Italian looks into MCC’s camera oscura…erm acustica!

Thanks to Mro Muti and his Italian expert, the chairman of MCC is considering investing in a camera acustica. Once again we had to wait for this Italian expert to convince us that better acoustics are needed for the converted courtyard even though Maltese performers complained several times of poor acoustics. They also complained of high costs, discrimination and exclusion but let us not sidetrack. Maybe the Italian charm is more convincing than Maltese moaning!

Fascinating is the fact that the chairman is considering accessing EU funds for his project: maybe culture 2007-13 he says. Well, dream on cause there’s no money for you there mate! How can a chairman of a national institution funded by us not be aware that structural funds and culture 2007-13 funds are totally different things? How can he unashamedly state the following in the Times of Malta:

MCC chairman Peter Fenech said the centre was looking into whether it could apply for EU funding under the Culture 2007-13 Programme, or other sources, to upgrade the theatre so that it would be more geared up for large concerts and not just conferences.

The MCC had already been told that redoing the theatre for first-class concerts would cost Lm2 million, he said.

Among the problems were the carpets in the hall that absorbed the music as well as the brass railings.
Dr Fenech said the funds would be used to build a camera acustica, making the hall more attractive for future large orchestral performances. The idea was for the stage to be more flexible, amalgamating theatre, concerts and conferences and to have better changing rooms and other facilities.

I suggest 3 things:
1) Don’t just look into things but pressure government to give you more money because your project involves no partners so the EU culture programme is just not interested. Gonzi’s answer could be “ sorry Manoel theatre got all the money…please try again later…or why not try the EU?!” He will guide you to suggestion nr 2.
2) check out http://www.eu.int/comm/culture/eac/index_en.html and get the facts from there before implying that Culture 2007 could give you some Lm2 million. Partners are needed so please check out other sources. Maybe try suggestion 3.
3) walk some 500 mtrs up the hill from your office and visit the culture contact point or if it’s too hot access their site on http://www.culture.org.mt/. Partners are needed and the manoel theatre doesn’t count as one. They might guide you towards the OPM (10 mtrs away) to check out point nr1.

The idea is great, the intention is superb but this situation indicates that even our major arts institutions are lost on how to access funds from Europe. Maybe had we not sold the Maltese lottery for the price of mouldy peanuts we could have had some Lottery money to spend on such projects.

Good luck with the funding hunt!

toni

Yours Truly, the Malta Arts Council

Last week, in between rehearsals I was chatting with the owner of one of the numerous churches-cum-theatres in Edinburgh and arduously tried to follow her arguments on why the Scottish Arts Council (SAC) is just another non functioning QuaNGO. She was right in claiming that a large amount of the funding kitty goes to the large national arts organisations, most of whom need constant financial support to ease their financial disasters whereas smaller independent organisations are left struggling and scavenging for some dough.

She needs more money to go ahead with her ambitious projects, however she is not registered as a not for profit organisation and therefore the SAC will not fund her commercially driven enterprise…even though she might be successful in tapping other SAC programmes. It was then my turn to explain to her why she should be proud of owning such a space and operating within Scotland. The SAC exists for the artists and arts organisations. Even though its existence is currently being questioned by the Cultural Commission, Scotland boasts a healthy cultural discussion, and the Scottish Executive seeks to nurture creativity and to provide artistic opportunities for all. She was eager to know how the situation in Malta was and I stood still. I could utter no words because I couldn’t think of any, because there weren’t any to describe our equivalent of the SAC. I tried to explain how I spent the past year writing my papers about the Malta Council for Culture and the Arts and realized that there is a great potential for something to happen however we lack political champions, interest and commitment. We want cultural tourism but just blab about it. We want to regenerate our cities into cultural hubs but blab out it. We want to integrate the arts into the education but simply blab about it. We want to participate in EU arts projects but just blab about it. We are a bunch of blabbers. And then I thought ..well maybe I am exaggerating because we do get a great jazz festival thanks to the efforts of 1 man and we do get a great arts centre which should be listed in the artistic miracles of the 21st century due to its ridiculous budget and we also do have some great artists. So why am I complaining? And this woman then asked me…so will you go back and change things? And I stood still. I thought and rethought about her question for an hour or so until I got home, changed my soaking wet clothes made a cup of tea and checked my mail. This is what a Maltese theatre director had just forwarded to me:

Reference is herein made to your request for cultural assistance.

