Forget Aaron Bezzina? A review of his exhibition CORPUS ADFLICTUM at Valletta Contempo

Hic Lacet Corpus Aaron Bezzina, photo by VC

This article appeared on the front page of the Arts and Culture Section of The Sunday Times of Malta with the title 'A chilling body of work' on 24th November 2019

Aaron Bezzina chose the 1st of November, the ‘Day of the Dead’, for the opening of his exhibition CORPUS ADFLICTUM at Valletta Contemporary. Thus he set the mood for the experience that is his new body of work.

As visitors enter the gallery space, on the floor of the entrance hall they encounter a marble tombstone, marking the corpus of Aaron Bezzina lying beneath. Once they look up, they face what first appears to be a monumental wooden sculpture, but on closer inspection turns out to be a guillotine. This ‘High-striking Guillotine’ is the only work that reaches above ground, the rest of the exhibits are all displayed in the spaces below street level. Never before have these cavernous rooms be more appropriate for the artworks put on display.

Aaron’s works have all been conceived as machines and objects that will inflict harm on, or possibly cause the death of a person. They appear as instruments of torture, yet, they do not require a torturer. The mechanisms are such that there will only be one person operating the machine. The damage will be inflicted on whoever releases the trigger. The notes accompanying the exhibition tell us that the show is all about the “act of voluntary harm and bodily sacrifice”.

This is indeed macabre, but then again it is not. With his artworks Aaron only takes to an absolute extreme what is already acceptable and accepted in our society: self-inflicted bodily harm in order to achieve what is considered perfection. In one way or another we have all been guilty of such behaviour before. We are inclined to attain what society sees as “the ideal”, be it in the realm of success or beauty, by often painful and/or harmful means. As human beings we are also on a constant quest to fulfil our desires. Life today is all about temptation and gratification – isn’t it?

Aaron’s works are very tempting – in more than one way. For a start, they tempt us to touch them, if only to feel the rough wood or the smooth surface of polished brass. But they are works of art, so we have to resist this temptation. Their purpose is to evoke a mental interaction with the viewer, not a physical one.

What you should give in to though, is the temptation to analyze your feelings vis-à-vis these machines. That is what the artist wants. He strives to understand people’s desires and he is jolting us to experience an intellectual reaction to his works. We are invited to discover our feelings about these machines and maybe provide their creator with answers to the questions he seems to pose here: Can/May/Should art be deadly?

So when you go to see this exhibition, and I suggest that you do, look, first and foremost, at the machines as works of art. They are the outcome of the artist’s creative processes, his artistic as well as artisanal skills, and his ability to realize in 3D perfection what he once drew as an idea in his sketch book.

This conceptual development of his pieces shows clearly Aaron’s intimate knowledge of the galleries of Valletta Contemporary. He has shown his work in collective exhibitions here before and is therefore aware of the proportions and measurements of the different spaces.

At the very bottom of the building, for example, down the stairs in the former well, we find a symmetrical, winged object. As a work of art it meets our aesthetic expectations, its proportions are pleasing, the play of light and shadows in the semi-lit room is mesmerizing. It fits the space. Yet, as a machine it has sinister connotations. The function of the long spikes attached to its wings is to trap and pierce any human who walks up the two steps to its central platform.

On the level above, one of the basement rooms contains a display of three small, beautifully crafted objects. They are equally pleasing to the eye in an artistic aesthetic sense. Looking closer, their mutilating purposes become more apparent. The dagger, with sharp nails protruding like spiky thorns from its handle, needs no explanation.

It’s a slightly different story with the other two objects. Not even close scrutiny makes their calamitous purpose entirely clear. To understand the way these objects work, you have to go and look at the set of blueprints on a wall in the next room. Simple sketches with short captions contain all the explanations you require. Beware – you may wish you had never found out.

Aaron gives his pieces descriptive working titles as he conceives and creates them. Yet he rejects the idea of displaying these titles next to the artworks. In fact, there is no need to name these machines. Just as there is no need to touch the blade, to swing the hammer, or trigger the mechanism in any way to understand what they are capable of.

Contrary to what the ‘Forget Aaron Bezzina’ notices in the press and around town might have you believe, this is not an obituary. Aaron Bezzina’s corpus might lie below ground for the moment, but it is not dead. The tombstone marks merely the beginning, not the end.

CORPUS ADFLICTUM is on show at Valletta Contemporary till 4 December 2019.

To see more of Aaron's art click here.

You can follow Valletta Contemporary on Facebook or view their website

Photos in the following gallery are by Karin Grech except for the ones marked 'Photo by VC'. Those were taken by Norbert Attard and digitally edited by Emma Fsadni.