Dates:
November 13 2015 - January 7 2015
Venues and opening times:
Mdina Cathedral Museum
Monday to Friday: 09.30 - 16:30
Saturday: 09:30 - 15:30
Last admission 30 minutes prior to closing
Closed on: Sundays; December 24, 25, 31; January 1
St. Paul's Cathedral
Monday to Friday: 09.30 - 16:30
Saturday: 09:30 - 15:30
Last admission: 16:00 (weekdays); 15:00 (Saturday)
Palazzo de Piro
Monday to Friday: 10:00 - 16:00
Saturday: 10:00 - 15:00
Church of St. Roque:
Monday to Friday: 10:00 - 16:00
Saturday: 10:00 - 15:00
Church of Saint Peter in Chains:
Monday to Friday: 14:00 - 16:00
Saturday: 10:00 - 12:00
Vilhena Palace - National Museum of Natural History
Monday to Sunday: 09.00 - 17:00
Last admission: 16:30
Closed on: December 24, 25, 31; January 1
Mdina Local Council:
Monday to Friday: 08:00 - 17:00
Saturday: 08:30 - 11:00
The Mdina Biennale is closed on Sundays and Public Holidays, unless otherwise stated.
Wheelchair access:
All venues are wheelchair accessible, with the exception of the upper floor of Vilhena Palace
Getting there:
Mdina is a pedestrian city.
Public transport is available to the main gate of Mdina.
The following bus routes are available to and from Mdina and Rabat:
from/to Sliema/StJulian: 202 or 203
from/to Bugibba: X3
from/to Valletta: 51 or 52 or 53
from/to St Pauls: 221 or 223 (to Bugibba) + X3
from/to Mellieha: 221 (to Bugibba) + X3
Those using private transport may access Mdina through its three gates: Main Gate, Greeks Gate and Għarreqin Gate.
Parking is availble near all three entrances.
The exciting and exhilarating festival, the Mdina Cathedral Contemporary Art Biennale, has evolved from the earlier Christian and Sacred Art Biennale known as the Contemporary Christian Art in Malta, which was organised during the late 1990s.
Under the artistic directorship of Dr Giuseppe Schembri Bonaci, himself an artist and art theorist, this cultural event has now been re-launched with new criteria, and with a fresh, above all international, approach. Its main aim will be to show the prestige of recent and contemporary art, both locally and Europe-wide, through the choice of the very best works of art. The Biennale will be held between 13 November 2015 and 7 January 2016 and its theme is 'Christianity, Spirituality and the Other'.The exhibits will deal with the interrelationship between spirituality and religious belief, examining the role of the Other.The Other includes every aspect within the spectrum of spirituality, a spiritual identity that embraces the tension between doubt, belief, non-belief and the struggle to define the spiritual parameters of humankind.
The Biennale will be divided into four main sections:
a) Four resident Maltese artists will be specially invited to participate
b) Further artists from anywhere in Europe, including Malta, chosen by the artistic director, will be asked to exhibit one or two works each, specifically created for the Biennale
c) Other artists may apply for the right to propose their works, and if chosen these too will be exhibited at the Biennale.
d) A major twentieth-century artist will be selected, and a group of his or her works exhibited under the umbrella of the Biennale. The artistic director has underlined the importance of energetically launching the international aspects of this artistic event.
Discussions are already taking place with artists from the UK, Italy, Germany, Spain, Bulgaria, Russia and other European countries. Conditions and regulations for participation may be found here.
This is the website of the 2015-16 edition of the Mdina Biennale. For the 2017-2018 website, please visit https://www.mdinabiennale.com/
The Mdina Cathedral Contemporary Art Biennale, scheduled between 13 November 2015 and 7 January 2016, will establish a spiritual space celebrating creativity. It will create a stimulating modern environment, in which different works of art by artists from diverse cultural backgrounds are displayed together under one theme. The theme for 2015 is 'Christianity, Spirituality and the Other', 'The Other' standing for faith and non-faith, belief and non-belief, theist and atheist, agnostic and polytheist.
The Mdina Biennale traces its roots back to the previous Christian and Sacred Art Biennale of the 1990s, and the forthcoming 2015 event will radically widen its creative spectrum. The idea that all art is spiritual remains the central concept. This thematic approach is profoundly important for a complete appreciation and understanding of the event. It plays a central role in the Artistic Director's concept and to establish the Mdina Cathedral Contemporary Art Biennale as a spiritual space of and for creativity.
The Mdina Cathedral Contemporary Art Biennale has taken a radically new direction, evolving from the first such event, 'Contemporary Sacred Art in Malta' of 1994, and the subsequent exhibitions entitled 'Contemporary Christian Art', which took place in 1996, 1998, 2000, 2002 and 2005, as well as other comparable earlier contemporary art exhibitions organised in Malta in the years leading up to 1994.
The 1994 event ambitiously underlined the idea of museums as "depositories housing the results of cultural achievements attained by man's will-power extending itself in all directions that emerge from human intelligence". The 1996 Biennale concentrated on creating "a further development of the Sacred more closely linked with a definite characteristic of our cultural background". Constant Dialogue was the central theme of the 1998 event: "The widespread evaluation of the constant dialogue between the artist and the world around him". For obvious reasons the 2000 exhibition focussed on "the end of the present Millennium ... and the long stretch of innumerable decades and revolving centuries of Christian existence". 2002 and 2005 defined sacred, or spiritual, art as the summit of religious art and emphasised its connection with the artist's "noble ministry".
The 2015 Biennale will expand these various parameters from earlier years. It will unashamedly declare all art to be spiritual, in the sense that creative depiction, actions and events, through their intrinsic character, reflect the individual's relation with reality, and with his or her own existence. Hence such creative acts are necessarily spiritual, independent of their ostensible devoutness, independent of a faith or lack of faith, independent of their allegiance to any particular faith, or to none.
