MICAS: Malta opens its first national contemporary arts museum

“It’ll be so fascinating to see how the public are going to approach it, because they’ve never experienced anything quite like this,” says Devaney. 

Indeed, watching as fireworks thundered over the 17th-century fortifications on the edge of Valletta – where MICAS now finds its home – in celebration of the museum’s opening on Friday night (25 October), something felt very clear: whatever your feelings on the importance of contemporary art, this was a big moment for art in Malta.

Together with Maltese Prime Minister Robert Abela and Minister for the National Heritage, the Arts and Local Government Owen Bonnici, as well as MICAS executive chairperson Phyllis Muscat, acclaimed Portuguese artist Joana Vasconcelos opened the space with her exhibition ‘Transcending the Domestic’. 

The show features her signature large-scale installations – which the artist encouraged visitors to get up close and personal with, imploring them to feel the textures of her colossal suspended Valkyrie Mumbet (2020) installation and towering Tree Of Life (2023), with its 110,000 hand-stitched fabric leaves – and a palpable sense of fun, something Vasconcelos uses as an entryway to tackle deeper topics: here, for example, climate change, Portugal’s role in the transatlantic slave trade, and the connection of the earthly to the spiritual.

“MICAS symbolises the collective progress of this country, and now I believe it is part of the quality leap we have achieved in these last years, with a cultural platform for art, that sends out our message of faith in artists, who will document our history with their work,” Prime Minister Abela said at the opening. “Thanks to this progress, Malta can truly be a centre for artistic creativity in the Mediterranean, and a natural home for artists.”

For her part, Devaney brings a wealth of experience to her role at MICAS after 20 years as senior curator at London’s Royal Academy of Arts and two years managing the David Hockney Foundation and David Hockney Inc. in Los Angeles.

She spoke with Euronews Culture about her hopes for the project’s impact, building a contemporary art space amidst centuries-old heritage architecture, and the joys and challenges of working in a new context.

Euronews Culture: It would be great to hear more about the goals of MICAS as you see it – is it mainly about putting the island on the international art map, or perhaps providing the Maltese community with access to world-class art?

Edith Devaney: Of course, it’s partly about having a platform for contemporary art and being a world player. My reading of it is that the government – who invested €23 million in the project, bolstered by over €9 million of EU funding – has understood very clearly that it’s a very important thing to do in terms of having a cultural presence. For this very small country that’s part of the European Unionto have a stronger cultural presence is a very positive thing. 

It was always very clear, as it is in the name, that the international element was very important. I read that as a kind of commitment to showing international artists and being a player in the international stage, but also contextualising Maltese contemporary art in a broader setting.

On the other hand, it’s also a heritage project, as we’re on a historical site: money has been spent restoring the walls and some of the arches underneath the fortifications, for example.

Speaking of the site, why was it chosen and did working on a heritage site present any particular challenges? Has there been opposition to MICAS taking over such a site?

Public space is very limited in Malta – it’s completely beautiful, but very constrained. So the fact that we’ve got so much space is wonderful. Above us, there’s the police headquarters, below us in the harbour there’s the navy, and we’re flanked by these fortification walls – so we’re also very well protected! What’s amazing to me is that it’s just ten minutes’ walk from the centre of Valletta. If there is opposition, I haven’t heard it.

The building itself is not huge because it’s constrained by the fortifications, but we’re also creating a sculpture garden and a restaurant space upstairs – this means that, although we can’t afford to make the exhibitions free, we’re able to have a free public offering. At the moment, we’re showing sculptures by British artist Conrad Shawcross, which are free for people to come and see. I’m very conscious of that balance.

We haven’t put walls in to hang any paintings, so it’s really raw. You can see all of the excavated walls, which is kind of beautiful. To have Joana there, who doesn’t need walls for her work felt like such a great way to launch so that the public who are paying for this building are able to come in and see what’s been done so that they can kind of glory in the art.

And how did you come to choose Joana Vasconcelos as the first show? 

I first saw her work at the Venice Biennale in 2005, when she did The Bride – that big chandelier made of tampons. It was the piece that everyone was talking about, and so I followed her after that. 

When I was thinking of the opening show and wanting to create a real attraction for tourists and the local population alike, I was also thinking of how we can connect contemporary art with elements of Maltese traditions. She was kind of an obvious person – Joana is very adept at working with communities, and her work is very much based around craft. There’s a history of lace making here, as there are in many European communities, which links well. And just the kind of sheer exuberance and colour is, I hope, going to be really interesting and attractive for the public here. But Joana also really gets space and is able to show her work in slightly impossible places – the brief was also to explore this new, unusual space.

But I think sometimes she’s not given enough credit as a conceptual artist, so I wanted to pull that out of her work as well: teasing out her engagement with the spiritual and the domestic – the difficulty of this human existence – and how we have to hold these two things in a kind of balance in our lives.

After Joana’s show, MICAS will host ‘Malta in Focus’, celebrating the country’s leading contemporary artists. How did you go about selecting the artists (who include Caesar Attard, Austin Camilleri, Joyce Camilleri and Anton Grech)?

The first project we did before the actual opening was an online exhibition, ‘Between Sea and Land’. I got an external curator to come in and we selected Maltese artists who had some exposure internationally – 15 of them, all together. That was a great way for me to get to know them, and I thought some of them were so strong that I really wanted to show their works [offline]. This will be the first time that Maltese artists collectively are shown on this platform, so I really want to celebrate some of the best art being made here. There is certainly a mix of generations – the oldest is nearly 80 and the youngest is in their early 40s, but they are all established artists – and there will be a variety of media, although there’s some particularly strong painting that goes on here.

How has your experience been working in Malta – what drew you to the project, and how have you dealt with getting to know this new context?

I hadn’t had any experience of Malta before, but I was introduced to the board members – including Phyllis Muscat,  Georgina Portelli and Francis Sultana – and we got on really well. I was also fascinated by this idea of a ‘startup’, because it doesn’t happen often. I did some talks and agreed to chair the creative committee, and later to be the artistic director. 

Although I don’t live in Malta, I’m there for a week every month and speak with the team every day. I’m always just delighted to be here – I almost have to pinch myself. On the other hand, in a way, if my role is as artistic director to connect Malta and MICAS to the rest of the contemporary art world, I’m much better off in London than being in Malta – as beautiful as it is!

I’m used to London, New York and Paris – this is a small island, and that changes things. But I say I’m an outsider and, naively, I don’t want to know too much about the politics, because to be a serious contender on the world stage, you cannot get too bogged down in it. I often defer to my colleagues because they do know the context but for me, in my role, I just need to have a really clear vision.

What are your hopes for MICAS, in terms of how it is received by the public and its role on the Maltese arts landscape?

I think it’ll be so fascinating to see how the public are going to approach it, because they’ve never experienced anything quite like this.

It’s really important for us that we bring the public on board because, although it’s something that’s going to be part of the cultural tourism offering that Malta has, it’s also got to appeal to the public here and we have to be sensitive to their needs and likes. They’re the ones that are going to give it life – it’s for them.

I felt  that it was really important that we announce the programme for a couple of years so that we’re not solely defined by our first exhibition, as great as it is! I want to make sure that people understand the level of ambition, and also the Maltese aspect of the project.

Another exciting thing is thinking how MICAS can be seen as a catalyst for local artists to be able to push themselves to different levels – there really is a strong art scene here, and getting to know it, and thinking about the future, has been a real joy.

‘Joana Vasconcelos: Transcending the Domestic’ runs at Malta International Contemporary Arts Space (MICAS) until 27 March 2025.