The Malta Council of Culture and the Arts regrets to inform you that your application for cultural support has not been successful.

Yours truly,Mary Ann Cauchi
Obo Dr Paul V. Mifsud - Executive Director
The Malta Council for Culture and the Arts

There it was. No reasons why or how. A Maltese group who had to go through a selection process to perform in a unique Edinburgh Fringe Festival venue had been officially written off by the MCCA - their national cultural support agency. Maybe the theatre groups is not good enough but then again the MCCA has no established criteria or policy. Then I thought… well maybe they had already funded this group in previous ventures abroad …but they hadn’t. Then I suddenly remembered that I also had sent a proposal to the MCCA some 5 months ago regarding a Scottish and Maltese cultural cooperation project. I obviously received no acknowledgment from the Council. The Scottish counterparts were interested in the project and some funding had already been secured but Malta was just not interested. The Director of the City of Edinburgh Council had personally provided me with a list of contacts and resources which could be useful for the project. As a foreigner and insignificant student I highly appreciated his genuine interest. Valletta Local Council on the other hand never even bothered to reply. The project involving 12 artists had been lost. A couple of minutes later I received another email from someone who organised a small yet interesting Easter Festival with extensive and exclusive potential to the Maltese Islands stating the following:

Reference is herein made to your request for cultural assistance.

The Malta Council of Culture and the Arts regrets to inform you that your application for cultural support has not been successful.

Yours truly,Mary Ann Cauchi
Obo Dr Paul V. Mifsud - Executive Director
The Malta Council for Culture and the Arts


Same wording, same attitude, same de-motivation. These significant projects together with various others have been discarded by the Council for some secretive and mysterious reason. What irks me, is not the lack of financial support but the clinical, disrespectful and unapproachable attitude of the Council.

And it is then that I knew the answer to that first question. Yes I want to go back and change things but then how can any individual grow and develop artistically within such a stifling environment? Imposed self exile, artistic brain drain, snobbery, I don’t know what to call it but it is evident that Maltese artists are seeking foreign pastures to achieve some form of development, expression and recognition. Everyone now seems to take pride in Brian Schembri, Carmine Lauri and Joseph Calleja but no MCCA was there to get them going.

Keep up the great work MCCA! Keep sending those insightful emails and letters because the more you do so, the more questions will be asked and answers sought away from the Island. Only then can your Council members be proud of their achievements and continue building their exclusive yet insignificant cultural empire.

TONI

Keeping Opera Afloat! Opera on Water and Exclusion

I have just spent the past hour browsing through some of the most depressing arts journalism I have as yet come across. When reading about this year’s ‘Opera on Water’ production one would think that we are mounting a month-long opera festival with spectacular staging and top performers in a massive performing space. Interestingly enough, the merits of this year’s production are measured against the 2003 La Boheme production, and not against internationally acceptable standards. Moreover, that success was not accorded to the production’s artistic merits but to its financial and marketing value.After reading the available literature on this event, one is no doubt that the main aim of this event is simply a money-making one. The main premise behind the idea being, ‘What other ways are there of making money?’, and since tourism is the backbone of the Maltese economy, they went for a niche tourist market, that of Arts Tourism. This exclusionist approach is extremely damaging to the Arts in a country like Malta where Classical music is available to the ‘privileged few’. Thus, the first message being sent out by the Opera on Water team is: ‘Opera is for Tourists’. This statement has been graciously supported by Minister Francis Zammit Dimech, ‘We can only hope and insist that this will be the first of a recurring event that Maltese persons as well as tourists can start to look forward to every year.’ (http://www.franciszammitdimech.com/art/030803.htm).

