Exhibition Opening: The Earth Will Swallow and Swallow
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The Earth Will Swallow and Swallow
(Moon Hyun Jeoung / Independent Curator)
Exhibition Opening: Thursday 29th October, 6pm
Exhibition Dates: Friday 30th October – 29th November 2026 | Wed - Sat | 2pm - 7pm (closed public holidays)
✍️ RSVP encouraged: https://forms.gle/yVoXPLeh262Jzg3T8
Entrance is free
VALLETTA CONTEMPORARY
15, 16, 17, East Street, Valletta
The Earth Will Swallow and Swallow expands upon the questions first raised by BEJN / In-Between, the Malta Pavilion at the 16th Gwangju Biennale. While BEJN / In-Between, presented in Gwangju, explored the relationships that emerge where different cultures, languages, histories, and identities intersect, this exhibition in Valletta turns its attention to how our experiences and cultures permeate one another, leave traces, and undergo transformation through such encounters.
The exhibition begins by reconsidering the relationship between land and sea. We reflect upon the places where we stand. Malta, an island nation in the Mediterranean, and Korea, a peninsula surrounded by the sea on three sides, have forged distinct histories. Yet for both, the sea has served as a passage through which people, objects, languages, and cultures have moved. The land bears the marks of territorial possession and the ordering of borders, while the sea carries layered histories of navigation, trade, expansion, and domination. Set against this foundation, we recall that experiencing one another’s worlds anew becomes an encounter with difference and unfamiliarity, through which our own senses and perceptions are reconfigured.
The exhibition takes its title, The Earth Will Swallow and Swallow, from a poem by the Maltese poet Jake Buttigieg. We rewrite this phrase, as the act of "swallowing" comes to mean taking something into oneself and releasing it back into the world in a different form. Continuing the encounter between Korea and Malta, this exhibition moves beyond cultural exchange between the two countries to focus on how artists from different cultural realms physically experience the history and culture of another land, and how they perceive and interpret things within it.
BEJN / In-Between is commissioned by Arts Council Malta for the 16th Gwangju Biennale, with the support of the Ministry for Foreign and European Affairs and Visit Malta.
(Moon Hyun Jeoung / Independent Curator)
Exhibition Opening: Thursday 29th October, 6pm
Exhibition Dates: Friday 30th October – 29th November 2026 | Wed - Sat | 2pm - 7pm (closed public holidays)
✍️ RSVP encouraged: https://forms.gle/yVoXPLeh262Jzg3T8
Entrance is free
VALLETTA CONTEMPORARY
15, 16, 17, East Street, Valletta
The Earth Will Swallow and Swallow expands upon the questions first raised by BEJN / In-Between, the Malta Pavilion at the 16th Gwangju Biennale. While BEJN / In-Between, presented in Gwangju, explored the relationships that emerge where different cultures, languages, histories, and identities intersect, this exhibition in Valletta turns its attention to how our experiences and cultures permeate one another, leave traces, and undergo transformation through such encounters.
The exhibition begins by reconsidering the relationship between land and sea. We reflect upon the places where we stand. Malta, an island nation in the Mediterranean, and Korea, a peninsula surrounded by the sea on three sides, have forged distinct histories. Yet for both, the sea has served as a passage through which people, objects, languages, and cultures have moved. The land bears the marks of territorial possession and the ordering of borders, while the sea carries layered histories of navigation, trade, expansion, and domination. Set against this foundation, we recall that experiencing one another’s worlds anew becomes an encounter with difference and unfamiliarity, through which our own senses and perceptions are reconfigured.
The exhibition takes its title, The Earth Will Swallow and Swallow, from a poem by the Maltese poet Jake Buttigieg. We rewrite this phrase, as the act of "swallowing" comes to mean taking something into oneself and releasing it back into the world in a different form. Continuing the encounter between Korea and Malta, this exhibition moves beyond cultural exchange between the two countries to focus on how artists from different cultural realms physically experience the history and culture of another land, and how they perceive and interpret things within it.
BEJN / In-Between is commissioned by Arts Council Malta for the 16th Gwangju Biennale, with the support of the Ministry for Foreign and European Affairs and Visit Malta.
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Where is it happening?
15,16,17 Triq Lvant (East Street), VLT1253 Valletta, Malta, 17 Triq il-Lvant, Valletta, VLT, Malta
Event Location & Nearby Stays:
Know what’s Happening Next — before everyone else does.
Host or PublisherValletta Contemporary
