Malta Biennale Artistic Director Rosa Martínez believes that artistic intervention must leave traces that matter not in physical permanence, but in the debates and changes it provokes. She speaks to Ramona Depares about the political issues that shape her curatorial practice.
For Rosa Martínez, the goal of the second Malta Biennale is not to create a decorative spectacle, but to propose new ways of thinking and feeling. The Artistic Director’s insistence on ethics, context and responsibility sits uneasily with those more used to viewing contemporary art just as a display, but her approach is clear.
“Clean | Clear | Cut is an invitation to rethink not only what is presented in the Biennale, but how we perceive and engage with the world itself – both the real art world in which we live, with all its injustices and wonders, and the art world, with all the power games that play out within it,” she says.
The three words are deliberately framed as verbs. They articulate a sequence of actions intended to confront the conditions of our time. To clean, Rosa Martínez explains, is to acknowledge and release the accumulation of environmental, ethical, and aesthetic noise that clouds both our senses and our judgment.
“This is not a metaphorical cleansing, but a rigorous process of confronting what pollutes shared existence. To clear is the willingness to create space for discernment, to work actively against confusion and misinformation, and to cultivate critical understanding,” she continues.
These two actions, she insists, are as much curatorial acts as they are human: learning to see without distortion and to listen without distraction. The third action upon which rests the theme of the Malta Biennale is the most decisive.
“To cut, requiring a break with ossified structures, a rethinking of habits of thought, and the opening of paths that were previously obscured. In the context of an exhibition unfolding across a rich constellation of heritage sites, these three verbs urge reflection on what must be let go, reconfigured, or radically reconsidered – both in art and in society,” she states.
That ethical insistence carries through Rosa Martínez’s understanding of what a biennale should do at a moment she describes as environmentally, economically, and politically toxic. She is explicit about her earlier statement, that the Malta Biennale is not conceived as a decorative spectacle, but as an ethical and aesthetical proposition.
Art, she argues, can be reactive, but it must mainly be responsive: engaging with the complexities of the present without retreating into irony, comfort, or superficial decoration.
“Urgency does not depend on volume or scale, but on the clarity and depth of ethical and aesthetic engagement. The world is shaped by environmental degradation, economic inequity, and disinformation. The Biennale positions art as a tool for critical reflection, ethical inquiry, and shared understanding. Embedded in meaningful contexts, it can contribute to imagining new forms of collectivity and care,” she elaborates.
For Rosa Martínez, a biennale is never an end in itself. It is more of a social field of encounter, one that can help create a better world by facilitating modes of engagement that are generative rather than consumptive, spaces in which complexity is acknowledged rather than simplified.
Her approach to artistic directorship is, by necessity, political. Crucially, it is not a slogan, but rather a sustained questioning of the conditions under which art is produced, circulated, and received. As a feminist, she stresses that the personal is politic.
“The organisation and distribution of power in the domestic sphere is a clear symbol of how women’s capacity to decide over their own bodies is constrained through ideological control,” she notes.
The political issues that shape her curatorial practice are those that structure life itself: inequality, ecological crisis, histories of domination, and the intersections of knowledge and power. Without forgetting the possibility of creating, understanding and enjoying new forms of beauty. To curate, for Rosa Martínez, is to take responsibility for these entanglements rather than attempting to neutralise them.
Through her approach, this second Malta Biennale must also be understood within the broader history of the biennial format.
“Biennials are a specific and highly successful typology of exhibition, capable of placing cities – or, in Malta’s case, an entire archipelago – on the map of international prestige. They serve to promote quality tourism insofar as they offer a relevant interpretation of the time and place in which they occur. While this edition builds on the momentum of the first, the emphasis has now shifted from accumulation to site-sensitive engagement,” she reflects.
This is achieved by approaching significant heritage sites as spaces of dialogue with contemporary art, with the Artistic Director drawing on her extensive experience in this field. Her hope is that the Biennale will foster a deeper engagement with place, history, and community. How the Biennale grows, and whether it becomes a solid platform under her artistic direction, she insists, can only be evaluated once it opens – and once it closes.
This attention to context also shaped the artist selection process. Rosa Martínez worked with a curatorial team composed of two young Maltese professionals, Antoine Borg Micallef and Alexia Medici, who reviewed more than 3,000 applications submitted through the open call.
The principal criterion was a commitment to rigor and innovation, particularly among artists seeking to move beyond established trends. At the same time, considerations of quotas, nationality, and diversity of artistic disciplines were carefully observed. A special focus was placed on the Mediterranean geopolitical area and on the ways in which women artists can contribute to changing the world.
“The responsibilities of an artistic director extend beyond the temporal limits of the exhibition itself. A temporary intervention must leave traces that matter not in physical permanence, but in the conversations it provokes, the questions it opens, and the relationships it fosters.”
She does not believe such conversations and relationships are ephemeral gestures, but views them as deposits of thought and attention that remain in public memory.
“To curate with this horizon in mind requires thinking intergenerationally, ethically, and with humility. It necessitates recognising that while art’s interventions may be temporary, their implications should resonate long after the Biennale has ended,” she concludes.
The Malta Biennale takes place between March 11 and May 29 at various locations. For more information visit maltabiennale.art.