ART, FASHION & CINEMA: 1960 TO TODAY
08.11.2025–04.01.2026
SPAZJU KREATTIV
SPAZJU Ċ
ST JAMES CAVALIER, VALLETTA
EXHIBITION OPENING HOURS
TUES–FRI: 09:00 AM–09:00 PM
SAT–SUN: 10:00 AM–09:00 PM
MONDAYS CLOSED
1.
Helmut Newton, Elle, Paris 1969
© Courtesy of Helmut Newton Foundation / Trunk Archive
GLAMOUR.
PERFORMANCE.
REALITY.
BLOW-UP is an exhibition that explores the ways in which film inspires and shapes reality. The project traces the trajectory from Michelangelo Antonioni’s 1966 film Blow-Up to today’s increasingly filmic experience of everyday life. Nearly sixty years later, the world appears to mirror cinema in reverse, as reality itself begins to feel constructed, edited, and framed.
Organised across three chapters, the exhibition examines artefacts from the 1960s in dialogue with contemporary counterparts, generating a series of visual and conceptual juxtapositions. Throughout, film and photography reflect on their own power to create, distort, or reveal truth. As the lens is inverted and the frame transcended, the viewer encounters an intensified confrontation between subject and object—between what is seen and how seeing shapes meaning.
2.
8 1/2 by Federico Fellini
Courtesy of Intramezzo
PLAN YOUR VISIT
PROGRAMME
08.11.2025
EXHIBITION OPENING
IN CONVERSATION WITH FRANCESCA GRIMA
08.11.2025
06.12.2025
CATALOGUE LAUNCH AND SEMINAR
13.12.2025
VENUS IN FURS:
A FASHION INSTALLATION BY AZZOPARDI STUDIO
FILM SCREENINGS SUPPORTED BY
29.10.2025
BLOW-UP
28.11.2025
A GIRL OF NO IMPORTANCE
& VIVRE SA VIE
12.12.2025
CATCHING FIRE: THE STORY OF ANITA PALLENBERG
04.01.2026
8 1/2
3.
Photo of Veruschka by unknown photographer
Courtesy of Bridgeman Images
Michelangelo Antonioni’s film follows Thomas, a fashion photographer loosely based on real-life British photographer David Bailey.
Iconic model Veruschka appears as herself, blurring the boundary between fiction and reality.
Later in the film, a photograph that Thomas develops in his studio appears to capture a distant murder, shifting the narrative into a psychological mystery.
An intimate photographic session between Veruschka and Thomas serves as a deliberate inversion of a photograph of Veruschka and Bailey once published in Vogue.
The climactic party scene mirrors the energy and cultural dynamism of Swinging Sixties London.
In a film that continually shifts between the gazer and the gazed, Antonioni establishes the zeitgeist of the 1960s—a moment in which lived reality underwent a profound transformation, and visual culture changed with it.
4.
Scene from Blow-Up
Courtesy of Warner Bros Pictures
BLOW-UP is the official publication accompanying the interdisciplinary exhibition of the same name.
Structured in two parts, the publication brings together:
A visual catalogue of the works featured in the exhibition, ranging from photography, cinema, and performance to fashion, music, and archival material
A section of collected writings, composed of original entries by local and international contributors—artists, scholars, and curators—each reflecting on a concept, figure, artefact, or cultural phenomenon connected to the project’s wider themes
Designed as more than just a companion to the exhibition, BLOW-UP is a publication for interdisciplinary thinking across eras and mediums. It moves between the cultural energy of the 1960s and contemporary questions of visibility, power, and mediated experience—offering commentary on how we see and are seen today.
€40.00 Paperback
€55.00 Limited Edition & Numbered Hard Bound
—
Published by Impeached, a division of Von Peach GmbH (Risch-Rotkreuz, Switzerland)
Edited by Maria Theuma
Designed by Mike Zerafa
Printed and bound in Malta by Polidano Press Ltd (Ħal Luqa)
PARTNERS
Under the patronage of City of Art’s main patrons Jordi Goetstouwers and Valeria Limentani
PLATINUM PARTNERS
Spazju Kreattiv
Arts Council Malta, Arts Support Scheme
Virgata Group
GOLD PARTNERS
Office of the Deputy Prime Minister and Ministry for Foreign Affairs and Tourism
Festivals Malta
SILVER PARTNERS
Deloitte
Farsons Foundation
Holland and Barrett Malta
Charles Degiorgio Ltd
ASSOCIATE PARTNERS
Heritage Malta
MAPFRE
Alberta
The Phoenicia Malta
Base Ltd
Visit Malta
INSTITUTIONAL PARTNERS
University of Malta Faculty of Arts
Department of Art and Art History
Department of English
Department of French
Department of Italian
Master of Arts in Film Studies
University of Malta Faculty of Media and Knowledge Sciences
Department of Digital Arts
University of Malta Institute of Anglo-Italian Studies
Helmut Newton Foundation
Stockhausen Foundation for Music
Archivio Joana Biarnés
Fundación Photographic Social Vision
Archivio Tazio Secchiaroli
Archivio Mario Schifano
Spazio Antonioni, Ferrara
THEMATIC PARTNERS
Grima Jewellery
Studio Semotan
OstLicht Collection
Studio Dawood
Pandemonium Films
At the Movies
Camera Eye Ltd
Bailey Studio
Edwards Lowell
Trunk Archive
CREATIVE PARTNERS
Philippe Garner
Jane and Albert Marshall
Simon Abrahams
Stefano Pocci
Kathinka Pasveer
Anya Camilleri
Lorenzo Agius
Stef Galea
COLLABORATIVE PARTNERS
Embassy of France in Malta
Embassy of Italy in Malta
Istituto Italiano di Cultura a La Valletta
Embassy of Spain in Malta
German Embassy Valletta
Embassy of Austria for Malta
British High Commission in Malta
Valletta Cultural Agency
PATRONS
Sarah Muscat and Morgan Jones
Simon Abrahams and Francesca del Rio
Joanna Gatt
K. G.
SA Consult
Johanna Petreski
TEAM
PRODUCTION TEAM
Artistic Director
Lucia Micallef
Exhibition Curators
Andrew Borg Wirth
Charlie Cauchi
Exhibition Communication and Public Programming Leads
Luke Azzopardi
Gillian Zammit
Exhibition Designer
Andrew Borg Wirth
Project Manager
Michele Tufigno
Exhibition and Catalogue Editor
Maria Theuma
Exhibition, Catalogue and Communication Designer
Mike Zerafa
Commissioned Artists
Alexandra Pace
Marlon Tabone
Marija Grech