Cremation sets stage for ‘URNA’, Malta commission for London Design Biennale

Arts Council Malta will be once again returning to the London Design Biennale, in 2025, with the selected project URNA, which will explore the fascinating and distinctive subject of cremation.

ACM said the proposal “perfectly exemplifies and merges design innovation and creativity” with a bold design that challenged Malta’s status quo on interment, and offering a solution “that is both poetic, intellectually stimulating and environmentally engaging.”

URNA introduces a new ritual for handling human remains, anticipating the adoption of cremation in the Maltese Islands and envisioning it as a culturally significant process.

“The project redefines the columbarium, ossuary, and wake to re-establish death as a significant ceremony, unburdened by unnecessary signifiers,” a spokesperson for Arts Council Malta said.

The team of architects, designers, curators, and art directors use large, nondescript boulders to devise a geometrical construction. The spherical modules, universal in shape, incorporate cremated remains, “embodying the individual’s connection to a broader cosmic reality and evolving through tactile interventions that invite various cultural interpretations.”

The team behind URNA area curator and architect Andrew Borg Wirth; architect and designer Anthony Bonnici, Cypriot designer Tanil Raif, art director Matthew Attard Navarro, French photographer Anna Immelém, Maltese filmmaker and performer Stephanie Sant, and architect Thomas Mifsud.

The fifth London Design Biennale will be held in 2025 in historic Somerset House, one of the UK’s finest and most beautiful 18th century buildings.

The project URNA in 2025 shall be located in one of the internal rooms of Somerset house.

ACM’s evaluators for the selected project were Teatru Manoel artistic director Adrian Mamo, Chamber of Architects president Andre Pizzuto, and London Design Biennale events manager Angela Bourderye-Munoz.

Arts Council Malta acts as the commissioner and contracting authority of Malta’s participation at the London Design Biennale, with Dr Romina Delia, International Executive at Arts Council Malta leading the project, supported by Celine Portelli and Dr Frank Psaila.