Farfara 2031

In collaboration with Maren Richter, Raphael Vella, Karsten Xuereb

Farfara2031, referring to an island that appeared sporadically on maps of the 17th century, is a project and research process, using the procedure of bidding with this fictional island for the title of European Capital of Culture (ECoC). Designed as an artistic experimental platform Farfara2031 aims to push the boundaries in thinking, practising and experiencing what an ECoC may be if virtuality is considered as a new form of cultural ‘physicality’.

Farfara2031 takes the model of ECoC as a working template for investigating innovative structures and improved relations of creative and systemic thinking to develop models of collaboration, common curation and hybrid / blended models of training, capacity building, informal education and artistic production with participants and audiences at the heart of the work done.

A call-to-action; a curatorial experiment; a collaboration over time; something fluid which only exists when we are there. An experimental curatorial and artistic project, with a group of diverse but like-minded people.

More info here.

Farfara Top-of-the-World
7 June2024 | Għargħur Searchlight Position, Top of the World, Għargħur

Farfara comes and goes - it means different things to different people - it appears when we meet, and melt away again as we disperse. It allows us to imagine possibilities, and to come together at a particular time and place, which can be simultaneously tangible and intangible, known and unknown, visible, yet invisible. Top of the World is a place that looks out to sea, from where an island could become visible, and can be imagined, with all its characteristics and proclivities. The site allows us to be sentinels - the ideal site to imagine an island rising out of the sea.

Thus, the experience of Farfara will manifest at that place and time , and will only exist while we are there. All creators will be participants, and all participants will be creators; Farfara will be something fluid, which we witness changing there and then, and which we influence but which also influences us.

Work is imagined & prepared beforehand, but is placed, manifested, shaped there and then, in a co-curatorial, collaborative act. So we engage in an act of bringing and sharing, rather than extracting or consuming.

Futuring Islands
3 - 6 November 2022 | Studio Eckermann/Nestler, Neulinggasse 9, 1030 Vienna

Ultimately, the project’s research question is: How can virtuality - understood here as a new form of urban and cultural ‘physicality’ - shape a more radical understanding of what European Capital of Cultures should achieve, by planning a cultural programme for a non-physical place?

This research question will be explored through the project’s planned programme of field research, a series of online forums with a broad circle of collaborators, several workshops with experts in various related fields, and a residency programme through an open call to artists and researchers. The project will conclude with a fictional online bid for the title of Farfara2031.

Farfara 2031 in 2021 & 2022 was supported by Arts Council Malta - Digital Research & Development Scheme.