Past Continuous

- This event has passed.
Past Continuous
What significance does the word ‘archive’ have in our contemporary and digitally connected world? And how can artistic practice engage modern technologies to instil new meaning in archival material? A new body of work by artist Alex Urso takes these questions as a starting point, revisiting and reinterpreting material found in the Magna Żmien archive.
Urso lends materiality to the digital, endowing a three-dimensionality through installations and interactive collage. Imagery familiar to Maltese audiences – 20th century streetscapes, everyday scenes and portraits – are re-imagined and re-contextualised in a multiplicity of still and moving images. This exhibition – part of ŻiguŻajg Festival – also speaks to a multi-generational audience, allowing the past to travel towards us, and making scenes from the past accessible to 21st century eyes. Still and moving images fade in and out like pulsing objects, hundreds of paper cubes accumulate in a physical manifestation of digital images, and already lived lives are brought to life through augmented reality.
ARTIST
Alex Urso
SOUND
Yasmin Kuymizakis
CURATOR
Margerita Pulè
Valletta Design Cluster Discussion
Ticket Information
Venue Information
Past Continuous Collage Workshops
Dates and time
Sunday 7th November 2021, 10:30am
Sunday 7th November 2021, 12pm
Number of participants: 10 per workshop
Ticket Price: €3 per child (includes admission of 2 accompanying adults)
Location: Atrium, Spazju Kreattiv.
Discover the freedom of collage and image-making, with fragments of archival images from the Magna Żmien collection, combined with images from magazines, newspapers and your own photos and drawings. Through this hour-long workshop, children and their families can explore the connections between the past and the present, merging images from the 20th century with contemporary or fantastical images. Each participant will develop their own collage to take home with them.
The workshops will be given by artist Alex Urso, and alongside his exhibition Past Continuous, taking place at Space A, Spazju Kreattiv.
Age: the workshops are suitable for children aged 7+, along with their older siblings, parents, grandparents or guardians.
Please bring with you: Your own pair of scissors, one or two photos of yourself and your family that you don’t mind cutting up, and any brightly coloured old magazines you might have.
Duration: 60min