In celebration of the 20th anniversary of the reimagining of St James Cavalier as a centre for creativity, Spazju Kreattiv presents Project XX. The exhibition explores the building’s recent past as a British Armed Forces NAAFI outlet, a government printing press as well as its transformation into a centre for creativity. The timeline is articulated through oral history accounts and visual documentation.

Pierre Portelli’s Insights • Time, light and shadow (Chapters 1 & 2) is inspired by the sundial, one of humankind’s oldest astronomical instruments, that with its fine-line components, casts shadows to mark moments in time. Utilising the multilayered history of the building, the work explores the ecologies of power, through intersections of past, present and still to be created futures.

In a first for Spazju Kreattiv, the on-site exhibition will be interpreted as a virtual walk-through experience for greater accessibility and to share with the wider online community. This project will also include a series of interviews with some of the main stakeholders in the development of St James Cavalier into a centre for creativity which is part of an ongoing archival project that Spazju Kreattiv has undertaken in order to increase the appreciation of Spazju Kreattiv’s legacy as well as the contemporary creative sector.

ARTIST
Pierre Portelli

COLLABORATORS
Department of Public Work at the Ministry for Transport, Infrastructure and Capital Projects’, the National Archives of Malta, Chris Gatt, Dr Toni Sant, Architect Jing Yao Xu and Prof. Richard England, Government Printing Press, PBS Archives, Dr Georgina Portelli.