Residency period: October 2017

Blitz and Valletta 2018 are pleased to announce Aaron Bezzina as the recipient of the inaugural Blitz-Snehta Residency. The Blitz Residency Programme has to date been an international call inviting artists to Malta for one month.

On this occasion, artists living and working in Malta were invited to apply to undertake a one-month residency in Greece, through a new partnership between Blitz and Snehta. Snehta was formed in 2012 in Athens with the purpose of bringing international artists and curators into contact with the Athenian art scene. In the fall of 2017, Snehta opens its doors to eight (8) international contemporary art practitioners to live and work in Athens and Aaron will be a part of this intake. Snehta was formed in 2012 in Athens with the purpose of bringing international artists and curators in contact with the Athenian art scene. Snehta aims to expand artistic activity and research in the City, fostering new relationships and collaborations internally but also beyond the borders of Athens and Greece. Snehta stands for the name of the City of Athens written in reverse. The Blitz Residency Programme is a core strand of its artistic and public programme, created to facilitate a long-term, international artistic cultural exchange, while fortifying our role as cultural incubator and advocate organisation for contemporary art practice in Malta.

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Aaron Bezzina (b. 1991) holds a BA (Hons.) in Fine Art from MCAST Institute of Art & Design (2014) and MFA in Digital Arts from the Faculty of Media and Knowledge Sciences, University of Malta (2016). Bezzina regularly exhibits both locally and overseas. Notably, in June 2015 he was awarded a residency by the European Investment Bank in Luxembourg, where he was mentored by the British artist Darren Almond. He was commissioned to create a temporary public work for the 2015 Valletta International Visual Arts Festival (VIVA), and a site-specific work for the Pjazza Teatru Rjal as part of the Visual Arts Program. In 2017 he was one of the artists selected for the Malta Pavilion at the Venice Biennale, and the exhibition IN TRANSIT: Contemporary Media Art by Artists from Malta, at NRW-Forum, Düsseldorf and Stadskantoor, Leeuwarden. Although Bezzina’s work has an inclination towards the sculptural, he is also interested in other media which encourage meaning-making and further associative actions.

ARTIST STATEMENT “The experience of a residency is enriching for various reasons. I am fortunate to have this opportunity to explore a new scenario and gain insight into a different community… it will also strengthen the foundation of my previous work and also my future practice. Transgressing geographical boundaries is interesting for the art-object.”

To request further information about the programme, images, or to arrange an interview with one of our residents, artists or a member of the Blitz team, please contact: Nicole Bearman Programme Director [email protected] M 99913919 / W 21224992 thisisblitz.com blitzresidency.com