International Performance Art Event at Valletta Contemporary

Blurring boundaries between art and performance, Verbi: mill-bieb ’il ġewwa is an interdisciplinary show devised by eight multi-national artists.

Verbi: mill-bieb ’il ġewwa is an interdisciplinary performance art event by Barumbara Collective that will take place on 7, 8, 9 December 2018 at Valletta Contemporary, the cutting-edge contemporary gallery recently opened on East Street, Valletta.

Verbi, which was originally conceived in Brussels in 2017 following a series of performances during Rue de Flandre’s annual street market, is based on a narrative from the collection of short stories “mill-bieb ’il ġewwa/take a look inside (me)’’ by award-winning Maltese author Loranne Vella, who is known for the best-selling trilogy ‘Il-Fiddien’ co-written with Simon Bartolo.

Verbi is designed as a promenade performative event resulting from the collaboration of eight Maltese and other European artists from different artis- tic spheres – literature, drama, dance, installation art, photography, film, light design, music and sound design – whose work will converge in Valletta Contemporary’s art space. The eight artists forming part of Barumbara Collective are Loranne Vella, writer, performer, artistic director and coordinator for Verbi; performer Sephora Gauci; Kamini Daems, video artist, photographer and musician; sound designer Danjeli Schembri; performer Francesca Saraullo; Aurore Morillon, video artist, photographer and performer; photographer Zvezdan Reljić and light designer Eleanor Bryce.

As a point of departure, each of the collaborating artists referred to existing material from their artistic repertoire, be it literature, sound, film, dance, photography, light or theatre, which in one way or another linked to the themes of the stories. This led to the creation of new material. Conceptually, Verbi starts from the verb and moves on to examine the embodiment and expression of this verb by the human body in relation to the space around it and to others, via the interaction of the different art forms.

But is this art or theatre? Artistic Director Loranne Vella’s answer to the question is that the different art forms will be merged: “In terms of narrative/content, audiences will feel like they’re stepping through someone’s front door to have a peak into their personal/secret life – hence, they can never know beforehand what to expect. Verbi will be a journey into the characters’ inner life.”

In December Barumbara Collective will be organising workshops with students from the Digital Arts Programme and the Theatre Studies Programme at the University of Malta to share the creative and collaborative processes leading toward the creation of new content to be included in the final performance. Verbi is produced by Culture Venture, and supported by Malta Arts Fund - Project Support Grant by Arts Council Malta. Entrance tickets at €15 will be available at the door or from https://shop.trackagescheme.com/event/mill-bieb-ilgewwa. For more info visit instagram.com/barumbaracollective and facebook.com/barumbara.