Mdina Cathedral Contemporary Art Biennale

The Mdina Cathedral Contemporary Art Biennale, scheduled between 13 November 2015 and 7 January 2016, will establish a spiritual space celebrating creativity. It will create a stimulating modern environment, in which different works of art by artists from diverse cultural backgrounds are displayed together under one theme. The theme for 2015 is 'Christianity, Spirituality and the Other', 'The Other' standing for faith and non-faith, belief and non-belief, theist and atheist, agnostic and polytheist.

The Mdina Biennale traces its roots back to the previous Christian and Sacred Art Biennale of the 1990s, and the forthcoming 2015 event will radically widen its creative spectrum. The idea that all art is spiritual remains the central concept. This thematic approach is profoundly important for a complete appreciation and understanding of the event. It plays a central role in the Artistic Director's concept and to establish the Mdina Cathedral Contemporary Art Biennale as a spiritual space of and for creativity.

Dr Giuseppe Schembri Bonaci, the Artistic Director, graduated from the University of Malta, the State University of Kiev, and the State University of Moscow. He also did postgraduate research at the State University of Milano. He specialised in Law, Philosophy and the Arts. Dr Schembri Bonaci is currently senior lecturer in the Department of History of Art, University of Malta. Besides being the author of several academic research publications he is also an artist who has exhibited in various Maltese and international venues and galleries.

Schembri Bonaci says, "Many have expressed surprise at the fact that I'll be heading the Biennale this time around, as I've always been quite vocal about my anti-clerical leanings! People have been bemused by this even when looking at my own work. 'If you're so critical of the Church, why do you insist on painting crucifixes?', they would ask. But the fact is that - whether I agree with its tenets or not - Christianity is very much part of the culture I grew up in, so it will inevitably inform my work.

"With the Biennale, what I really want to do is create a bridge with the past and the present. I'm not interested in accepting mediocre religious work - but high quality work which is also thought provoking."

The 2015 Biennale will unashamedly declare all art to be spiritual, in the sense that creative depiction, actions and events, through their intrinsic character, reflect the individual's relation with reality, and with his or her own existence. Hence such creative acts are necessarily spiritual, independent of their ostensible devoutness, independent of a faith or lack of faith, independent of their allegiance to any particular faith, or to none.
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Joseph Fenech - Credo.