Five Italian Artists at the Malta Art Biennale

With the theme CLEAN | CLEAR | CUT, the Malta Art Biennale returns from March 14 to May 29 for its second edition, following its inaugural event in 2024. The exhibition is led by artistic director and international curator Rosa Martínez.

The biennial brings together more than 130 artists from 43 countries. Among them, five Italian artists are featured in the main exhibition: Concetta Modica, Loredana Longo, Maurizio Cattelan, Pamela Diamante and Salvatore Arancio.

Pamela Diamante presents Aesthetics of the Apocalypse (2017–2024), a project that reflects on disaster not only as a tragic event but also as an aesthetic phenomenon and a mirror of the contemporary condition. The work was first presented in 2018 at Galleria Gilda Lavia as part of the exhibition Welcome Apocalypse. The project unfolds through a series of photographic diptychs that juxtapose documentary images of catastrophic events—such as earthquakes, floods, droughts and explosions—with artworks by different artists.

Meanwhile, Salvatore Arancio presents the video installation Their Eyes Have No Lids (2019), shown at Fort St. Angelo. The work reflects on the achoque, an endangered amphibian preserved within a Dominican convent in Michoacán, Mexico. Interweaving ritual, conservation and monastic daily life, the piece draws a parallel between spiritual devotion and biological care.

Concetta Modica presents a collective action open to local residents and visitors, structured as a shared prayer centred on the artist’s book Liturgia dei sepali, created for the occasion with Silvana Editoriale. The event will take the form of an open gathering guided by a small group of choristers, while participants will follow the recitation using a trilingual breviary—in Maltese, English and Italian—distributed to the audience. Among those taking part are Maltese poet Elena Cardona and visual artist Austin Camilleri.

Loredana Longo presents The Mantle / Wearing My Loss (2002–2025). Her practice, spanning installation, sculpture and performance, explores themes of power, violence and transformation, often through the use of fire as both a performative and symbolic element.

The biennial is structured around 27 pavilions—almost double the number in the first edition—including eight national pavilions (Malta, Poland, Spain, Finland, Armenia, China, Serbia and France) alongside 19 thematic pavilions. International collaborations include the Gwangju Biennale in South Korea and the Çanakkale Biennial Initiative(CABININ).