Installation view of SOAP TO THINK WITH & SOAP TO THINK WITH exhibition poster

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SOAP TO THINK WITH

Norbert Francis Attard

Curated by Ann Dingli

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GOZO CONTEMPORARY
11, Triq Mongur, Gharb, GRB1435, Gozo, Malta

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16th December 2022 - 31st March 2023 by appointment 00356 79041051
Official Opening and Book Launch, Saturday 1st April 2023, 6.00pm - 9.00pm
Opening hours: 

Free entry by appointment. Contact us at +365 7904 1051 or norbert@norbertattard.com to book your visit.

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SOAP TO THINK WITH chronicles the artworks and subject-matter of a comprehensive solo exhibition by artist Norbert Francis Attard, encompassing a breadth of multi-media work spanning just over two and a half years in the making. The show’s works and catalogue will interrogate three driving themes: the Covid-19 pandemic; political and financial corruption in Malta; and the assassination of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia. Attard’s treatment of these themes begins from a universal and global perspective, threads through spheres of collective thought, and finally zones into individual analysis. Each theme is catechised through works that link with canons of conceptual art, objet trouvé, light art, photography, sculpture, and graphic art. In his selection of subject-matter, Attard builds a retrospective comment around the wider and ongoing question of human ethics – his work grapples with the major traumas and moral dilemmas that have plagued communities both worldwide and locally in Malta. Their commentary addresses events that occurred over substantial stretches of time, as well as those that took place within the space of a moment.
 
The works comprising SOAP TO THINK WITH tackle some of the most urgent, lasting events and themes of recent history, together acting as a contemplative edict on how human beings live today. They accordingly function as a capsule of reflection for Malta and beyond – a longform comment on the way humanity contends with the most arduous tests and trials of our time.

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SOAP TO THINK WITH includes 111 pieces in total, the vast majority of which are featured in this exhibition. All of the exhibition’s works were conceived and made during the Covid-19 period and immediately after The World Health Organization declared the virus a pandemic on 11th March 2020. National lockdowns began two days later, on 13th March. The exhibition’s first pieces were created towards the end of March 2020, followed by an entire series of 2D and 3D works that continued to be produced until the end of October 2022 – a span of exactly thirty-one months. -In numerology, which is the belief that numbers share a mystical relationship between coinciding events, the number 111 is closely linked to new beginnings, independence and positivity. When added together, 111 equals 3, which symbolises creativity, curiosity and imagination. These are all attributes which have come to define Attard’s decades-long artistic career, in which he strays away from stagnation, and instead seeks out the new, reinventing himself at every opportunity which presents itself.

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This exhibition is dedicated to Marisa Vella (1960-2020)

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A satellite exhibition of VALLETTA CONTEMPORARY www.vallettacontemporary.com
Funded by the NORBERT FRANCIS ATTARD FOUNDATION www.norbertattard.com