03 March, 2026
Bank of Valletta and curator Elyse Tonna are pleased to announce the opening of Moving with the Wind, Like Waves on Sunday 30th November (18:00-21:00hrs), a site-specific contemporary art project unfolding through an exhibition, public programme and publication at the Inquisitor’s Palace, in Birgu. The opening programme will include performances and readings presented by exhibiting artists and other invited contributors.
The project invites visitors to engage with the site through forms of memory, movement and interpretation that often fall outside official narratives. Rather than centring dominant accounts, it directs attention to what is usually overlooked or unrecorded: subtle impressions, micro-histories, sensory encounters and everyday practices that shape how the building is felt and understood. Developed and curated by Elyse Tonna, the exhibition brings together nine artists responding directly to the Palace’s layered histories, while the wider project extends through a public programme involving additional artists, performers and creative practitioners.
Following an open call that received 49 submissions, nine artists were selected from a final group of fifteen. Victor Agius, Laura Besançon, Ryan Falzon, Wioletta Kulewska Akyel, Julian Micallef, Jacob Saliba, Sheldon Saliba, Matthew Schembri and Tom Van Malderen developed new works shaped through ongoing dialogue with the curator and with the support of the Inquisitor’s Palace curatorial team, who contributed historical insight and research.
Curator Elyse Tonna said, “Adopting a research-led, process-based and collaborative approach, each work has been developed specifically for this project and for the Inquisitor’s Palace itself. Rather than illustrating the site’s history, we focus on what often goes unseen or undocumented. My aim has been to create conditions in which these quieter layers of the Palace can become perceptible to those who move through it today.”
In parallel with the exhibition, a public programme will run from 3rd December to 27th December, offering free workshops, performances, readings, artist-led events and activator sessions connected to the project’s curatorial chapters. Events take place on Wednesday evenings and Saturday mornings, with curatorial tours available on request.
The project is commissioned and supported by the Bank of Valletta Foundation and presented in collaboration with Heritage Malta, which is hosting and supporting its realisation at the Inquisitor’s Palace.
For more information, follow @movingwiththewind_likewaves on Instagram/Facebook or contact the team at mwwlw.exhibition@gmail.com.
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