Maltese Confabulations

Maltese Confabulations  is a multidisciplinary exhibition by Malta-based artist Bettina Hutschek hosted by BLITZ, Valletta. This show highlights the artist’s oeuvre by bringing together works from recent years. It arranges them around several recurrent motifs and topoi, such as mythology, storytelling, history and archeology. There is also a strong presence of Maltese heritage or ancient civilisations, including the theory that Malta was Atlantis. Fragments of Maltese reality are interwoven in the various narrations, forming the basis for artistic storytelling and presenting a body of work that is to be understood simultaneously, not chronologically. 

Bettina Hutschek’s work explores the melding of layers of ‘truth’ and ‘fiction’, in order to question ‘reality’ and ‘history’ in an absurd and ironic, however mostly poetic way. Through different media, the exhibition brings together work in various art forms such as documentary film, essay-films, drawings, photographic series and sculpture.

The installation and performance-lecture Valletta will mix legendary, factual and fictitious elements of Valletta history into a new story, which was developed especially for this exhibition. The video Hubertus is a documentary portrait about the man Hubert, who is convinced that Malta was the core of the Atlantean Empire, while several other videos and photographic series bring contemporary architecture and prehistoric remains together, blurring boundaries whereby their story lines become entangled and complement one another. 

Throughout the duration of the exhibition, there will be a series of side-events happening at BLITZ, such as artist talks, film screenings and guided tours through the show. The exhibition design has been constructed in collaboration with architect Tom Van Malderen. Maltese Confabulations is also the precursor to a publication by Bettina Hutschek, which will be launched in early 2015. 

Bettina Hutschek (*1977) lives and works in Valletta and Berlin. Her work takes on the form of essay-films, fictitious documentaries, performances and works with image and text. She uses fragments of different realities to tell stories. 

www.bettina-hutschek.com