MELITA / Exhibition

ENG : Anne Immelé’s project ‘Melita, refuge’ (2022-2023) started in Malta during her visits to different caves around the Islands, when she came across traces of Phoenician civilisations in the wider contemporary context of an active migratory crisis. Since ancient times, human beings have sought refuge as a critical component for survival. The notion of refuge is especially anchored culturally in the history of Malta, whose Catholicity is also rooted in the biblical tale of Saint Paul’s shipwreck and his finding shelter in a cave on the island.

From the Maltese Islands, Immelé travelled to Sicily & Tunisia to contemplate contemporary migratory routes across the Mediterranean Sea, engaging in a poetic association with the voyages of the Phoenicians in antiquity. The Phoenicians, merchant conquerors who established bases in various Mediterranean civilisations, established a documented network of routes throughout this body of water between 1200 - 300 BC.

The installation presents an array of polyphonic stories interfacing disparate voices and routes in the Mediterranean space and time. This juxtaposition of ancient routes of commercial conquest with contemporary migratory ones brings forth poignant shared narratives, enabling also fresh perspectives of the present.

Her photos are rooted in the geo-political complexity of the contemporary migrant condition but distinguish themselves from a work of reportage by inviting a broader temporal and geographical perspective. As a body of work in its totality, ‘Melita, refuge’ then effectively proposes its own personal, political and poetic trajectory.