ON THE 8TH FEBRUARY 2022, 18:30, ŻFINMALTA KICKS OFF ITS 3RD SEASON OF MOVIMENTO AT VALLETTA DESIGN CLUSTER (OLIVER FRIGGIERI HALL)

 

 

Guest Expert Tom Van Malderen tells us more …

WHO ARE YOU (NOW)?

I am a Malta-based artist and architect with an appetite for a diversity of work, ranging from buildings to furniture, installations, stage and exhibition design. For quite some time now I am purposely layering the intersections between art, design, and architecture to have a close look at the many ways environments are being used, and more specifically, the objects resulting from that use. I am fascinated by material gestures in everyday constellations, split personalities in objects and ambiguities in the construction of social space. Part of my work happens in my own bubbles, part of it in collaboration with different people and organisations, such as the architecture firm AP Valletta, the Kinemastik international short film festival and the contemporary art platform FRAGMENTA Malta.

 

WHAT RELATIONSHIP HAVE YOU HAD OR DO YOU HOPE TO BUILD WITH ŻFINMALTA?

It’s been a relationship on many levels. I am first and foremost an enthusiast fan and follower of the company. About two years ago, I was a dancer in a ŻfinMalta’s production, ‘Threaded Fine’ by the very inspirational Rosemary Lee who choreographed a long-durational and cross-generational sequence of solos. Almost a year ago, I was invited to design the stage for the production ‘SuperLikes’ by the fascinating Artist Núria Guiu. SuperLikes touched upon very contemporary concerns, unfolding changing moods and temperaments in an attempt to bring the internet to the stage. One day in the future I would love to be part of a ŻfinMalta production that takes the design of an environment or object as the trigger for a choreography.

 

TELL US A STORY ABOUT YOU AND DANCE.

During my final year of studies, the contemporary dance movie ‘Rosas danst Rosas’ by Thierry De Mey based on the choreography of Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker was released and totally blew me away. It took me many years before I started to understand why the movie’s sharp rhythmical editing of the choreography and architectural setting had such an impact on me. Somehow it made me realize that architecture (or space) is not only a vessel in which life happens but can be a performance of life itself, of the culture of life.

 

HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE YOUR RELATIONSHIP TO MOVEMENT (IF YOU HAVE ONE AT ALL)?

I would describe it as an indispensable relationship, active at most times. I tend to be most excited about things in motions. Be it a situation, a person, a thought, or an environment, be it an actual or potential movement, or in combination. In my projects I am interested in the shifting between moving an audience towards or arounds a space (or object) and completely immersing them. It all becomes compelling when the relationship between “looking at” and “being part of” turns ambiguous, and temporarily erases the division between subject and object. In my leisure time it is much more straightforward, put on a half-decent tune and there’s a fair chance you will get me moving.

 

WHAT ARE YOU PLANNING TO PRESENT ON THE 8th FEBRUARY AT THE VALLETTA DESIGN CLUSTER AS PART OF MOVIMENTO?

My Movimento evening will be a collection of stories on movement that stayed with me through my practice as an architect and artist. It will be an evening of object and space-oriented storytelling revolving around movement. I hope to take the audience through negative and positive space, through acts of stop and go, through social and cultural space; to look together at space describing movement and movement describing space and explore the wonderful world between making up things and the actual making.

 

WHICH THREE GESTURES/MOVEMENTS/ACTION VERBS DO YOU THINK WILL ENCAPSULATE THIS EVENT?

ON – OFF – IN  

 

ŻfinMalta’s Movimento sessions are at limited capacity therefore pre-booking is required.

 

Reserve your seat here!