Keit Bonnici accuses Malta Biennale of censoring ‘return to sender’ Brit-era phonebox

The contemporary artist Keit Bonnici, whose performative art has included a balancing act on the barriers erected outside Parliament to keep protestors away, has alleged that Heritage Malta censored his Malta Biennale artwork after it had gone on display in Pjazza Regina.

Bonnici’s and Neil Plotard’s Fuq l-Art / On (the) Land, was an installation of wood, bubble wrap, and ratchet straps around a red telephone box on Pjazza Regina, serving as part of the Biennale thematic of ‘Decolonising Malta’, and placed just a few metres away from Austin Camilleri’s Siġġu, an empty throne erected in front of the Queen Victoria monument.

Fuq l-Art / On (the) Land, 2024

Bonnici’s work showcased the British-era red phonebooth being wrapped and returned to sender.

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In a Facebook post, Bonnici accused Heritage Malta chairman Mario Cutajar, of having censored his artwork.

“The artwork was removed on 30 April and kidnapped in a secret storage till the end of the Biennale. This removal was not communicated to me. I emailed Mr Cutajar multiple times, asking where my artwork was. He only replied on the 28 May saying the artwork had become unsightly and has been safely stored at a Heritage Malta facility.”

Bonnici said he was only allowed to collect the artwork after the Biennale ended, on 4 June.

Heritage Malta replies

Heritage Malta, which organises the Malta Biennale, said the accusation from Bonnici was absurd. “I’m quite sure that had Mr Bonnici been censored in any way he would have cried foul immediately, without waiting more than four months and claiming it in a post advertising the artwork for sale or exhibition, Mario Cutajar, chairman of Heritage Malta and of the Malta Art Biennale, said.

Cutajar said that on 23 April, the Biennale artistic director had asked Bonnici to “maintain his artwork as it had become unsightly.”

“We asked for its maintenance to be carried out that same week. Nothing happened. On 30 April, one week later, we requested that the necessary repairs are carried out immediately or it would have to be dismantled. Again, nothing happened, and it was dismantled that same evening,” Cutajar said.

“Contrary to Bonnici’s censorship claim, his artwork was selected by the Malta Biennale to participate in its main pavilion, the final designs and concept of the artwork were approved by the Biennale, the work was sponsored and commissioned by the Biennale, and all the necessary permits were acquired from the relevant authorities by the Biennale for Bonnici’s artwork to be set up in Pjazza Repubblika – a site also allocated by the Biennale for Bonnici’s artwork.”