Curated by Raphael Vella and produced in collaboration with Aġenzija Żgħażagħ
The fourth edition of Divergent Thinkers brings together several emerging Maltese artists who have produced new work revolving around this year’s chosen theme, ‘Connect’. This year’s edition focuses on collaborations, networks, and relations – that is, on situations that involve artists working or interacting with other people.
Divergent Thinkers is an innovative collective exhibition about the brainstorming mental processes involved in the creation of works of art. In other words, it is seeks contemporary artistic practices by young Maltese artists, encouraging them to explore divergent thinking. The concept of divergent thinking is generally defined as a creative process through which one investigates various possible solutions to a problem or alternative ways of dealing with an issue. Young, contemporary artists typically work in a variety of media or search for innovative ways of expressing concepts, and this creative process often involves a period of divergent thinking or “brainstorming”, during which the artist explores several different and even unexpected outcomes in drawings, photographs, journals, videos, objects and other materials. Most art exhibitions generally do not show the thinking process itself, but focus only on the last stage of this process – the end product that emerges after the artist’s mind converges to a final idea.
Participating artists:
Matthew Schembri – Social Kitchen
Ryan Falzon – Consuming Connections
Moira Aguis – Losing Ground
Umberto Buttigieg and Maxine Attard – A Dining Room
Javier Joseph Formosa and Maria Chiara Monterosso – Exploring Sexuality, Innocence and Space
Martina Galea – Transmitted Data