Strand London WC2R
London 1 LA United Kingdom
United Kingdom
‘URNA’ to represent Malta at the London Design Biennale 2025.
Arts Council Malta will be once again returning to the London Design Biennale, in 2025, this time with the selected project URNA.
URNA is an innovative project exploring the fascinating and distinctive subject of cremation. This project perfectly exemplifies and merges design innovation and creativity. It is bold, stimulating and far-reaching, beyond the idea of simply “art”. It is a design for the community and challenges the status quo on interment, while offering a solution that is both poetic, intellectually stimulating and environmentally engaging. It should serve as the starting point for much discussion.
URNA introduces a new ritual for handling human remains, anticipating the adoption of cremation in the Maltese Islands and envisioning it as a culturally significant process. The project redefines the columbarium, ossuary, and wake to re-establish death as a significant ceremony, unburdened by unnecessary signifiers.
The Team
Andrew Borg Wirth
Curator/Architect Andrew Borg Wirth (b.1993) He has curated exhibitions at Valletta Contemporary, the Malta Society of Arts and Malta’s National Centre for Creativity, amongst a number of other site-specific projects both in Malta and overseas.
Anthony Bonnici
Architect/Designer Anthony Bonnici (b.1990, Malta). He was responsible for international projects and led the realisation of the CELINE Flagship Store in Miami and the Pearling Site Entrance and Museum in Bahrain. For the last years at the office, Bonnici was the lead architect dealing with all projects for Kanye West, including his private residence.
Tanil Raif
Architect/Design, Tanil Raif is a Cypriot designer currently obtaining his master’s degree in architecture at the Harvard graduate school of design. His interest is within the intersection of primitive futurism and computational design.
Matthew Attard Navarro
Art Director, Matthew Attard Navarro (b.1987) is a London based multi-disciplinary art director, combining mediums such as photography and design through his personal practice.
Anne Immelé
Photographer Anne Immelé, (b.1972, Mulhouse, France) Ph.D. is a photographer and exhibition curator based in Mulhouse, France. Her photographs examine the myriad of dimensions to our relationship with the territory: geographical, human and social, as well as memorial and poetic.
Stephanie Sant
Filmmaker Stephanie Sant is a Maltese filmmaker, writer and performer self-described as a pluridisciplinary poet. She has collaborated as a performer with Olivier de Sagazan on two of his creations, Hybridation and La Messe de L’Âne which both tour overseas continuously.
Thomas Mifsud
Junior Architect Thomas Mifsud (b.1996, Malta) is an architect and multi-disciplinary creative. Driven by a passion for the visual and literary arts, he has established a cultural position as a project-oriented artist, exploring place-making, collective memory and historiography through photography and poetry.
Malta’s participation at the London Design Biennale
Arts Council Malta, under the auspices of the Ministry for National Heritage, the Arts and Local Government, has been entrusted to act as the Commissioner and the Contracting Authority of Malta’s participation at the London Design Biennale in 2025. Dr Romina Delia, International Executive at Arts Council Malta shall lead the project, supported by Celine Portelli (Coordination) and Dr Frank Psaila (PR & Marketing International Projects).
The fifth London Design Biennale will take place from 5-29 June 2025. Samuel Ross was announced as the artistic director of the London Design Biennale 2025 and the theme will be ‘Surface Reflections’, exploring how ideas are shaped equally by internal experiences and external influences.
The Evaluators, on behalf of Arts Council Malta for the selection of the Malta Pavilion at the London Design Biennale 2025 where:
Angela Bourderye-Munoz, cultural diplomacy expert, currently serving as the External Relations and Events Manager at London Design Biennale since 2022.
Adrian Mamo, architect and current artistic director of Teatru Manoel, Malta’s national theatre.
Andre Pizzuto, President of the Council of the Maltese Chamber of Architects & Civil Engineers.
The evaluation session was moderated by Dr Romina Delia, Internationalisation Executive at Arts Council Malta