March 13, 2024–May 31, 2025
The inaugural edition of maltabiennale.art came to an official end earlier this month, with Her Excellency the President of Malta, Myriam Spiteri Debono, hosting its closing event at Verdala Palace. Organised by Heritage Malta under the patronage of UNESCO, the biennial took place across twelve historical sites in Maltese cities between March 11 to May 31, 2024. The biennial transformed Malta into an international hub of creativity, with art and dialogue focusing on the predominant Mediterranean and Maltese themes at its core.
Over 100 artists hailing from 35 nations came together for the first edition of maltabiennale.art under artistic directorship of Sofia Baldi Pighi. The biennial also featured a number of national and thematic pavilions.
The Clean Room by Sofie Muller, displayed at the National Museum of Archeology in Valletta and commissioned by La Musée, won the prize for the best pavilion at the inaugural biennial.
Sofie Muller’s art is grounded in visceral sculpting and the incorporation of bodily fluids, exploring the essence of vulnerability. The Clean Room delves into the ethical dimensions of reproductive technology and becomes a platform for critical discourse.
Curator: Azad Asifovich
Pavilion director: Asli Samadova, vice president of La Musée (Paris)
Sofie Muller (b. 1974, Sint Niklaas) lives and works in Ghent. Her oeuvre weaves a complex narrative of body, identity, gender, and memory. Muller’s child sculptures and drawings embody mental states arising from the duality of body and mind. Articulating contradictions, exploring genetic transformation, and reflecting on themes like desire and exclusion, she delves into the human condition. Muller’s continuous exploration of individual vulnerability is supported by materials such as blood, smoke, and alabaster, bronze enriching her installations and works on paper. Her artistic pursuit strives to intimately approach human nature and the essence of life. Sofie Muller is the Laureate Royal Flemish Academy of Belgium for Science and the Arts (2018).
Upcoming exhibitions: Rebel Garden: Triënnale Bruges, (Bruges, BE), Watchmen, Fox Jensen Gallery (Sydney, AU), Lebensborn, MOCAK Museum of Contemporary Art (Krakow, PL)
Press kit here.
