Malta on my mind: Bozar exhibition explores the land of sea

About halfway through Bozar’s new exhibition, Malta: Land of Sea, visitors will find a 24-hour video stream of the island’s Grand Harbour. Called “A Bollard’s View”, the recording monitors the ferries that come in and out of the port, encapsulating the Maltese obsession with the Mediterranean.

It quickly becomes clear why Malta’s inhabitants keep a watchful eye on the water, as the nation’s history – as a military battleground, a cultural melting pot and, more recently, a haven – is told, with the Mediterranean a ubiquitous presence.

Curated by Sandro Debono, Land of Sea tells this story of the EU’s smallest country through a quirky collection of more than 60 pieces that present a land in fear and awe of the sea that surrounds it.

“The Mediterranean Sea remains a place of opportunity and risk,” reads an inscription on the exhibition’s wall. The show’s collection of rifles, hinting at the island’s swashbuckling past, demonstrates the latter.

Separated into nine broad categories, Land of Sea follows a non-chronological structure, mixing media, centuries and themes, so that each object “acquires new meanings”, Debono says.

And while the exhibition’s focus is the sea, it seeks to show a nation that is more than its proximity to the water, as it celebrates the country’s Catholic links and diversity.

The non-linear structure allows 19th-century rosary beads to be seated next to tiny terracotta figurines and modern installations, chronicling the waves of civilisations that have contributed what Debono calls “threads to Malta’s cultural weave”.

A loan from Florence’s Uffizi gallery of Caravaggio’s “Portrait of Antonia Martelli, Knight of Malta” give the exhibition a sprinkle of star power, while there is also an impressive collection of prehistoric artefacts.

And despite its European link – the show coincides with the nation’s presidency of the EU – only one piece directly nods to the Mediterranean’s central role in a European crisis: a weather-beaten compass used by refugees to cross the treacherous ocean.

“In the land of sea, both then and now, instruments of navigation serve as the tools with which to find the land of hope,” Debono says.

Until 28 May, Bozar, Ravensteinstraat 23, Brussels. Photo: Fomm ir-Riħ, 1866 Edward Lear © Palazzo Falson Historic House Museum