A strong representation of Polish contemporary artists will appear at the Malta Biennale 2024, with the event programme announcing 80 international artists and the use of 21 historical sites. The Biennale is a new event in the cultural calendar of Europe.
Malta is a great background to address themes such as migration, identity, territorial and armed conflicts, slavery, life at the crossroads of different cultures, economic change, or social dynamics, not only in Europe. The venues chosen to exhibit contemporary art have a historically constructed backdrop for discussions at the intersection of internationally important themes. During the event, the national pavilions of Austria, China, France, Germany, Italy, Malta, Palestine, Poland, Serbia, Spain, Turkey, and Ukraine will be open to the public.
The Polish pavilion is located in the Villa Portelli and is curated by Krzysztof Stanisławski. The artists were encouraged to reflect on an archetype in European culture – the biblical story of Saint John and his death at the request of Salome. This narrative draws on Malta’s Catholic heritage and Caravaggio’s masterpiece ‘The Beheading of St John the Baptist’. In the pavilion we will see the effects of the work of Ryszard Grzyb, Zdzisław Nitka, Krzysztof Skarbek, Zbigniew Maciej Dowgiałło and Piotr Dumała.
This is not the only Polish contribution to the Malta event. The thematic pavilion ‘Other Geographies, Other Histories’ will be presented by the OmenaArt Foundation run by Omenaa Mensah. The concept was developed by Hanna Wróblewska and curated by Natalia Bradbury.
The invited artists, such as Lia Dostlieva, Barbara Falender, Iza Jagiełło, Ida Karkoszka and Aleksandra Karpowicz, create at the intersection of various specialisations starting from sculpture to installation, photography, and video. What they have in common is a bold reference to social themes, art characterised by an activist voice. Can we create a world with a different order – this is the main question behind the Polish exhibition.
Arkadiusz Słomczyński