Infrastructure Malta selected two artists and two architectural firms from Malta, Cyprus and Romania to produce four monumental artworks for the landscaped areas around the Marsa Junction Project flyovers.
The selected artworks of the Marsa Junction Project Public Art Competition are (in alphabetical order by participants’ surname or company name) The Creation of Man, by Haak Studio, an architectural studio based in Cluj-Napocia, Romania, Tisliba, by Gozitan-born ceramics artist Paul Haber, Sema by I+A Limited, a collective of architects, artists and technologists from Malta and Tipping Point, by Alex Welch, a metal artist from Limassol, Cyprus. Visuals of the four artworks can be viewed below.
The designs of these works of art were chosen out of 56 proposals received in response to an international call for artworks launched by Infrastructure Malta in collaboration with Spazju Kreattiv last March. Thirty-six participants from Malta and six other countries, including Cyprus, Italy, Romania, Spain, USA and Venezuela, entered the competition by submitting one or more designs.
A panel of artists and other stakeholders reviewed all proposals to choose the four most suitable artworks for the Marsa Junction Project site. The high level of participation and the remarkable quality of many of the artworks proposed made this process more challenging than expected, as the selection panel spent several weeks analysing the artistic merit and technical specifications of each design.
Through last March’s public call for proposals, Infrastructure Malta invited prospective participants to submit designs of large-scale permanent public artworks, between four and five metres high, made of long-lasting materials that can withstand outdoor conditions. The cost of each artwork could not exceed €50,000.
Infrastructure Malta will now launch final discussions with the four selected participants with a view to providing the required resources to produce their artwork within six months. The agency will then install them in the green areas it is developing between Aldo Moro Road, in Marsa and the Addolorata Cemetery as part of the €70 million Marsa Junction Project, to upgrade the busiest intersection of the Maltese road network. Contractors will form these landscaped areas with trees and other plants around the new vehicle lanes, flyovers, bus lanes, footpaths, park and ride facilities, footbridges and segregated cycle lanes that this project is introducing to facilitate quicker and safer commutes for over 100,000 road users who use this junction every day.
12 other artworks for other Infrastructure Malta projects
Besides the four artworks selected for the Marsa Junction Project, the panel also identified another 12 successful proposals which Infrastructure Malta can consider for the landscaped areas of other ongoing and future infrastructural projects in Malta, such as the Santa Lucija Roundabout Underpass Project, the Central Link Project, the Luqa Junction Project and the Msida Creek Project. The 10 participants who submitted these proposals include (in alphabetical order by participants’ surname or company name) Box Concept Studio (Two Meters Apart), Kane Cali (Observatory), Clifford Carabott (The Floating Cube), Jennings Falzon (The Guardian Angel, The Centaur), John Grima (On the Move), I+A Ltd (N(h)ar), Mizzi Studios (Ascension), Jose Sanchez (Desdoblado Unfolded), Alejandro Vega (Il-Mara Qawwija, Il-Ggant tal-Ilma) and Paul Vella Critien (Mewga).
Later this year, Infrastructure Malta will be exhibiting the designs and maquettes (scale models) of the four Marsa Junction Project artworks and of the other 12 shortlisted proposals, at Spazju Kreattiv’s St James Cavalier, Valletta.