The Malta Independent on Sunday
If it’s Baroque, fix it
Nestled in a small courtyard, Sylvie de Meurville’s paper sculpture entry for the 2015 Mdina Biennale took centre stage. Comprised of tracing paper, metal bars and LED lights, the simplistic nature of these materials was transformed into a symbol of the ephemeral. Taking visual cues from the Baroque splendour found in Mdina, the sculptural quality of the installation coupled with its blanched hue; evoke the spirit of the style, whilst also postulating a contemporary liberal outlook onto it.
The essence of the Baroque style is an aspect which both rejuvenates yet haunts the Maltese islands. While this style elicits a nostalgic and patriotic feel in certain people, it may also inhibit the progression of contemporary styles within the local Maltese scene. Taking visual cues, inspiration or using the style as an impetus is one aspect of the burgeoning artistic scene, and is wholly encouraged. With this year’s Maltese entry into the Venice Biennale, this aspect of locality, spirituality and identity came to the fore, with installation pieces presented by Austin Camilleri betwixt museum-worthy exhibits of artefacts, miscellanea and votive items.
The Baroque-ness of Malta is an aspect that has become synonymous with our day-to-day activities. Stemming from the medieval village feasts, grotesque statues, elaborate pavilions and intricate light features dot Maltese streets for almost every day of the summer season. Each and every decorative item used, be it private (as in the miniature niche-like votive statuettes placed in one’s front window, decorated with flowers, candles and rosary beads, as a means to commemorate the local religious feast) or public, is a means to convey this spirit of the Baroque-ness, an aspect which will most probably live on in our collective psyche. Why should we not rejoice in it, then?
This question arises as a problematic aspect. To what extent can we utilise the Baroque style, without falling short of its pedagogical and historical expression? As denoted by numerous scholars, the Baroque style can be thus divided into the following categories: (a) the pedagogical aspect, (b) the use of light, movement and colour to emphasise the dramatic, (c) an imbued religious content that expounds the mortal components of the artwork, and (d) grandeur, sensuality and the play on realism and classicism. These characteristics find it somewhat hard to be completely and irrevocably translated into modern-day usage, without falling short of the original purpose.
Returning back to de Meurville’s installation, the location was the current base for the Mdina Local Council in the Mag- isterial Palace, commonly known as Palazzo Vilhena. The palace was constructed in c. 1730, following the 1693 earthquake that devastated most of Mdina. De Meurville placed her sculpture atop a well opening, whilst adding light bulbs to the pre-existing metal bars. The paper was lightly attached to the bars, allowing the wind to play and move these limbs around. Simultaneously translucent and opaque, the form of the installa- tion morphed according to the daily weather, with wind, rain and dust effecting the open-air installation continuously. On discussing this artwork with the artist herself, she expressed her initially inspiration to have come from the emotive and expressive quality of Gian Lorenzo Bernini’s drapery folds. The added light features helped not only accentuate the installation in its totality, but also through the play of light and shade. In certain ways, this installation is reminiscent of Lucio Fontana’s Barocchi period, where his use of white, coupled with sinuous lines, evokes the feeling of grand spirituality.
As perpetuated through the eons of art and cultural history, drawing inspiration from previous styles, civilisations and movements is most probably what kept art moving along. In this post-modern and post-postmodern age, a backlash to the nihilism present in the 70s and 80s was consolidated through the fancy of the 90s postmodernism spirit. In this day and age, art needs to find a new purpose, a new message and a new fighting spirit. In this sense, the APS Contemporary Art Mdina Biennale is presenting a new dialogue between the past and the present, between the insular and the cosmopolitan, and between the spiritual and the material.
This year’s theme centres on ‘The Mediterranean: A Sea of Conflicting Spiritualties’. Harkening back to the aforementioned Baroque spirit, the same conflict of spirituality, purpose and identity was felt in post-Tridentine Europe. The same can be applied to contemporary times. With news of great cataclysmic episodes, belligerent episodes and terror bombarding our news channels, feeds and social media constantly, the idea of the idyllic sea-lake of the Mediterranean should be questioned as well. This type of dialogue is opened up through the artworks of Michael von Cube’s artwork, a returning artist to the Biennale. In 2015 he presented 12 Apostles Series, a watercolour series dedicated to the refugee crisis experience. Hope, tenacity and tragedy feature prominently in this series. For the 2017 Mdina Biennale, von Cube continued on this social theme, by creating a crucifix-cum-totem-pole panelled artwork that reflects migration, the problems of virtual reality, escapism and imbued violence. The Baroque strain can be adequately postulated onto this artwork through the enhancement of the image, the immediacy of the message, and the pure realism presented within.
Reflecting on de Meurville’s interpretation of baroque folds, another returning artist, Patrice Pantin, is also dealing with this subject, especially on the continuum of time, memory and history. As identified by the biennale’s curator, Nikki Petroni, a tantalising Liebniz/Deleuze reference is felt, especially through an analysis of Deleuze’s commentary on Liebniz’s writings in the publication entitled The Fold: Liebniz and the Baroque. The fold, here, is a wave of continuing energy that moulds and forms our present views. Pantin’s artwork will reflect on geographical disasters, taking the fall of the Azure Window as a prime source of local inspiration. In this sense, the Baroque spirit is energized and reutilised to hewn our present-day terminology, outlook and general zeitgeist, without the overt use of the baroque-veneer, as seen in the populated use of ‘traditional’ paintings, statuary and memorabilia produced en masse. As hypothesized by Giuseppe Schembri Bonaci, the ‘façade-theory’ is a real aspect of the Maltese art scene and is something that curators, patrons and artists should fight to overturn.