In a balancing act between multiple worlds,
the tender and the sinister, the joyous and the glorious,
resplendent and melancholy as powerful, black suns, 
the Matriarchs stand as embodiments of a genealogy
forged in tumultuous waters marked by hostility, wars, deaths and setbacks,
to unleash their song-hymn-scream to life.
The Matri-archive of the Mediterranean  

Today’s archival vocation presents itself as indispensable, a conservation obsession introduced by philosopher Jacques Derrida in his seminal work, Mal d’Archive (Galilée, 1995). ‘Archive Fever’ has become a pervasive reality of our times, with the ‘patri-archive’ – the selection of texts, memories, documents and materials to be preserved and transmitted – carried out by the ‘archons’, the (male) rulers who have always safeguarded power, order and tradition.

The inaugural maltabiennale.art 2024 is set to challenge the status quo with a ‘matri-archival’ perspective, to counterbalance the patriarchal archiving conventions, with a series of questions – what transpires when an archive dedicated to women is established? How is memory transmitted along a matrilineal continuum? If the function of the archons is reimagined by the matriarchs, could this pioneering archive perhaps represent knowledge and wisdom capable of expressing ­– in a feminine manner distinct from patriarchal rigidity – community interconnectedness and ever-evolving transformations?

In collaboration with Heritage Malta, the University of Naples L’Orientale, the Centre for Postcolonial Gender Studies, and the scholars of the Matri-Archive of the Mediterranean, the first thematic section of maltabiennale.art, curated by Sofia Baldi Pighi, explores the question of the archive in the context of creativity, memory and the artistic, performative female community of the Mediterranean region. 

The Matri-archive presents itself as a radical, open archival platform for collecting and discussing  issues such as: the ability to manage and transmit knowledge through the creativity of one’s own arts; the generational transmission not only of tradition but also of trauma stemming from patriarchal control, making artistic practice a tool for exorcism, processing and healing; the celebration of the matriarchs who have paved the way for experimentation, innovation and ingenuity for generations to come; the identification of practices, styles and forms necessary for new classification, identification, preservation and transmission.

The first thematic section of the Central Pavilion of maltabiennale.art 2024 will take shape at the Grand Master’s Palace, Valletta. Built in 1571 by the Knights of St. John, it has housed the residence of the Grand Masters, the French Commander (after 1798), British Governors and the Parliament of Malta (1921-2015). Today, the palace is the office of the President of the Republic – with its imposing presence in St. George’s Square, this site, which has wielded significant influence over Maltese history for over four and a half centuries, continues to house an extensive collection of weaponry.

maltabiennale.art aims to expose this institutional seat of power to a vision of female force through an archive that is – maternal (la mère), maritime (la mer, mother earth, the motherland where one is born and also emigrates from), and material (matrix, matter, materiality), via the extraordinary creativity of women who have inhabited Mediterranean shores. This feminine puissance affirms and embodies an imaginative and transformative potency, historically open to ‘unconditional hospitality’, and thus, strongly anti-military. As we stand on the precipice of reshaping historical narratives, is not the invention of an archive capable of preserving those legacies denied, uncelebrated yet resistant, for present and future generations, both necessary and urgent?

Matria-archivio del Mediterraneo & Curatorial Team

 How often do you think about your teeth? Do you think of where they came from and how they fit (or don’t !) in your mouth? Do you appreciate the years of evolution that led to you standing here with that smile on your face? Can you remember the feeling of loosing a tooth, the new one piercing tender gums? Your caregivers daily reminder to brush them carefully? My grandmother had all her own teeth for nearly a century and I am reminded of her every time I brush my teeth.

There is an archive of information about you and your DNA in your teeth. They remain the hardest biological material and as yet cannot be regrown. Bones can heal and regenerate but the teeth you have are the ones you are born with. Enduring far beyond our mortal lifespan – archeologists find still perfect teeth over 1 million years old in the skeletons of ancient man!

Was this the tooth of a wooly mammoth, an unknown giant who built temples, or one of the many species found in the cave of ghar Dalam? What was this imprint of an ancient building bitten out of the ground– how do we perceive objects and forms in relation to our contemporary existence?

Thinking about these tidal relics of human history and the geological phenomena of the coralline limestone and fossil filled sandstone that form the strata of Malta’s topography. I propose a series of giant molars, in their fully exposed uprooted form, fabricated in strong fibreglass forms, finished in brilliant white. They maybe placed in circular array like the amphitheatre of an open mouth and also as freely moveable migrating components.

I envisaged these objects to be placed either within a closed mouth of fortified courtyard on limestone slabs, or on the living earth. Placed upon the polished limestone paving or the ancient ground, allowing these mini monoliths from our mouths to roam the terrain. 

Placed within the context of the historic Biblioteca of Valletta, these teeth sit within the archive of our collective Mediterranean history, a open place of congregation for all. Inviting a playful participatory and performative aspect they may be sat upon reminding us that we all sit upon our roots daily. Welcoming comfort, like the hearth of the elders. Yet they will also stand uprooted, individuated like the remains of lost civilisations found in fossilised fragments in ancient cliffs, pulled out of context, far from their familiar cradle, torn from their roots like a person forced to flee far from the living flesh embodied within their communities and spoken histories.

Let the teeth be set free, let them scratch at the surface of the world, taste the brittle architecture of stone and metal and connect us with our roots, the earth, our bones and flesh.