Homo Melitensis: An Incomplete Inventory in 19 Chapters is the title of the Maltese Pavilion at the Venice Biennale 2017.

Commissioned by Arts Council Malta, the exhibition explores the notion of national identity in the form of a complex installation that brings contemporary artworks, objects, and documents together in a nonhierarchical, achronological setup.

Works by Maltese artists and artists from the Maltese diaspora, works from local museums and everyday objects are interconnected in the poetic, associative space of a Cabinet of Curiosities.

Artist-curators of the exhibition: Bettina Hutschek, Raphael Vella

Participating artists: Adrian Abela, John Paul Azzopardi, Aaron Bezzina, Pia Borg, Gilbert Calleja, Austin Camilleri, Roxman Gatt, David Pisani, Karine Rougier, Joe Sacco, Teresa Sciberras, Darren Tanti, Maurice Tanti Burlò

Contributors: Heritage Malta, Ghaqda tal-Pawlini, Domus Pauli, Ghaqda Kazin Banda San Filep Zebbug, Karnival Ghaqda Marija Annunziata Tarxien, Richard Ellis Foundation

Graphic Design: Jon Banthorpe

Exhibition Architecture: Tom Van Malderen/ Architecture Project 

‘Homo Melitensis’ – ‘Maltese Man’ – is an associative and often humorous investigation of Maltese identity and national imaginaries. Issues like territory, memory, religion and language find artistic re-imagining in the 19 chapters of the exhibition. The ‘inventory’ suggests a taxonomy that organizes life in custom-made arrangements, creating a seemingly decipherable order out of the exhausting chaos of reality. Homo Melitensis witnesses the transition from nation-state to an atomized, impenetrable existence, and is perplexed.