The Myth of Abundance
| Date | 2024 |
|---|---|
| Client | designMT |
| Value | n.a. |
| Location | Valletta, Malta |
exhibition landscaping maltese heritage regeneration sustainability temporary structures
“Water, water, everywhere, Nor any drop to drink”
The installation uses the "cabinet of curiosities" both as a conceptual framework to investigate the myth of abundance of water, and as an actual display, exhibiting a multidimensional journey through historical artifacts, natural specimens, cultural symbols, and interactive installations that reveal the island's complex relationship with its most precious resource. Originally exhibited at the Time Space Existence exhibition during the Venice Architecture Biennale (2016), the Cabinet had been developed as an opportunity in which objects and images from AP’s memory were brought into new spatial and temporal proximity. Also, hinting at the mysterious recipes that are at the base of this transformation from ugliness to beauty, the Cabinet was emphasising the need for the architect to become a modern-day alchemist who must search for the secret of turning lead into gold.
In this way, the proposed adaptation of the Cabinet for ‘The Myth of Abundance’ translates the mythical abundance into a tangible and potentially interactive experience, while testing the reuse of a structure which has successfully contributed to AP’s research-based practice. Scenes of feigned abundance appear in the form of historical examples of the islands’ freshwater water infrastructure – maps and historical documents testifying to a long-standing interventionist approach.
Other means of communication, such as sound/video installations signify the truth of the Mediterranean freshwater composition. Woven reed and craftsmanship are an opportunity to represent the opportunity for native solutions. Together with the nassa, it references vernacular structures common to the southern shores of the Mediterranean, specifically North Africa and the Middle East, championing devices that can supersede the artificiality of water availability with new, frugal systems of harnessing and distribution.
This installation would also create an opportunity to showcase and re-evaluate some of AP’s unrealised projects, such as the regeneration plan for Qormi’s Wied is-Sewda, tackling the scarcity and management of water as a crucial element of a truly sustainable approach to the built environment.
