How did this grant contribute to the realization of your project in regard to artistic exchange, local cultural development and/or the promotion of cultural diversity?

This project builds on a residency by the artists during March 2017. During this residency, members of Nusquam Productions created a series of workshops using video as a medium of communication between a group of recent refugees from around the Mediterranean basin and primarily based in Valletta (Spark 15) and primary school students in Gozo. The video material from this residency will be included in the final work. The current trip involved a return to Malta/Gozo for a week in July 2018 in order to shoot additional footage of the physical sites and encounters/interviews with Maltese to complement the pre-existent footage. The final short film/video, "Under the Moon," will combine elements from each section as part of a meditation on the intersections between cultural and material identity.

How does exchange, networking and international contacts contribute to the development of your artistic and cultural project?

International contact is vital to our individual and collective artistic research and production, in that the majority of our projects are based in multiple international locations and involve collaboration with local representatives or communities. While the precise nature of these collaborations vary, the type of exchange fostered through a trip such as our recent one to Malta influences both the content and form of the work in question while creating possibilities for the future. In this case, the contacts in Malta became direct participants in the film project and interlocutors, subjects and actors.

Can you elaborate on the learning and knowledge you have gained and shared throughout this experience?

During this experience (both visits to Malta in 2017 and 2018), we have deepened our knowledge of Maltese politics and culture, learning more about the archipelago's complex history. Over time, this history and elements of it that contribute to contemporary Maltese identity, have come to play a larger role in the film project we have been working on. We also have been exposed to the narratives of recent arrivals in Malta, which also figure in the film. At the same time, we hope to have conveyed elements related to our own artistic medium (filmmaking but also artistic creation more widely) to local students and other collaborators, in addition to sharing our outsider but evolving perspective on Malta.

Please indicate a link to your current work (website/facebook page)

http://mariangela-ciccarello.com