Defining Art in the Gozo International Contemporary Arts Festival

This chapter explores the role of identity, place, and origin of the artists in the Gozo International Contemporary Arts Festival in Gozo, Malta. Based on research conducted in July 2010 for a summer field school in sociocultural anthropology, I draw on conversations with several of the artists showing their work, as well as interactions with local organizing officials, arts instructors, and Gozitan artists and craftspeople not directly involved in the exhibit. I argue that the event is a space in which central questions of Gozitan identity are actively addressed and negotiated, focusing particularly on the manner in which the international artists participating in the festival construct both conceptual and visual images of Gozo and Malta. I suggest that the origin of the artist, in tandem with the purpose and medium of their artwork, plays a major role in how the work is incorporated into the exhibit. Framed in part as a cosmopolitan attraction alongside the historical sites of the island, the exhibition acknowledges the increasingly global nature of Gozo. Ultimately, I aim to address questions pertinent to postcolonial identity and tourism on Gozo and Malta. How is the island viewed by visitors from abroad? What cultural resources is it assumed to possess (or lack)? How do Gozitan artists interact with and respond to such expectations through events like the Arts Festival?