Arcangelo Sassolino at the 59th Venice Biennale
Pavilion of Malta

23/04 - 27/11/2022

As part of the 59th International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia, the Malta Pavilion, curated by Keith Sciberras and Jeffrey Uslip, will host a project conceived by the artists Arcangelo Sassolino, Giuseppe Schembri Bonaci and the composer Brian Schembri.

The installation, entitled Diplomazija astuta, is conceived as a contemporary reinterpretation of Caravaggio’s masterpiece, La decollazione di San Giovanni Battista (1608), preserved in the Oratory of the St. John’s Co-Cathedral in La Valletta. The biblical narration intersects with a contemporary work by tracing a line of continuity in which metaphors and causes for reflection intersect in a complex network of references. The spirit that permeates the La Valletta Oratory is re-proposed in the Malta Pavilion by translating the themes present in Caravaggio’s painting into a current context with a strong emotional impact. The spectator is now called to cross a space in which the tragedy and brutality of the bloody killing of St. John are replicated in the present, in a context that combines music and phenomena related to the world of physics. The aim is to convey a fundamental message: to heal the injustices of the past in order to transmit to the future principles of rebirth and safeguarding life.

The initiative is promoted by the Arts Council Malta, under the patronage of the Ministry for The National Heritage, The Arts and Local Government