A €250,000 equestrian statue set to be installed in the middle of nowhere in one of Gozo’s last remaining untouched areas was signed off by a Gozo Ministry panel headed by a teacher with no professional knowledge of arts or culture.
The five-metre-high bronze statue by Gozitan artist Austin Camilleri is set to be installed metres away from the centuries-old Xwejni saltpans.
Joseph Cutajar, a former physics teacher made director of the Gozo Ministry’s Eco Gozo Directorate a few years ago, led the selection process. The other members are ministry employees and Albert Marshall, the 75-year-old Labour veteran who used to run ONE TV until 2013 and currently cashing in on at least five different government positions.
Last year, Cutajar was one of three senior ministry officials arraigned in court and charged with the involuntary homicide of a government employee following a work-related accident in Dwejra.
Instead of implementing public service rules, which dictate that employees are suspended on half pay once they face criminal charges, an exception was made for Cutajar and his colleagues.
The sculpture’s installation, funded by taxpayers, is expected to start imminently despite strong opposition from NGOs, the Environment and Resources Authority, and the Superintendence of Cultural Heritage for its unsuitability for the Xwejni area.
Artist Austin Camilleri
Dubbed as incompatible and out of place with its proposed position on Gozo’s rugged coastline, experts in the arts and culture scene suggested that as the government had already forked out hundreds of thousands of euros on the project, it should be moved to another, more urban location.
But, the Gozo Ministry and the artist refused to budge, with the Planning Authority giving the green light. All that is needed before works can officially begin is for the Building and Construction Authority to approve its ‘works commencement notice’.
Installing the figurative eight-legged statue will involve digging untouched rock and inserting concrete piles deep into the ground, risking damage to the previously untouched and undisturbed location.
The emperor walked down the street in his new clothes. The plebs clapped and cheered hoping to have a piece of bread for free. Until one lone voice ‘wtf is he doing?’
The only relevant credential these days is being a spineless MLP toady. That’s Muscat’s meritocracy promise in practice.
An amateur and inexpert committee as headless, confused and upside down as the statue itself!
Art is so subjective that credentials in art are really irrelevant. There are strong feelings about public art, e.g. the Mediterranean Pillar in Luqa, the Immigration Knot, and the PL Flame near Castille, the Parliament Building, the Opera Ruins, etc., etc.
Personnally, I kind of like the weird horses where it it planned but would not like it in an urban setting. But that is just me; my only credentials are in enjoying/consuming art.
It should be dumped outside the Castille to remind everyone of the cowboys located in the building
The best expression in local expletive” Anki hemm se tnijku?”
Kif spicca dal pajjiz!! La l poplu ihallihom hekk ser jibqghu jaghmlu!
Dont worry, issa naghmlu park with adjoining cafeteria/restaurant. Then a carpark bil parker, which later the car park will be taken over by the restaurant tables and umbrellas and thus there will be the need for an underground carpark with a 37 storey hotel/shopping mall/apartments and offices above it and then the sculpture will be removed (and relocated to the Minister’s garden) as it will become an eyesore and spoil the views…
An ‘artist’ so full of himself that he thinks he can defile a pristine area of natural beauty with his ‘art’, funded and abetted by the environmental destruction specialists we have at PA and in government. This is the best Malta can produce, sadly.
They said that this abomination should be able to be removed and the area returned to its original state – the campaign for its removal needs to start already.
“in the middle of nowhere”..in cowboy land! The hunters will have a field day target practising!