I have been following the fortunes of MICAS since it was first mentioned in the press around 2018. When I first visited the huge space in Floriana, behind the police headquarters, I was surprised. I had no idea that such a place existed. It was immediately obvious that it had been there for ages and in spite of some old, rusty Nissan huts, the place oozed history.
Throughout the 1700s, the same area now housing MICAS became the first state-run institution for the elderly – the Hospice. It was set up by Manoel de Vilhena, the popular Portuguese Grandmaster. Before that it was a gunpowder factory. Eventually it was used by the British troops as Army Ordinance stores till the 1960s. I once saw Muslims praying there, so there must have been a mosque.
What does MICAS stand for? So, I asked Phyllis Muscat, MICAS executive chair, a woman of action and few words who had built up her own successful business from scratch: “Malta International Contemporary Art Space. Malta has now taken a great step forward and become a proactive player in the contemporary art world,” she told me as three of us were greeted by her, one afternoon earlier this week.
“Artists have constantly complained that in Malta there is no museum for contemporary art. How happy they must now be with MICAS, the only purpose-built museum on the Maltese islands and dedicated to contemporary art,” she said, looking pleased with what had been achieved by herself and her team.
In May this year we celebrated Floriana’s 300 years of existence. I found it of some significance that MICAS was launched in this very year.
The Floriana fortifications were an architectural masterpiece. These massive bastions were reinforced by ravelins, cavaliers, counter guards and curtains. The works on the fortifications extended over four kilometres. I love the way the designers of the four-story building incorporated it with the Pietro Paolo Floriani’s fortifications. It would not have been the same without that old limestone, that patina of age. This is
repurposed military architecture at its best. I wish Floriani could see it. He left Malta in a huff. Let me quote Prof. Quentin Hughes whom I had interviewed all those years ago, an expert on military history in Malta and at one time head of the department of architecture at our University. “… he was in a bad temper, holding in contempt those who had opposed his plans. In deep disgust, and feeling that he had been maligned by certain persons who were envious of his renown and reputation, he left Malta.” Perhaps the way his fortifications have been used to enhance this new and important building would put him back into a good mood. Floriani’s plans may have been criticised but let us not forget that he had criticised the Laparelli fortifications on five scores…
As soon as you enter MICAS grounds, after negotiating an old and narrow archway which cannot and should not be demolished, you will be faced with a specially-commissioned work by the eminent British contemporary artist Conrad Shawcross – Beaconsa series of colourful, rotating discs mounted on stainless and galvanised steel masts at 7.5 metres in height. It’s gigantic. You cannot miss it.
Our guide was a Frenchman who has been in Malta for some 23-years. Guillaume Dreyfuss is Manager (Exhibitions). He escorted us and explained and was patient with us. He enthusiastically pointed out details we would have missed without his guidance.
Transcending the Domesticis the name of the exhibition which launched the opening. The artworks are by the Portuguese conceptual artist Joana Vasconcelos. She was recently commissioned to outfit the stage for Christian Dior’s 2023-2024 Paris Fashion Week show.
I have seen photos of some of the installations brought out to launch MICAS but photos are one thing but seeing them at close quarters is another matter altogether. There are embroidered, crotcheted and knitted elements. Guillaume told us that the artist has an atelier, which operates from Lisbon, of around 60 workers who come from different nationalities and cultural backgrounds. During Covid shut down she borrowed money so she could go on paying these experienced and gifted craftspeople who are essential to her creations.
Joana is a world artist. She was the youngest artist and first woman to exhibit at Versailles Palace; in 2012 her exhibition was the most visited in France in 50 years, with a record 1.6 million visitors. In 2018 she became the first Portuguese artist to have a solo show at the Guggenheim Bilbaothe fourth best that year for The Art Newspaper and the third most visited in the history of the museum. Last year she was granted the honour to exhibit at the Uffizi Galleries and Pitti Palacein Florence, alongside classical masters such as Leonardo Da Vinci, Michelangelo or Caravaggio.
MICAS was launched with this colourful and exuberant exhibition. The children, too, will love it. There are three of Vasconcelos’s major works – Tree of Life, The Garden of Eden and Valkyrie Mumbet.
Tree of Life is magnificent. It is over 13 metres high and consists of over 110,000 hand-made embroidered textile leaves, created using a traditional Portuguese technique, it left us breathless. Truly a stunner.
Garden of Eden is another installation which was produced using artificial flowers emerging from cylinders coated in black Lycra. Inside the cylinders, lights, synchronous motors and transparent polychrome discs rotate, activating a light conducting effect similar to that produced by optical fibre, generating stunning colour variations and an illusion of movement resembling insects or a light breeze. A fairytale ambience.
We walked though the paths of this wondrous low-tech Eden with its artificial flowers and in the light that brightens them. It is presented in a daylight deprived indoor space and brings forth the mechanical sound of hundreds of motors.
Valkyrie Mumbet integrates the Valkyrie series, initiated in 2004, inspired by the powerful female characters of Norse mythology that fly over battlefields on winged horses and bring the bravest warriors back to life to serve as gods. Constructed with everyday non-precious materials this is another of the artist’s creations of monumental scale and significance. It looks like a colourful huge spider or a giant octopus.
I urge you to go to MICAS. I believe the present exhibition closes in March. Don’t miss it. There will be others of course.
The shop is full of work by Maltese artists and soon the coffee shop will open. Parking seems to be no problem.
Do go and visit this happy place. Let us encourage those who worked so hard to create it.
For further information, tickets and opening times go to Micas.art or to their page on Facebook. It is closed on Mondays.
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