APS Mdina Biennale 2023.
Mediterranean Goddesses.

The APS Mdina Contemporary Art Biennale is now entering its fourth edition under the artistic direction of Giuseppe Schembri Bonaci. The exhibition will be open from the 13th of November until 15th December 2023.

The exhibition will be re-igniting the significance of the Mediterranean as a geographical and cultural region, this time harking back to the multi-forms of mythological, religious, and spiritual deities. Hence the theme title of "Mediterranean Goddesses".

The theme of spiritual and species fertility, so rich within the concentrated Mediterranean soil and sea, can, albeit its utopian sub-text, offer an alternative to the political reality plaguing our world today. This notion develops upon the theme of the 2020 Mdina Biennale: "Regaining a Paradise Lost: The Role of the Arts", and that of the 2017 edition: "The Mediterranean: A Sea of Conflicting Spiritualities".

​The act of harking back to divinity, in whatever form, can be a modest but strong aesthetic reply to today's real apocalyptic planetary danger. It is a fascinating fact that throughout humankind's history, all Mediterranean hubs offered powerful mythological and religious forms related to fertility and to the defence and salvation of humankind. The twenty-first century is no different.

An international conference focusing on Mediterranean Modern art will be organised in collaboration with the APS Mdina Contemporary Art Biennale, offering an opportunity for academics, researchers, and artists to engage with the history of Mediterranean Modern art and with the exhibition theme. The conference will be held on the 28th November, 2023.

Interested applicants are invited to send proposals of between 250-300 words for papers of 2.500-4.000 words in length. Paper subjects must focus on twentieth and twenty-first century visual art and theory in relation to the stipulated theme.
The length of the final paper is to be stated in the proposal.
An updated CV is also required.

The essays will be featured in a monograph dedicated to discussing the exhibition theme as an accompaniment to the exhibition.

Submissions are to be sent to infomdinabiennale.com by Friday 24th March, 2023.

The APS Mdina Biennale is organised in partnership with Changing Gear. Changing Gear is a research project focusing on the Modern Art of the Mediterranean region which is run by the Modern and Contemporary Art section within the Department of Art and Art History, University of Malta. For more information please visit the website: https://www.changinggearmed.com/

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