Malta’s first ever national contemporary arts museum – the Malta International Contemporary Arts Space (MICAS) – was inaugurated on Friday 25th October 2024 with a joyous and monumental exhibition from the acclaimed and visionary Portuguese artist Joana Vasconcelos.

MICAS was officially opened by Prime Minister Robert Abela together with Joana Vasconcelos, as well as Minister for National Heritage, Arts and Local Government Owen Bonnici, and the MICAS board, led by executive chairperson Phyllis Muscat.

Special guests at the official inauguration cast their eyes on three major works of Joana Vasconcelos – Tree Of Life, Garden of Eden, and Valkyrie Mumbet – as well as a series of other works, which literally took over the four-storey space at MICAS.

Guests also admired the architectural intervention at the 17th century fortification formerly housed the Knights-era Ospizio, now enveloped under an iconic grid of steel beams that brings together the San Salvatore Counterguard, the Barbara skewed arch, and the La Vitoria Bastion. Together with the entire MICAS forecourt, the restoration of auxiliary buildings, the restoration of the bastions, the artists’ residences and the sculpture garden, this project was a €23 million state investment, bolstered by over €9 million in ERDF funding.

Under the stewardship of the MICAS board, this previously inaccessible complex of historic buildings has now been reopened to the community as Malta’s newest cultural destination.

Prime Minister Robert Abela said the opening of MICAS was a transformative moment for the island-nation of Malta, and paid tribute to all the ideators and workers who had brought the concept to fruition.

MICAS executive chair Phyllis Muscat outlined the evolution of a concept, which was formally kick-started in 2018, to respond to decades-long calls by Maltese artists for a contemporary arts space, and paid tribute to the efforts of the MICAS board in reaching out to the world of international art.

“It was a challenge for us to present what was essentially a start-up, with no history or a completed building, and from a small nation to boot… our enthusiasm pushed us to develop this concept and build up interest in the circles of international art, and we achieved this concretely through the networks we built with international artists, curators, museums, foundations and art historians, and the acquisitions we made.”

At the end of the speeches, the Prime Minister and Joana Vasconcelos later made their way through the MICAS esplanade and to the Galleries, where together with Phyllis Muscat, officially declared MICAS open to the public, with a fireworks display crowning off the official ceremony.