To reinforce the exclusionist aspect, the opera is being held in the Portomaso Marina, one of the most oppressively luxurious hotel complexes on the island. Is it possible that in a country surrounded by water, we had to go for a privately owned artificial marina? Although to be fair to the organisers, they do deserve credit for taking the initiative even if one does not agree with their approach. What is worrying is that the Minister instead of lamenting the lack of such productions on a public level, is lost in ecstatic praise for a private venture. It is not that private ventures should not get any credit, far from it, but to try and take credit for it as a public venture is extremely unprofessional. If the government really wants to promote the arts it should support its own ventures not wait for the private sector to do the dirty work.After the disastrous BOV International Opera Festival we really do need a serious rethink of opera in Malta. Probably the best one can find are the Gozo opera productions held annually at the Aurora and Astra Theatres. Although they are often artistically weak there is genuine enthusiasm in their organisation, which is more than one can say for the BOV Opera Festival.

The ‘Opera on Water’ project, despite its exclusionism, at least hasn’t descended into megalomania (despite being termed colossal by the DOI http://www.doi.gov.mt/en/press_releases/2005/05/pr0670.asp). It is still avoiding the term ‘festival’, which in Malta seems to be applied to anything which runs over 3 hours, and it is not ‘International’ another much abused term in Maltese culture.What is definitely an improvement this year (apart from the elimination of the gala dinner in between acts) is the inclusion of Maltese performers, though I am still looking forward to an all-Maltese opera production one day! The stage will also be raised higher than last year making it easier for the audience to watch. The venue itself has lots of charm and potential, even though the idea of open-air opera is not as ground breaking as the Minister thinks. (The promoters chose deliberately to be different – to opt for an outdoor venue, to offer different dining and wining options during the production breaks, and to create in the process a different and original event rather than simply beating the same track! http://www.franciszammitdimech.com/art/030803.htm). It is only in conservative Malta that mainstream performances are restricted to conventional spaces. Even then, the ‘Opera on Water’ venture is merely a theatre without a roof, and there is much more that can be made out of the space.Before I conclude this article, I would like to mention briefly the way the event was reported on the web. L-Orizzont, maltatoday, di-ve.com, In-Nazzjon, and Il-Mument yielded no information. With the exception of di-ve.com, these newspaper are devoted to party politics which automatically excludes arts (well, at least in Malta anyway!). Di-ve.com is more devoted to popular culture, and regrettably, not the best culture journalism around at that! The MTA website and The Malta Independent have only a cut-and-paste article taken from the DOI website. As for the DOI article, half of it is a speech by Minister Zammit Dimech on hotel occupancy figures; how it is relevant to opera is dubious. Only The Times of Malta bothered with an original article rather than a regurgitation of official sources.Thus, the glamorous ‘Opera on Water’, marketed for tourists, organised for profit, and shunned by the local media remains an elitist event aimed at foreigners. When one considers that most local productions produced in our national venues do the same but are of lesser calibre, perhaps the ‘Opera on Water’ is not so bad after all. What I want is not to put an end to this event but to challenge it with better nationally produced performances which would be more widely accessible. Nothing is healthier than competition and collaboration in the Arts, and that is exactly what is missing in Malta.

GEDUDU

Malta is part of iTaly: MTA said so

One of Mussolini’s dreams has finally come to fruition thanks to the hard endeavors of the Malta tourism Authority. Yes, finally, we can officially confirm that Malta and Italy are one. At least that is the impression given by the full page colour ad in last Sunday’s (London) Sunday Times Magazine.
The glossy ad, which carries a picture of Gozo’s azure window, proudly boasts that “Malta has always had strong connections with Sicily (what sort of connections? Mafia ones or is it perhaps transporting illegal immigrants between shores???). It goes on to say that 180,000 years ago there was even a bridge.

