No Need To Sparkle: Experiments in Love and Revolution
Form, is proud to have contributed to the success of this year’s No Need To Sparkle: Experiments in Love and Revolution at the Malta Pavilion of the 61st Biennale di Venezia — a project conceived as a space where truth could reposition itself through openness, empathy, and reflection, embracing uncertainty and doubt not as weakness, but as a path towards understanding.
Borrowing its title from Virginia Woolf’s A Room of One’s Own — “No need to hurry. No need to sparkle. No need to be anybody but oneself” — the pavilion challenged notions of ideological certainty and performative positioning, instead advocating for coexistence, contemplation, and the acceptance of multiple voices and perspectives.
The pavilion brought together three distinct yet interconnected works by Adrian MM Abela, Charlie Cauchi, and Raphael Vella, each exploring themes of identity, mythology, resistance, and post-colonial narratives through moving image and installation.
Adrian MM Abela’s Declaration of Dependence (A Game of Surrender) transformed the space into an interactive stage where visitors encountered shifting declarations shaped by chance, reflecting on Malta’s past, present, and imagined futures.
Charlie Cauchi’s Dolce unfolded as a surreal cinematic installation that navigated performance, spectacle, and cultural identity, drawing inspiration from film history while examining the tensions embedded within contemporary Maltese society.
Raphael Vella’s Praying for a Revolution That Will Never Come revisited a century of Maltese protest culture through stop-motion animation and compressed protest materials, reflecting on cycles of political resistance, memory, and unrealised change.
Together, the works created a contemplative environment that blurred fiction and reality, inviting viewers into a space where time, meaning, and truth became fluid. At the heart of the pavilion was an invitation to pause, engage collectively, and reflect — creating a contemporary agora rooted in curiosity, empathy, and thoughtful inquiry. In this environment, doubt became an act of resistance, opening space for humility, dialogue, and ultimately, hope.
We were honoured to have supported a project that so powerfully challenged certainty while encouraging humanity, cultural exchange, and meaningful conversation.
CREDITS:
Malta Pavilion at the 61st Biennale de Venezia, No Need To Sparkle; Experiments in Love and Revolution
Artists Adrian MM Abela | Charlie Cauchii | Raphael Vella
Curated by Margerita Pulè
with architects SON Architecture | Mark Sullivan | Julian Vasallo
Commissioned by Arts Council Malta
Producers Unfinished Art Space X R Gallery
Project management Tamara Burr | outreach and partnerships Kathrine Maj | visual identity Alexandra Pace | social media Alessia Caruana
Catalogue publisher Skira
Photo credits Samuele Cherubini & Julian Vassallo
