The Agency continues to uphold standards of excellence in the various artistic and cultural events which it organises, many of which are available to be viewed through recordings and photos found on the Agency’s various social media platforms such as our Website and Facebook page.
Over the past months, one of the Agency’s most successful events was the Valletta Pageant of the Seas, which was broadcasted live on television with a very positive response from the public. This bi-annual nautical event included Tellieqa Telliqun, an entertaining race of makeshift boats, followed by a large spectacle called “Il-Mappa” which featured many sailing boats that worked in tandem to illustrate the history and traditions of the capital with the use of colourful projections, accompanied by the narratives of various people living and working in Valletta. The Valletta Pageant of the Seas can be viewed on the Television Malta Facebook page.
The Agency is presently continuing its work through its InnovAiR programme which has been reimagined in a way that allows artists to explore the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, enabling them to share their own observations. It also focuses on the short and long-term implication of the crisis on the city and its culture. A couple of entries from this programme include a stop-motion animaton by Chellcy Reitsma which you can watch on YouTube here – as well as several pictures of various sculptures by Aaron Bezzina that apply a methodology that deals with the idea of the machine through visual art as an artistic response to the pandemic. You can view it on here.
The Agency is also working on TNAX, a year-long outdoor photographic exhibition which was launched earlier this year. Featuring 12 iconic images taken by various local photograhers, each photograph is then exhibited monthly in front of St John’s Co-Cathedral. This month’s image features Taqtija by Keith Ellul. The photos are also followed up with interviews with the photographers which are regularly shown on the Agency’s Facebook page.
Amongst the various online events there is also Memorji Beltin, an online podcast created by the Valletta Cultural Agency in collaboration with Teatru Manoel and the New Victorians, which were recorded by Rebecca Camilleri and which can be found on Soundcloud. The podcast focuses on the various memories of the many residents that live within the capital city with the focus being on the Manoel Theatre. You can listen to them here.
Another event that was live-streamed on Facebook was the yearly Valletta Green Festival. The festival gave people the opportunity to enjoy the Spring activity from the comfort of their homes. It featured many potted plants that were placed in such a way that created an amazing carpet of colour in St George’s Square. You can watch the stream that showed the design on Television Malta’s Facebook page here.
For more information, visit the Valletta Cultural Agency’s Facebook page.
Written by Christopher Vassallo Laferla.
