they latch onto other people’s ideas which they then translate into their

how to anSwer a queStion like “what iS it about?”

raphael Vellacurator

own language. It is this sense of mental flexibility that Divergent Thinkers aims to display: that intuitive sense that makes artists see the endless possibilities that fork out of a single point of departure. For this reason, this year’s edition of Divergent Thinkers will once again present the sheer richness and quality of young artists’ work by exhibiting multiple approaches and media: interactive installations, experiments in typography and printmaking, daring sculptural work, images that change their appearance in different light conditions, photographic research, painting and contemporary drawing. The project also aims to highlight the complex thought processes that characterise each artist’s creative mode by including sketches, thoughts, raw footage and other components of the artists’ productive stages. In this respect, this is not the typical, ‘clean’ space that crops out irregularities; instead, it brings studio clutter into the actual exhibition.

Finally, the exhibition space itself – the Main Hall at St James Cavalier in Valletta – has been redesigned to accommodate the artists’ creative output and to offer regular visitors an entirely modified, and hopefully, a more adventurous relationship with the existing architecture. These spatial modifications are also intended to encourage artistic dialogues between different works on show – imaginative dialogues that will persist and leave a rich legacy despite being surrounded by a bureaucratic and market-driven world. What we show here is ultimately only part of a continuum. In the spirit of divergent thinking, we accept and anticipate unexpected responses to the question “what is it about?”

aaron bezzinaPlastik Fantastik Series (2013)Fused plastic toys

Parts of small, plastic toys from the artist’s childhood are reassembled by means of heat into spontaneous sculptures, created without preliminary sketches or plans.

adrian abela

aaron bezzina

gabriel buttigiegThe same model is painted time after time in an effort to capture the person’s character in colours and lines.

Portraits of Dorianne in bra (2013)Mixed media on cardboard, 91cm x 61cm

ryan falzonFusing childhood memories, pop imagery and typically suburban environments, these mixed-media images portray a rock and roll world coloured with fast cars and movie underdogs.

Hippies Gone Wrong (2012-2013)Mixed media, 90 x 60 cm

Kings in Town (2013)Mixed media, 90 x 60 cm

Perfect Prefect (2012)Mixed media, 90 x 60cm

Suburban Love (2012)Mixed media, 90 x 60 cm

The Explosion of the Brain series (2013)Pen on Paper, 105 x 75 cm (each drawing)

javier joSePh formoSa

Inspired by the relationship between the body and the workings of the brain, these drawings develop playful, linear rhythms that verge on abstraction.

Jien u d-Dar (2013)Triptych, rubber stamp on paper, each at 100x70cm

adrian gauci

The creation of a modular illustrated typography based on the decorative features of traditional Maltese tiles communicates ideas about the relationship between the dwelling and its Maltese owner.

Cutting the Stone (2013)Performance, installation

izaxa

The interactive environment of the installation acts as a rite of passage, rejuvenating archaic ritual tradition with the use of modern technology.

Sam Sultana, kriS camilleri, jean-Paul caSSar, karachalioS koStaS and jeffrey dimech

Concept evolution notes

Google Hangouts weekly meeting

2nd prototype audio design

Brainstorming session regarding 1st prototype

Feedback session after 1st prototype

Concept artWork in progress video still

Familia Lignum (2013)Natural hair

jennifer mallia

Hair is used as a sculptural medium and moulded into ethereal portraitsinspired by death-masks and ‘memento mori’ paintings.

flee tin gly (2013)Video and photography

StePhanie Sant

Meaning-making passes through successive stages: first, the manipulation of various objects by users, followed by the capturing of the users’ actions on video and finally, the selective ‘freezing’ of instances of the raw footage in still photographs.

darren tantiBased on optical principles that permit visible forms to change their appearance under particular lighting conditions, these works uncover a protagonist that is frequently overlooked in the appreciation of painting: external light.

Colatorium (2013), as seen under different light conditionsAquarelle on paper, 42cm x 29.7cm

Monstrance (2013)Aquarelle on paper, 42cm x 29.7cm

Mother and garment (2013)Aquarelle on paper, 59.4cm x 42cm

eliSa von brockdorffBy combining elements of fashion and narrative photography, these images explore the thin line between fiction and reality, inviting viewers to fill in the interpretive gaps that the staged stories elicit.

