Take a walk through the maze | Pierre Mizzi

How did the concept behind AMAZE2 first come about, and what was the original aim behind it?

Our team comprises creative designers from different disciplines that thrive on bouncing creative ideas off each other to formulate project concepts together. This particular idea was developed through several creative sessions we had done internally as part of the development process. Our aim is to enclose the visitor within an immersive experience that changes as you walk around the maze. The labyrinth concept achieves this very successfully and gives us the opportunity to create rooms and wall spaces which do not normally exist within the open air space of the Piazza.

What is it like to coordinate an exhibit of such a large scale and that incorporates so many different entities? What were some of the biggest challenges?

Dealing with the different organisers was relatively easy as both Science in the City and Notte Bianca are being managed by very capable teams. The Valletta 2018 Foundation was also very accommodating. Apart from the extremely short time frames, our first big challenge was to achieve what we were after within the budget constraints we had. But these are issues we are often faced with on a day-to-day basis and always manage to overcome somehow. 

In this case, we were able to rope in a few corporate partners to augment our budget and that in itself causes a lot of delays as you have to wait for replies from a lot of different people. Doing this in the height of summer only makes things more frustrating. Other than that, there were daily issues we had to deal with which are quite normal when you are creating something of this magnitude. Another big challenge we managed to overcome was keeping the normal work of our other projects and clients flowing, as we couldn’t just drop everything to focus solely on this.

We are fortunate to have a very effective team and an extended network of contacts we can rely on, and I suppose this makes it easier for us to achieve big ideas.

How was it for you to promote science in fun and artistic ways?

Over the past few months we’ve been working very closely with the Malta Council for Science & Technology on the branding and environmental styling of the new Esplora Science Centre, so we were already in the right frame of mind so to speak.

The science and artistic teams involved with SITC came on board with a clear picture of what they were after, so that too made things easier. Then we devised other concepts to give our corporate partners an opportunity to relate their brand story from a scientific perspective and we’re looking forward to see everything come together with an element of fun.

Do you think we need more interdisciplinary events of this kind in Malta?

From our own experience as a creative company with two decades working experience, we are very pleased to note that this kind of event has become much more commonplace over the past few years.

Events like SITC, Notte Bianca, Design Week and Fashion Week give a lot of opportunity for creative people to showcase their work and collaborate. It then often boils down to budgets because when you compare with similar events in other countries, we always seem to make miracles with very little money.

What do you hope visitors will get out of this experience?

We hope that visitors will appreciate the scale of this project and the fact that all this effort has gone into building a complex structure that only exists for one week. We’re confident that both the labyrinth itself and the ancillary structures and facilities will give visitors a spark of imagination and a place to rest and relax for a while to soak in all that they have seen.

AMAZE2  is being organised in collaboration with Science in the City Consortium, Notte Bianca Valletta, Biopilot, Izaxa, Valletta 2018 Foundation and Logix/Daaa. It will be unveiled for Science in the City on September 26 and remain on display for Notte Bianca on October 4