‘SPIEGEL IM SPIEGEL‘

Commissioned video projection to accompany live music by composer Avro Pärt. Musicians taking part are Tricia Dawn Williams and Beibe Wang. This interpretation of ‘Spiegel I’m Spiegel’ will premiere at the Oxford Festival of the Arts in June 2022. For this video projection work, Fenech is examining abstract notions within the genre of non-narrative films, attempting to make no reference to reality or concrete subjects. Rather using unique qualities of motion, rhythm, light and composition inherent in the technical medium of cinema to create emotional experiences.

PROJECT: LAST WORD FROM PARADISE

A current project which has origins in Fenech’s recent solo multi-media exhibition ‘DIS_’ at Spazju Kreattiv as part of the Valletta Capital Culture of Europe 2018 examines ways in which contemporary art can lead to generate awareness for climate change. The influences of John Milton’s epic poem ‘Paradise Lost’ remains his source of inspiration and Milton’s use of the Latinate prefix “dis-“, apparently concocted from Virgil’s use of this word in the Aeneid, ‘Dis Pater’ or the ruler of the underworld, paves way to Milton’s idea that the events in Eden were events not only in the history of Man but also in the history of nature.

In this new work, the artist seeks to identify a wider set of cognitive and contextual factors that reveal trends in the voices and resonance of the poem’s etymological registers and its environmental implications. In this manner, he is bringing forth the contemporary relevance of Milton’s ecological ethos.

The video and light installation ‘Last Word From Paradise’ which is one of the finalised works from this project is currently on display as part of the international exhibition ‘Macht! Licht! at the Kustmuseum Wolfsburg, Germany curated by Andreas Beitin and Holger Broeker. the exhibition will remain open until the 10 July 2022.

FULL CIRCLE

The title reflects Fenech’s first works which resulted from his encounter with the camera in the mid 70s. With his early knowledge of drawing and painting acquired from his father Giovanni B Fenech and artist Espirt Barthet, and his self-taught use of photography, Fenech engaged in documenting Maltese and Gozitan lifestyles on B & W 35mm film. This endeavour went on for a good ten years and the resulting archive from this work is now being digitised and edited so that a selection of prints will find themselves in a publication which will be edited by Prof Mark-Anthony Falzon, a professor of anthropology at the university of Malta. The publication will also be accompanied by an exhibition at MUZA the Malta National Museum of Fine Arts planned in 2024, curated by Caroline Tonna.