Afterselfie – beyond masks | oltre le maschere is an exhibition that focuses on the human being’s self-representation and the complexity of managing the distance of to be and to appear. This is being done in relation to selfies, a phenomenon which has taken social media by storm and which also echoes Pirandello’s theory of living masks within a contemporary context whereby a person wears a mask in order to conform to society.

Curated by Carolina Bortolotti and coordinated by Simon Sultana Harkins, Afterselfie will be exhibited at St James Cavalier Centre for Creativity as well as Palazzo Trentino in Trento, Italy. The idea behind Afterselfie was conceived when Bartolotti and Sultana Harkins met at the 2014 edition of the Curatorial School at VIVA (the Valletta International Visual Art Festival), one of the Valletta 2018 Foundation’s projects from its diverse Cultural Programme. Afterselfie is, first and foremost, a cultural exchange between Malta and Italy as a number of Maltese and Italian artists will be showcasing their work in both countries.

The artists participating in this collaborative exhibition are Raphael Vella, Elisa Von Brockdorff, Adrian Abela, Ritty Tacsum, Goghi&Goghi collective, Gabriele Grones, Jacopo Dimastrogiovanni, Elia Nadie and Debora Fella.

The project, which has been backed by the Goghi&Goghi cultural association, has been developed in collaboration with The Italian Cultural Institute of Valletta, the Valletta 2018 Foundation and the Autonomous Province of Trento, Trentino and Vivallis.

Afterselfie is opening at St James Cavalier Centre for Creativity on the 13th February at 7.30pm and will run to the 15th March. The exhibition will then move to Palazzo Trentini in Trento, Italy and will run from the 15th to the 31st of May. For more information, please visit the St James Cavalier official website, or the Afterselfie Facebook page. You can also follow the project on Tumblr.