The text then explains that “Actually the links don’t stop at Sicily. At one stage it would have been possible to walk from Italy to Sicily through Malta and on to Africa. Indeed several thousand antelope, dwarf elephants, bears and wolves tried to do just that, in an attempt to escape the ice cap covering Europe. Their journey ended in Malta by which time the ice sheets had begun to melt and the valleys separating the countries were filled with what became the Mediterranean Sea. You can see the prehistoric remains of these creatures where they were discovered at allocation called Ghar dalam or “The Cave of Darkness”. Rather like the magnificent Azure Window pictured above, our bond with all things Italian has stood firm. Never more so than in our cooking, where you’ll find Italian influenced dishes prepared with ore than a dash of Maltese flair. Well, we have had several thousand years to perfect the recipes.”

So now we know:
We have perfected Italian cooking ( stop laughing at the back) You see boiling veg till there is no taste or serving mediocre and expensive food is a particularly refined variation of Maltese cooking.
Please don’t tell that to that bunch of cooks trying to revive MALTESE cuisine!
Are the Italians going to reimburse us for advertising Italy instead of Malta?
Will we be sued by Italian cooks for faking Italian cuisine?

WTCVS

PS At least we should give credit where credit is due and Tourism minister Francis Zammit dimech had this to say last week inhis regular column:

It is clear that additional advertising and proper marketing are required. Only last week I intervened with the authority to stop, as soon as possible, various adverts appearing in the UK press that are clearly totally inadequate at generating further sales. Writing long-winded and inaccurate essays about Napoleon or Malta's former links with Sicily is not the way to do it!

Criteria for a valid work of art

I am rather disgusted at how the Malta Society of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce could have the cheek to come up with a list of criteria over what makes a valid work of art and how Maltese artists should follow such rules in order for their works to be exhibited.

(http://www.artsmalta.org/documents/criteria_for_a_valid_work_of_art.doc)

How ridiculous is that! No rules should ever govern a work of art. More so, who has the right or the authority to come up with rules over what classifies art?

Evidently, the rules show how unfamiliar the Society is with the history of art. Does it not know that, over the years, there has been a significant departure from the conventions governing Western painting since the Renaissance? Is it not aware that the range of reality outside the traditional confines of art has expanded in every direction? Clearly, the artists of today have completely changed the pre-existing conception of art that declared the work to be a description of the objective, natural world. Their art does not follow tradition, dogmas or the domination of the individual. They have created an abundance of new art forms and techniques where there is no focal point, no distinction in tonality or colour and where they are not simply representing ‘what one can see.’

If the creation of art is going to have to abide by some rules in order for it to be exhibited, then it is not going to initiate the imagination of the senses. Such rules unmistakeably tie the audience to a single-minded vision of reality. They deny any substance to the relationship between vision, perception and representation in art where colour and form can take on many possible meanings. They are rules which prevent the materialization of imagery and produce paintings which are void of thought. They fabricate an art that stops at the retina but does not extend to the mind. True, radical art has always been looked upon as a social revolution. However, it was not just based on aesthetics but it called for a desire for social transformation that rejected the existing social order. Twentieth century Europe was caught between the modern experience and the anxiety over its consequences and all of its movements were formed by that turbulent moment. Such artists wanted a complete rebirth in art and were keen on redefining the relationship between seeing and representing. Their art involves opposing beliefs and values as well as different ways of viewing society and culture.

Still, the Society seems to believe that art should be limited to the constraints of convention in order to be ‘legitimate’. It, thus, produces a list of criteria which is formulaic and lacks any understanding of the diversity and thought-provoking nature of modern art’s intentions. Historically, there has been much development in the theory and practice of art and the Society is totally indifferent to the momentous and extreme changes that are taking place as there has been a total departure from the imitative mode of pictorial representation. All twentieth century movements have conceived of new modes of perception and production and have applied alternative stylistic features. So, does this make them invalid? And if yes, then does that mean that the Society absurdly believes that Malta’s artists should still be creating art that adheres to the academicism of the Middle Age and Renaissance period? And if this is the case, then what a shame indeed!

