Valletta 2018’s latest exhibition, Cabinet of Futures, was launched today at St Joseph the Worker Centre (Parish Hall) in Birkirkara. The exhibition, which is set to explore alternative, preferable futures through playful ways, remains open to the public for free until the 24th of November.

Over the last few months, workshops held by the Austrian art and culture group Time’s Up invited the public to think about their ideal future, and to virtually create this future through art. The ideas generated during these workshops come to life in this site-specific exhibition. This immersive, walkthrough exhibition creates a ‘proto-scientific’ laboratory atmosphere, inviting local individuals and communities to add their own touch to the scenario.

During the workshops, internationally renowned futurists, local experts and everyday citizens came together to share and discuss each of their imaginative scenarios, dreams and concerns. With constant creative exchange from all walks of life, the hypothetical futures presented become sites that are continuously evolving into richer and ever-more tangible worlds.

The tangible embodiment of a possible future makes the imagination of one’s part in that future easier and more real. Visitors will be immersed in the future scenario, and encouraged to peer into factories, laboratories or a travel agency as they might be in 2047, allowed to listen in on everyday life conversations between citizens of this future in a staged bar environment, to read the newspaper and take various leaflets and postcards with them. The audience is invited not just to observe but to investigate, to curiously explore what they find surrounding them and actively create meaning in the world, in a seriously playful way of getting to know and imagine how one would like the future world to be. The future is an interesting place, we will all spend the rest of our lives there.

Talks will be held at Studio Solipsis in Rabat, while more workshops will also be held at the exhibition space in Birkirkara throughout September and November. For more information visit valletta2018.org and follow Valletta 2018 on Facebook.

The exhibition will be open from Tuesday to Sunday between 16.00 and 20.00, from the 24th August until the 24th November 2018. It is being held at St Joseph the Worker Centre, 71, Triq Bwieraq, Birkirkara.

Cabinet of Futures is organised by the Valletta 2018 Foundation and supported by The Arts and Culture Division of the Federal Chancellery of Austria, Linz Kultur, OOE Kultur, LINZ AG and Ecoduna.

Talks and workshops:

The talks will be held at Studio Solipsis in Rabat and the workshops will be held within the exhibition space at the parish centre.

Talk: Practical Utopia from Afar
01 September 2018 / 6pm (Radical Recycling / Circular Economy)
09 November 2018 / 6pm (Quality of Life / Human Scale)
16 November 2018 / 6pm (Food Futures / Clean Cargo)

Workshop: A Practical Utopian Moment
02 September 2018 / 2-5pm (Radical Recycling / Circular Economy)
10 November 2018 / 2-5pm (Quality of Life / Human Scale)
17 November 2018 / 2-5pm (Food Futures / Clean Cargo)

Workshop: An Afternoon Spent in a Practical Utopian State
03 September 2018 / 10am-5pm (Radical Recycling / Circular Economy)
11 November 2018 / 10am-5pm (Quality of Life / Human Scale)
13 November 2018 / 10am-5pm (Quality of Life / Human Scale)
18 November 2018 / 10am-5pm (Food Futures / Clean Cargo)
20 November 2018 / 10am-5pm (Food Futures / Clean Cargo)

Valletta 2018 Premium Partners: General Soft Drinks Co. Ltd., Coca Cola, Bavaria and Bank of Valletta