Silent red wall series (2013)Photography, 25x25cm each

A vacant space I - silent red wall (2013)Photography, 80x80cm

Spill on the floor series (2013)Photography, 25x25cm each

A vacant space II - spill on the floor (2013)Photography, 80x80cm

artiStS’ bioS

AAron BEzzinA (b.1991) is currently a Fine Art student at MCAST Institute of Art and Design, Mosta. He has participated in various collective exhibitions, including -Divergent Thinkers (St James Cavalier, Valletta, Malta) in 2012 and Se7en in a Bed at Guy Lee Tattoo Studio in Mellie˙a, Malta in 2013.

GABriEL BuTTiGiEG (b. 1993) studied art for several years with artist Keith Balzan and furthered his studies at the Faculty of Education (Art programme) at the University of Malta.

ADriAn GAuCi (b. 1988) is a graphic designer and illustrator. He obtained a B.A. (Hons) in Graphic Design and Interactive Media from the MCAST Institute of Art and Design in Malta, and has had his work featured in various exhibitions, including Milkshake at St James Cavalier in Valletta (2013) and Óarba, also at St James Cavalier (2010).

JEnniFEr MALLiA (b.1990) obtained a Bachelors Degree (Honours) in Fine Art from Fraunhofer Gesellschaft University (Germany) through MCAST institute of Art and Design in Malta. She followed a scholarship in Rurh Germany on an Erasmus project. She has also exhibited her works locally and internationally such as her first solo exhibition Zwiege in 2012 in Recklinghausen, Germany.

ryAn FALzon (b.1988) obtained a B.A. (Hons) in 2011 from Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft University (Germany) through MCAST Institute of Art and Design in Malta. His work has been shown in several exhibitions, such as Milkshake at St James Cavalier in Valletta, Malta (2013) and Se7en in a Bed at Guy Lee Tattoo Studio in Mellie˙a, Malta (2013).

JAViEr JoSEPH ForMoSA (b.1990) is currently following a course in Fine arts at the MCAST Institute of Art and Design. His works have been exhibited at the Malta Society of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce.

izAxA is a team composed of five people coming from different academic and career backgrounds - Samuel Sultana (b. 1990, art and psychology), Kris Camilleri (b. 1992, computer programming), Jean-Paul Cassar (b. 1990, sound design), Karachalios Kostas (b. 1993, engineering) and Jeffrey Dimech (b. 1993, videography). This unique marriage of practices allows for a multidimensional approach to different concepts and problems.

STEPHAniE SAnT (b. 1992) is a self-taught photographer who has recently graduated with a Degree in Communications and English at the University of Malta and followed a six-month study period in Gelsenkirchen, Germany. Her modelling career within Europe opened a window towards self-expression and performance art that goes hand in hand with her love for photography and most recently, film.

ELiSA Von BroCKDorFF (b.1982) received a Masters Degree in Fine Art from the University for the Creative Arts in Canterbury (Kent) in England in 2009, where she focused on photography and installation art. Exhibitions include Plastic Dreams at Lily Agius Gallery, Malta (2012) and C, a collaboration with fashion professionals and designers, held at St. James Cavalier in Valletta, Malta (2013).

DArrEn TAnTi (b. 1987) graduated in 2009 as a teacher of Art and Maltese from the Faculty of Education at the University of Malta and furthered his studies by obtaining a Masters in Fine Arts in Digital Arts (University of Malta). He participated in a number of collective exhibitions such as the 15th edition of the ‘Biennial of young artists from Europe and Mediterranean’ in Thessaloniki, Greece (2011), I draw at the Bank of Valletta Head Office in St. Venera, Malta (2012) and held his first solo show entitled Omen at St James Cavalier in Valletta, also in 2012.

JEAn PAuL CASSAr

KoSTASKArACHALioS

JEFFrEy DiMECH

KriSCAMiLLEri

SAMuELSuLTAnA

Endorsed by

ISBN: 978-99957-0-598-5

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