In the 1920s, Swiss psychiatrist and psychoanalyst Carl Jung introduced the idea that “the creation of something new was not accomplished by our intellect but by the play instinct acting from inner necessity. The creative mind playing with the objects it loves.” The reflex to ‘rally together objects as the essential elements of an idea’ is what Portuguese artist Joana Vasconcelos does with great aplomb. Easily able to exhibit the commonplace in the crucible of contemporary art, Vasconcelos’s sculptures appear as modern memorials to our lives. Vasconcelos sees our belongings as ripe for reinterpreting, as ‘readymades’ reintroduced as art.

The MICAS in Conversation is a series of short conversations between art critic Rajesh Punj and a selection of Maltese and international artists on the involving effect of space on their art practice against the backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic and its implications.

MICAS is a Government of Malta infrastructural legacy project for the Culture and the Arts sector. MICAS will be realised through state funded restoration of historical fortifications and its galleries will be delivered in 2023. This project is part-financed by the European Union under the European Regional Development Fund – European Structural and Investment Funds 2014-2020.