The first edition of maltabiennnale.art aims to examine the Mediterranean from an insular perspective; being surrounded by sea drastically alters one’s vantage point and response. Through insular thinking, it becomes evident that the Mediterranean basin has two shores—it is both Southern Europe and Northern Africa, a meeting of Orient and Occident, a confluence of East and West. Entitled ‘white sea…’ (baħar abjad), employing the Semitic and Ottoman archaic definition of the Mediterranean, this inaugural edition

What could be more motivating than facilitating the possibility of actualising ‘common places’ where social urgencies and art may intersect, affect and transform? Where the contentions of  economics, migration, education, racism and indigeneity are re-contextualised within a benign, fluid, ever-expandable and unconfined space? To move through and beyond, with the hope of finding a ‘common place’, where the focus shifts towards something other, unimagined and as yet, unrealised? For Italian philosopher Paolo Virno, the ‘special

maltabiennale.art 2024 seeks to suggest and manifest broad, peripheral, mythological narratives that augment the stories that have shaped Maltese culture in its Mediterranean context. The idea is to think of Malta not just as a geographic observatory, but also a cultural one. The venues chosen for the Biennale lend themselves poignantly for this scope. Imbued with their own multiple histories and shifting cultural significance, also through their emblematic architectural and spatial qualities and materiality –

Elisa Carollo is an Italian art advisor, curator, and USPAP-compliant appraiser based in the US, NYC. I believe that this Biennale can be a great opportunity for both Malta, and all the artists involved.  The richly multilayered history of the island, its cultural and geopolitical role and position through centuries, and the great set of mythology and mysterious stories surrounding it, will certainly provide a unique ground for international artists to engage with this rich