MERĦBA – Welcome

to the 25th Expressive Arts Spring Symposium, hosted in MALTA by Anna Fenech, M.A. Expressive Arts Therapy, with back up from Melinda A. Meyer on behalf of the Norwegian Institute for Expressive Arts and Communication and Margo Fuchs Knill on behalf of The European Graduate School of Switzerland. This year’s theme ‘ALICE’S ADVENTURES IN UNDERLAND’ takes us down the rabbit hole into the underworld to explore the unknown with the same curiosity and passion that Alice had for novelty in her journey to Wonderland. It is an honour to have the opportunity to prepare the ground for what will be a great celebration of Life and Art. Like Alice, it all starts with a dream and it is through dreams that the future comes into existence. This year we celebrate 25 years of Art and Ritual primarily lived through the experience of Community in Expressive Arts. We celebrate the integrated arts as a developing field that continues to spread as its seeds are embedded in fertile ground. The Symposium is an opportunity for us, like Alice, to enter the underworld, to explore and to play, to grasp the moment of time, the Kairos, and to emerge from such wonder transformed. It is designed to facilitate interdisciplinary exchanges and is an invitation to place art-making at the centre of our human existence; to help shape our world and to search for good forms for our experience. The story of evolution is written in the many layers within the rocks that form the caves and temples in Malta. The story of being human also lies in our unique layers textured by the experience of each of our encounters over time and is itself timeless. The Symposium is open to all those who wish to experience the power of the arts in human existence. I invite you to join in this adventure, to open yourselves up to the experience of play and art-making, knowing full-well that the destination lies in the journey.

The teachers of the Symposium are internationally-known leaders in the field of expressive arts. Each day participants will begin with community art sessions and then engage in art-making through various art medias such as movement, visual arts, music, theatre and song. Shaping is innate in us and we all possess the capacity to shape and to respond to the world around us. The different workshops provides a safe space to explore the relation between the different art modalities that serves to extend our range of play, bringing deeper insight.

Anna Fenech
Organiser

Oh! A Mad Tea Party?

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Ghar Dalam, The Cave of Darkness

Since its discovery, Ghar Dalam has become one of Malta’s most important national monuments since it dates back to the Pleistocene period and provides and in depth study of fauna in an interrupted sequence of 180,000 years. The first human remains dating back 7400 years were found in this cave. It is around 144m long and only the first 50m are accessible to the general public. Beyond this point the cave becomes very narrow and low. The chambers that exist beyond the first 85m are in perpetual darkness.

Ghar Dalam will also be the back drop for the start of the Symposium and will give us the opportunity to enter the cave of darkness and to explore this space with movement and sound.

Click here to read more about the theme of the symposium.

Hagar Qim Temples

‘Hagar Qim Temples are unusual because they stand on the crest of a ridge, while most other temple sites, including Mnajdra, are found on the slopes below the hilltop. As a result, the main temple building at Hagar Qim appears to look out in all directions. Apart from the entrance in the main facade it has a number of other doorways giving access to different parts of the building, as well as an external niche. These elements are not common to other temple buildings and seem to be a direct result of the site’s relationship with its landscape.’ Katya Stroud, Curator

A Scientific Committee was set up to assess the serious problems causing severe deterioration of the Temples. Today steel arches support the shelter that was designed to protect the stone from the harmful effects of direct solar radiation and rain, which caused the collapse of some megaliths during the 1990s.

Special Evening

The Temples are silent and dark after sundown. Weather-permitting, we will have the privilege to enjoy an extraordinary evening at Hagar Qim with a solo performance by our guest musician Renzo Spiteri. The setting will be breath-taking and although the temples are now covered, it only adds to the mystery and splendor as they are lit up at night. This performance is exclusive for our symposium participants and their guests.

Don’t Be Late

Look out – you may run out of time!