UN/MUTE

UN/MUTE is an international group exhibition of collaborative works by 28 artists across multiple disciplines, including Maltese artists. On view at the Austrian Cultural Forum New York and Undercurrent, the exhibition is the culmination of an 18-month-long project that was launched in 2020 to provide European and NYC-based artists an opportunity for critical exchange and collaboration during the COVID-19 global pandemic.

Four Maltese artists participated in the group exhibition un/mute, whose participation is funded and co-ordinated by Arts Council Malta with the kind support of the Permanent Representation of the Republic of Malta to the UN. 

un/mute is the physical manifestation of online conversations among strangers who became collaborators. What began as abstract, ephemeral and digital are now 14 tactile, analog and concrete artworks presented across two locations. The artists confronted the parameters imposed by the lockdowns and each team found creative solutions that we might all learn from. The common thread that runs through the sculptures, installations, films, drawings, photographs and performances is the importance of language. 

The four Maltese participating artists (who collaborated with other international artists for this project), are:

Aaron Bezzina (Malta) + Kyle Hittmeier (NY): Double Catapult and Andromeda
Throughout the pandemic, our virtual worlds might as well have been infinite space, distanced by the experience of our lives existing solely online. The sculptural works of Aaron Bezzina and Kyle Hittmeier create a space of rehabilitation, seizing humour, duality, and time. Ironically, these medieval, war-like sculptures of a double catapult and digitally rendered flags, germinated from conversations about space and post-intimacy. Made from readily available lumber and fasteners, Bezzina’s hand built, primitive catapult opposes another one, where two individuals can sit, face to face—eye to eye, one can also imagine two laptops facing one another. 

Alex Camilleri (Malta) + Terttu Uibopuu (Estonia)
From a shared love of documentary film and photo, Alex Camilleri and Terttu Uibopuu present 76% Humidity, Chance of Rain, a film that celebrates the beauty in our daily lives. The rustle of flags, walking down the street with a loved one, a child blowing bubbles, the delicious anticipation of waiting for takeout—all are examples of the small moments we perhaps once took for granted. The film is a co-authored poem of observational videos, a city symphony. Utilizing a two-channel format and connected through sound, the images are in dialogue, then in conflict; they sync, then one takes over; they clash, then harmonize.  The film is both an example of, and a metaphor for, the process of collaboration. Through the artists’ shared visual language, they create a bridge between cultures, spoken languages, artistic mediums and physical space. 

Mariella Cassar-Cordina and Tricia Dawn Williams (Malta) + Nicola Ginzel (Austria): Sonos Civitatem MMXX 
Composer Mariella Cassar-Cordina and mixed media installation artist Nicola Ginzel explore the physicality of their respective mediums in their artistic practices. “Sonos Civitatem MMXX” is a collaborative film that brings together Ginzel’s frottage works and Cassar-Cordina’s textured musical language. The piece is an organic dialogue via Zoom. The artists investigate how to communicate the tactile into the ephemeral and then into a mediated piece that harkens back to the analog and concrete. Maltese pianist Tricia Dawn Williams then brings everything together by playing Cassar-Cordina’s notes as Ginzel’s works are displayed above her. 

Co-curated by Daina Mattis and Melinda Wang
Organized by EUNIC NY in collaboration with Undercurrent NY

About EUNIC New York
Created in 2007, the New York cluster of EUNIC, bringing together around 40 cultural missions from the European Union, is working in partnership to strengthen the transatlantic dialogue and cultural cooperation and showcase European values and creativity. Arts Council Malta has been a member of this cluster for several years.