An artist should be able to move about freely in space and time and follow no set of rules except for his own. Equal value can be given to texture, tone, light and perspective and the meaning and significance of a picture may remain open to contention. A painting should not be seen as an illusion of actuality but as being its own reality. It should not be restricted towards the appearance of the object for which it stands. The artist should be allowed to explore the infinite universe and even question the accepted reality. He should be permitted to disregard the conventions of representation and be as imaginative as possible. After all, methods should rely on inspiration and not on rules. In other words, as opposed to what the Society’s rules cite, subordinate parts can be as clearly detailed as the central subject and a painting need not have a principle light but can show an evenness of working over the whole surface of the canvas. Shadows can be used in several ways and the figures may be as ambiguous as need be.

The Society should dwindle art into the whole of society and not just into a privileged minority. It must not systemize art because it runs the risk of abolishing dynamism and disallowing an interaction between art and society. It also invites the artist to be pretentious and merely adapt to the artificial conditions of actuality. Truly, an artist’s work is to be measured by the vitality, the creation and the belief of purpose within its own medium. Artistic creativity lies in the expressiveness, the possibilities of form invention and manipulation, and in the flat canvas on which various elements are brought to play.

If the Society is going to inflict rules upon Maltese artists, then it is doing nothing but disallowing the freedom of the artists’ imaginations and propagating disenchanted worlds that can not assure a creative response from the spectator. At the end of the day, whether paintings have been put to the service of the Church, the State, individual patronage or decoration, all the striking works that have been painted still live for us because of qualities they possess and not because they follow some rules which make them valid works of art.


LM

The Drama Centre - transformed into a wonderful bliss

After a year missing from drama school, having experienced the change I feel like writing something about May of last year when it all started…

The Drama Centre – Transformed into a wonderful Bliss The wind from the north wafted through my window bringing in a sweet and sour smell when I returned home after work and mum told me that I had a phone call from drama school saying that drama school sessions were suspended. I was shocked as this was my last year and we were supposed to start our end of year performance, of which I had already missed some sessions because of a motor accident I had had. Then there was silence! No phone calls. Only hearsay that tutors were flocking away from drama school! What is going to happen? This is my last year! Two weeks later a friend of mine (attending drama with me) informed me that that night we were going to decide with Mr.Azzoppardi which performance we were going to do as the final act to end our three year course. I was surprised as I did not know we had changed tutor, did not know we would change performance, did not know I had had a session the week before and did not know that tonight I had another one. “Thank God someone is going to save us!” P.S It so happened that I was unaware of the meeting due to the fact that the class was informed about it through a chain call, this very chain, however, evidently got lost somewhere along the way.

El Salvatore
I entered the black theatre (the studio at the drama school) and sitting in a circle around our salvation, found half of my class, obviously the others did not know we had a session as I myself would not have known if I was not lucky enough to talk to my friend earlier that evening. I was greeted (in a buddiesque manner….ie “Aw man int x’ismek?) By Mr.Azzoppardi whom I did not know personally but of whom I had read many of articles on papers and a person who I somewhat admired deep down. The discussion started (by now I had been engaged in a lot of past discussions with my group ….and I knew that this would not work). Mr.Azzoppardi was really concerned about, what according to him was the (quote) bullshit we had engaged in our lessons at the drama school prior to his arrival. Worthy of notice is also the fact that heartfelt thanks should go to those very few in the group for supporting him …..As we all know in the last three years the drama centre was a complete disorganized organization which led the students to “bullshit” because we were not introduced to Chekhov, Brecht, Stanislavski and Grotowski, such was Mr.Azzoppardi’s argument.

P.S I wondered how he knew what was going on at drama school as I never saw him in any of our productions, so I asked politely;

“Excuse Me.…but how would you know that all we did was bullshit, as you are saying, when you were never present at any of our presentations or workshops?”

His reply:

“U ejja Jimmy…issa ha noqoghdu infittxu x-xghara fl-ghagina wkoll, ghax qrajt fil-gazzetti…U ejja ha nahdmu min flok noqoghdu nparlaw !! “

I was amazed at his ability to convince us so quickly and smoothly, I was convinced, therefore I did not argue and replied… “Ok… He looked at me for few seconds and then smiled.

