LE.IVA | Anger Is a Lazy Form of Grief

Austin Camilleri

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Solo Exhibition, 2022
Spazju Kreattiv, St James Cavalier, Valletta
24 February – 10 April 2022

Curator: Rosa Martínez
Assistant Curator: Irene Biolchini

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LE.IVA | Anger Is a Lazy Form of Grief brought together a multidisciplinary body of work by Austin Camilleri exploring the tensions between permanence and transience, power and vulnerability, destruction and creation. Moving between sculpture, installation, video and interventions in public space, the exhibition questioned established ideas of monumentality and the ways individuals and societies construct, preserve and challenge notions of legacy.

Several works confronted the language and authority of the monument directly. In Homo immortalis, the identities of powerful male figures are obscured within sculptural forms rendered in Carrara marble, unsettling conventional associations between portraiture, permanence and veneration. Elsewhere, Anger is a Lazy Form of Grief took the Royal Opera House in Valletta as both subject and material: a scale model of the building was publicly burned at the site of the present-day Teatru Rjal, transforming an object associated with collective memory into an act of deliberate destruction.

The exhibition also examined contemporary forms of heroism and their contradictions. LEAP, a monumental bronze sculpture depicting swimmer Neil Agius, was presented alongside GHOSTTRIP SERIES, works engaging with migration across the Mediterranean. The juxtaposition placed individual physical achievement against the vulnerability and often anonymous experience of those undertaking dangerous journeys across the same sea.

Extending beyond the gallery, the titular Leiva occupied the public space of Valletta. Cast in aluminium from a body cast of a twelve-year-old girl, the sculpture shifted attention away from the traditional heroic figure towards a young female presence. Inside the exhibition, the “Pink Room” brought together works, fragments and moulds in a space curator Rosa Martínez described as resembling a uterus—connecting the processes of artistic production with ideas of creation, birth and transformation.

Across these works, LE.IVA operated through oppositions rather than fixed conclusions, opening questions around gender, history, memory and the desire to leave something behind. Camilleri’s works moved between the monumental and the intimate, permanence and disappearance, inviting reflection on what societies choose to commemorate and what it might mean to create without assuming permanence.

PRESS

‘Austin Camilleri presents new works at ‘Spazju Kreattiv’ — Times of Malta, 25 February 2022. Read more.

‘Art and Migration in the Work of Austin Camilleri‘ — MOAS, 27 February 2022. Read more.

‘Le.Iva and the Point in Between‘ — Transpositions, March 2022. Read more.

‘Austin Camilleri reveals new works at Spazju Kreattiv for all those ‘judged and persecuted’ — MaltaToday, 9 March 2022. Read more.

‘A multidisciplinary exhibition asking a lot of questions‘ — Times of Malta, 13 March 2022. Read more.

‘Progetti di eroismo contemporaneo‘ — Il Giornale dell’Arte, 29 March 2022. Read more.

‘Anger, grief and other narratives‘ — Times of Malta, 3 April 2022. Read more.

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CREDITS

Special thanks

Mariella, Zac & Azia
Civil Protection Department
Cleansing and Maintenance Division
Ministry of Health (Marcelle Galea)
Neil Agius
Pjazza Teatru Rjal (Dorothy Camilleri, Christopher Muscat, Jason Pisani & Kane Pisani)
Spazju Kreattiv
Transport Malta (Michael Cohen)
Valletta Local Council (Gabriella Agius)

Simon Abdilla Joslin, Lily Agius, Stefan Aquilina, Franco Azzopardi, Joe Borg, Raymond Borg, Ian Buttigieg, Johann Buttigieg, George Camilleri, José María Cano, Alessio Cassar, Miriam Cauchi, Gordon Curmi, Anne Marie De Cesare Preca, Sandro Debono, Natalia Díez, Justin Fenech, Maria Galea, Charles Gatt, Gordon Grech, Christian Magro, John Magro, Mario Martinelli, Paul Muscat, Pedro Santamaría, Andrew Sultana, Ismael Sultana, George Tabone, Benji Tabone Grech, Martina Vella, James Vella Clark & Toyah Zammit.

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Acknowledgements

Programme

LE.IVA / Anger Is a Lazy Form of Grief was presented as part of the Spazju Kreattiv Programme 2021/2022

Co-production

Spazju Kreattiv & AUSTINCAMILLERISTUDIO

Sponsored by

VisitMalta

Supported by

Arkafort
Express Trailers
iLab Photo
Magro Group
Pictures & Frames
Recoop Ltd