2019
ħożż il-ħsejjes reflects on our fragile environment, on how we relate to our surroundings, and how a community can (re)invent its environment. The project merged and created unlikely situations and materials. It looked at The Mill – Art, Culture and Crafts Centre, Birkirkara and drew inspiration from its past and present uses and its context. Taking inspiration from The Mill’s uses and context, ħożż il-ħsejjes focused on the intrinsic relationship between the use of the space (as a flour mill and a contemporary art centre) and Gabriel Caruana’s artistic practice focusing on clay as his favoured medium. Inspired by this relationship the Creative Team worked with clay and wheat developing a form of paper clay.
The project involved workshops at The Mill (August and September 2019), an interactive installation at Spazju Kreattiv (November to December 2019) and workshops during ZiguZajg Festival (November 2019). During the workshops at The Mill participants got familiar with a type of paper clay developed specifically for this project, consisting of hay and buff stoneware clay. The particiapants developed their musical instruments with the support of the Creative Team, exploring the qualities of the material and the different forms and textures. Once fired music workshops where carried out at The Mill,
The Team, composed of Raffaella Zammit, Elyse Tonna, Wen Chin Fu, Marvin Zammit and Andrea Pullicino, engaged participants of all ages with a particular focus on children and youths. ħożż il-ħsejjes is a tactile, aural, and visual experience that invited visitors to become participants by creating a collective and ever-changing musical and visual composition.
This project was a collaboration between the Gabriel Caruana Foundation (Malta), Instrument Inventors Initiative iii (Netherlands) and Mighty Box (Malta). This project was supported by Arts Council Malta – Malta Arts Fund, ŻiguŻajg Festival, Spazju Kreattiv and iPortunus. The project provided an opportunity for Raffaella Zammit and Elyse tonna to travel to the Netherlands to visit Wen Chin Fu and the iii to further develop the concept of ħożż il-ħsejjes, to further elaborate on the material (paper clay) and to discuss further funding opportunities.
The exhibition opened on the 15th of November 2019 for a whole month at Spazju Kreattiv. It was officially launched on the 17th of November and included a live performance by Wen Chin Fu joined by people present at the launch.
During the ŻiguŻajg festival Wen Chin carried out a number of music performance workshops with children attending the festival.
The project aimed to have a strong participation from a mixed audience, through the workshops at The Mill and the installation at Spazju Kreattiv.
