Mewweġ

Performance installation

Mewweġ (2014) is an interactive performance installation inspired by the concept of the cradle. The word ‘cradle’, used as a noun, refers to that which holds us when we are born, and it often functions as a metonymy for ‘birth’ or for the place and time in which something begins. To ‘cradle’, as a verb, is ‘to hold gently and carefully’. A cradle is also a supportive framework, as in that used in the construction or repair of boats.

Through this piece, Tabone attempts to recall the ceremonial launching of the dgħajsa tal-pass in Birgu, when the boat would attract the admiration, and sometimes criticism, of people walking around it. In this way, Mewweġ enters into a dialogue with the passing of time. It distills the fragility of the framework and transforms it into a movement suggesting the possibly of hope. It invites us to experience it in our own way and weave our own stories around it, seeing it with its play of light and shadow but also beyond that which can be captured by the naked eye.

This work was commissioned by the Valletta 2018 Foundation as part of the European Capital of Culture programme and exhibited during BirguFest in October 2014.

  © 2024 Enrique Tabone