He was right, he was right indeed. Now it begins to be clearer why many people knew him with a particular nickname. I dawned upon me that this man could indeed be the god-like light we had awaited at the end of the dark tunnel we were not aware we were living in. I did not follow the discussion anymore, it was just a loop of arguments anyway, and instead I wallowed in the thought and memory of how unlucky I was to have ended up in the ‘bullshit era’. It was so obvious! After all, all we had worked on during this year was only a silly pantomime of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory with Marcelle Teuma which was an exercise on how to devise theatre, the futile extracts from Comedy of Manners with tutors Charles Sammut and John Attard, the Greek tragedy Antigone by Jean Cocteau with tutor Josette Ciappara, and the of course, the most shallow of them all was the combined project of Shakespeare and Theatre in Education with tutor Charles Sammut. These were productions which obviously encompassed “no Brecht and Grotowski”. Mr.Azzoppardi laughed at us when we told him that each one of them took us 3 months (1 school semester) to work upon and rehearse and added that when he used to be at drama school they used to do a script every week.

I asked myself how could you be introduced to all this big masters of theatre and understand their concepts in a week when accorinding to the essay in a book I borrowed from the school’s library (which was set up in the bulls hilt era) “At Work With Grotowski”, Grotowski himself expressed that a 4 week production is not enough for any actor to get into a character and find the emotions(Grotowski was against producing he had a whole process which went beyond character and emotion) How about saying:

I asked myself how effective would a one-week encounter with such masters be in such a short time….and more importantly how clearly would their concepts be impinged in our minds in such a short time. Grotowski himself, after all was against producing scripts in a superficial and fast manner with the sole purpose of producing a play at the end of the month or week. In fact he had a whole process which by the end of his career went far beyond even character and emotion and which was based on long and laborious preparation on part of the actor….which spanned a LOT more than a week.



... So listening to Mr.Azzoppardi telling us that he would make a production with us in a week or two I was really looking forward to start working with him through for this new tool, this new method which was something totally new for me.

I was once again lost in the reverie of miserable training exercises we did we had invested in during my prior two years at drama school: intensive sessions of one hour weekly of physical sessions, dancing, voice training, articulation exercises, characterization, devising texts, history of theatre. What a waste of time I was saying to me, “Why didn’t they get such a man to teach us in the last years?” I added to myself while watching him, skillfully maneuvering us towards this new philosophy. I must confess it took me sometime to be converted but at the end how could I refuse the learning of such light! All the master classes we had with artists such as Guillermo Horta, Emilie Fitzgiben (Devising a Script - Ireland), Electra Tselikas (Gdansk) Tatiana Brinkman (Amsterdam), Stephen Mottram (British sles), Ermanna Montanari and Marco Martinelli (Master Classes -Ubu Roi), Johan Wright (Archetypes –Masks – England) and Cornelia Cromholtz (Contemporary Director –Germany) Jackie Grima and Anton Farrugia (Theatre Make Up). I had also done an audition in which director Paul Portelli chose 10 students from drama school and worked with us during extra hours on physical theatre. It was all bullshit! Why am I so blind! The light is in front of me. I switched off from my past and started off in my new present. I started to pour in ideas and Mr. Azzoppardi went home to fetch a script. Il-Hajt , a socio-political script which we were supposed to do as our end of year performance. I was suddenly feeling excited. He had drive. We are working. We are saved. HALLELUJAH!!!

…. To be continued

Jimmy

Arts journalism at its best

I'm not sure who wrote this article but let's just hope that it's not the scriptwriter!

http://www.di-ve.com/dive/portal/portal.jhtml?id=181294&pid=1


On a serious note this clearly indicates how much arts journalism and criticism is taken for a ride. Some spend their time narrating the story, others tell us how varied the musical programme is going to be, others encourage us to pity them cause they perform after a 10 hour shift and others explain how 'the palk is one and a half storey high and the idea is based from musicals done abroad.' Ghax ta barra m'hawnx bhalhom! Well what's new! How many regurgitated foreign shows were produced in this year's theatre season?

toni

source: www.independent.com.mt 

vandalising our heritage

How can any human being commit such horrible acts against his/her own self, identity, heritage and Country?