Contemporary art & history merge at the Inquisitor’s Palace
Bank of Valletta is pleased to mark the successful launch of ‘Moving with the Wind, Like Waves’, a contemporary art project held at the Inquisitor’s Palace in Birgu. The exhibition was launched to an engaged public, drawing strong interest from visitors, artists, and cultural stakeholders alike.
Developed and curated by Elyse Tonna and commissioned by the BOV Foundation, this art project unfolds as a large-scale exhibition, public programme, and forthcoming publication, transforming the Inquisitor’s Palace into a living site of artistic inquiry. Selected through a highly competitive open call, the nine participating artists, Victor Agius, Laura Besançon, Ryan Falzon, Wioletta Kulewska Akyel, Julian Micallef, Jacob Saliba, Sheldon Saliba, Matthew Schembri and Tom Van Malderen, worked closely with Elyse Tonna and with the support of the Heritage Malta site curatorial team.
Across installation, sound, sculpture, film, drawing and painting, the artists engage with concepts of memory, gesture, ecology, ritual, inscription and care. Rather than reconstructing a singular historical narrative, the works reveal the quieter forces: movements, marks, residues and sensorial impressions that persist outside official documentation, expanding how the Inquisitor’s Palace can be read and experienced today.
The opening weekend offered a first glimpse into the wider public programme with a series of performances. Featured practitioners included a string quartet, Abigail Agius with a performance rooted in the histories of women and witchcraft at the Palace, Alien Montesin responding choreographically to the architecture of the main staircase, Matthew Schembri with durational writing performances and Ryan Falzon presenting readings drawn from his ongoing research. These opening events set the tone for the full programme, which will continue throughout December with workshops, conversations and guided explorations. The programme also includes creative workshops for children, a culinary-ecological conversation in the historic kitchen, a somatic movement workshop for the elderly, a hands-on film-processing workshop and a large-scale exploratory walk through the building.
Curator Elyse Tonna said, “This project brings contemporary artistic practice into direct conversation with one of Malta’s most historically complex sites. The Inquisitor’s Palace holds layers of memory, silence and transformation and all the participating artists in the exhibition and public programme approach it with sensitivity and depth. Through months of research and collaboration, they developed works that do not seek to illustrate history, but to sense what persists at its edges: the unseen, the undocumented, the gestures that linger. I am grateful to the BOV Foundation for trusting this vision and supporting the kind of rigorous, process-based work that Malta urgently needs.”
Ernest Agius, Deputy Chair of the BOV Foundation and BOV Chief Operations Officer, said, “The BOV Foundation is deeply committed to supporting projects that broaden cultural participation and encourage artistic experimentation. The successful launch of ‘Moving with the Wind, Like Waves’ affirms our belief in art’s ability to transform how we engage with heritage spaces and contemporary narratives. We are proud to support a project that brings together exceptional Maltese and international talent and opens up new ways of experiencing one of Malta’s most historically significant sites.”
‘Moving with the Wind, Like Waves’ is open to the public at the Inquisitor’s Palace in Birgu until the 4th of January 2026. Visitors can experience the full exhibition during regular museum hours, with access included in the standard Heritage Malta entry ticket. Throughout its run, the project will continue to evolve through its public programme, curatorial tours and a series of closing-day interventions that further activate the site.
