In Malta, a multiethnic society still strongly conservative, but animated by a constant desire for change, contemporary art is neither a form of fashion nor a status symbol, but a challenge to be met.


On one of the busiest junctions of the island the silhouette of an avant-garde architecture elegantly stands out: it is SO Galerie, a contemporary art gallery. The director is Joseph Simon Gauci, Maltese (1968), who in 2010 decided to open, next to his picture framing studio Picture House, a space dedicated to the “different ones”, Maltese and not Maltese artists, whose production breaks with the traditional canons to which the public is accustomed in Malta. A substantial percentage of Maltese art lovers still adhere to the syndrome of melitensia – Joseph Gauci says – and when they buy a work of art they tend to buy something that has iconographic elements clearly attributable to Malta. It is necessary that they get in touch with a broad-spectrum artistic production in order to self educate themselves to get out of this habit. He believes that so far his gallery, though active for only four years, has played an important role in this direction: people are visiting the space of SO Galerie, they participate in exhibitions, ask for information about unknown artists, and, finally, come back determined to purchase. Maltese society is changing its mental approach to contemporary art, which used to be seen suspiciously. This is undeniable. It is a gradual change which has, however, suffered a sudden acceleration in the last ten years, due both to a strong increase in cultural exchanges between the Malteses and foreign visitors, following the introduction of low-cost airlines in Malta, and to the coming of satellite TV, which has allowed a huge improvement in terms of quantity and quality of information in the media.

SO Galerie, Malta, photo David Pisani, MyTemplArt Magazine

SO Galerie, Malta, photo David Pisani

According to Joseph Gauci, who is a gallerist, but also a collector, it is important to visit the studios of the artists and buy directly from them, even while you travel: collecting is a visceral spontaneous act based on the emotion and the instinct of the moment. His collection includes around four hundred works amongst which paintings, sculptures and other objects of art, some of which are for sale; they are carefully preserved, classified (medium, presence of the frame, year and purchase price) and catalogued through a constantly updated database, which is currently available on the website of SO Galerie. The archive is in fact a very important investment, in order to make a collection of works of art fully enjoyable, not only to the collector, but to the whole community, and it has to be built via patient and meticulous manner. While donating a collection to a museum institution would be a very personal choice (to which Joseph Gauci does not have a propensity) because, as he says, his collection has a sentimental value that cannot be easily perceived by others, on the other hand creating an excellent archive of your own art works, available to the wider community, is a noble duty for every collector.

SO Galerie website: http://www.sogalerie.com

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