Valletta

BONĠU BEJT! revolves around three characters who become stranded on a roof after a cyclone sweeps through, leaving them stuck on Peppu’s pristine roof. The flagpole in the middle of the roof is his pride and joy. Peppu, along with the fussy Tina and the acrophobic service worker, must now find a way to safely get off the roof. Their adventure on the roof is filled with thrilling acrobatics on a massive pole and a mischievous mouse that wreaks hilarious havoc on our protagonists. But how will the discovery of a mysterious egg help them find a way off the roof safely?

A hardworking Maltese fisherman, Jesmark is faced with an agonising choice. He can repair his leaky luzzu – a traditional, multicoloured wooden fishing boat – in the hopes of eking out a meagre living at sea for his wife and newborn son, just as his father and grandfather did before him. Or he can decommission it in exchange for a European Union payout and cast his lot with an illicit operation that is decimating the Mediterranean fish population and the livelihoods of the local families who depend on it.

An essential aspect of the festival involves the development of workshops centered around the audiovisual experience on board the catamaran. These workshops are designed to address three key themes: cultural diversity, environmental sustainability and gender equality. Suitable for children aged 5 to 11, the activities are inspired by an audiovisual experience highlighting artifacts from the Louvre, encouraging active engagement, conversation and participatory learning.

The first week-end of the Art Explora Festival Malta stopover, on March 23rd and 24th, will launch a new programme named “Ocean Weekends”. In Malta, these 2 days of programming will be co-curated with the Malta Biennale and the curators Sofia Baldi Pighi, Emma Mattei and Andrew Borg Wirth. The Ocean Week-end in La Valletta will invite the audience to a series of round tables, film screenings, and inspiring talks, gathering key speakers from the art and sciences worlds around the issue of ocean climate emergency.  

CAN YOU SEA? Water as a political body - The Land/Sea dialectic omnipresent in maritime anthropology - Colonialism, independence, developmental and conservation policies have all disrupted communities inhabiting maritime space.  - The concept of the sea as a human space, marked by cultural diversity, has been stubbornly resisted.  - Access, ownership and protection of the ocean by shifting the dominant western model of ideas about the sea and opening up a middle way – a space for reflection that is scientific, political, social, creative.

- All Inclusive by Corina Schwingruber Ilić, 2018 - 'If the Sun Drowned Into an Ocean of Clouds' by Wissam Chara, 2023 - Unknown Ocean by Dolphin Club, 2019