Unfinished Foundation

Unfinished Art Space is an independent, artist-run, nomadic space, showing experimental and contemporary art in Malta. It is a sustainable, independent organisation, that believes in the development, creation and dissemination of contemporary art and artistic research and knowledge. It was born from a need for an independent, flexible and open curatorial project, working with contemporary and experimental visual artists in Malta.

In less than ten years, Unfinished Art Space has built a comprehensive portfolio of visual art projects, in Malta and internationally, establishing networks and partners around Europe, and working with numerous artists, researchers, and cultural operators. The project, which was conceived as a nomadic, experimental project, has developed into an established NGO operating with national and European funding, and engaging multiple artists and curators every year, with a practice that is site-specific, political, feminist and pluri-versal in origin and direction. In recent years, Unfinished has developed a sophisticated portfolio of politically engaged curatorial projects, pushing the boundaries of site-specific, experimental and research-based curatorial practice in Malta. The organisation has proven skills in project management, funds management, art event production and insightful curation, as well as working with communities and numerous parallel stakeholders on multiple projects.

Unfinished Art Space provides a supportive and creative environment where artists can take risks and developing their ideas, alongside supportive communities and collaborators, believing that experimental and contemporary art should be an integral part of society, enriching lives, contributing to debate and empowering social change.

We work to;

  • provide a platform for contemporary artists to show their work;

  • offer mentorship and support to help artists develop their skills and careers;

  • create a community where artists can connect with each other, share ideas, and collaborate;

  • explore important themes through contemporary artistic expression and an exchange of experience, theory and practice;

  • facilitate intercultural discussion, creative expression, and artistic research;

  • link local and international initiatives through cultural practice.

Unfinished Art Space is run by Unfinished Foundation, registered in Malta, with VO Number VO/1740.

Who We Are

Margerita Pulè is a curator, researcher and cultural manager. She is founder-director of Unfinished Art Space, and currently a doctoral student with the Department of Digital Art within the Faculty of Media and Knowledge Science at the University of Malta. She is also a founder-member of the Magna Żmien Foundation, which digitises 20th century analogue home archives, forming a community archive accessible to researchers and artists.

In 2024, Margerita was one of four practitioners awarded Arts Council Malta’s first Sabbatical for Artistic Research, and through this grant researched curatorial methodologies outside of traditional exhibition contexts. She also curated the Malta Pavilion at La Biennale di Venezia 2026, showing the work of artists Adrian MM Abela, Charlie Cauchi and Raphael Vella, with a project titled No Need To Sparkle; Experiments in Love and Revolution.

Margerita was Programme Manager for Valletta 2018, planning and programming the cultural programme in the run-up to the European Capital of Culture title for the city of Valletta in 2018, developing flagship and community projects and events for the EcoC year. She is also a member of IKT - International Association of Curators of Contemporary Art.

Gianmarco Santirocco, of Italian origin with Maltese ancestry, is a Certified Accountant and Auditor (Italy). He earned a B.Com. (Hons.) In Finance (Economy of Banking, Finance and Insurance) in Malta and Italy, where he obtained his professional warrants. He began his career in the private sector (insurance, power generators, scientific instruments) and transitioned to NGOs as Financial Controller. He notably managed finances for BirdLife Malta, Friends of the Earth Malta, and the Deaf People Association Malta. Currently, he serves as Treasurer for ECOS (Belgium), CircE, FoEM, and Unfinished (Malta). Since 2020, he has played a key role in the ISO standardisation process for green finance matters, as a Maltese delegate.

Elyse Tonna is a curator, architect and interdisciplinary practitioner based in Malta, where she co-leads the artistic direction of Unfinished Art Space and serves as a board member. Her practice spans contemporary art, public space and site-specific work, developing research-driven and collaborative curatorial projects. Within Unfinished Art Space, she developed and leads initiatives such as Beyond What Drifts Us Apart and Coastal Commons.

She was co-curator of the Malta Pavilion at the 60th International Art Exhibition of the Venice Biennale (2024). Elyse has led and contributed to a wide range of exhibitions, artistic programmes and initiatives, supporting artists through curatorial development, mentorship and production. She works independently as a curator and lecturer, teaching at MCAST and the University of Malta.

Florinda is a community pharmacist and dance artist from and based in Malta. She currently works as a managing pharmacist of a dynamic pharmacy and its associated medical clinics in the centre of Malta, while her artistic practice flows at a slower, gentler pace. She engages in dance- and performance- related projects, taking on various roles as a contemporary dance and screendance performer and maker, researcher, coach and producer.

Florinda also enjoys designing, building, and holding spaces for creativity to emerge. She is particularly interested in how public space feels, and can feel, and searches for unusual ways of engaging with public space(s) through sensorial and affective information. Posthuman feminist notions of response-ability and care are fundamental to both her practices as an artist and pharmacist.

 

Maria Eileen Fsadni is a multi-hyphenate, blending her roles as a cultural advisor, curator, communications manager and fundraiser. Her professional life focuses on the intersections between the arts, culture and the environment. She holds a Masters degree in Art History, and has worked in some of Malta’s leading cultural and environmental NGOs since 2015, including FoEMalta, Unfinished Art Space, NFA Foundation, Fondazzjoni Patrimonju Malta and MEIA.

She is currently the Gallery Manager at Valletta Contemporary, a non-profit contemporary art space managed by the Norbert Francis Attard Foundation. In addition, she is the design co-chair of MEIA, communications manager at Unfinished Art Space and co-head of fundraising at Friends of the Earth Malta. Between 2024 to 2025, she sat on the advisory board of Refugee Week Malta.

In her student days she was President of the History of Art Students’ Association. In 2023 she was awarded the JCI Ten Outstanding Persons of the Year award for Environmental Leadership.

 

Emilia Figiel works at the intersection of psychology, socially engaged art, and migration. Holding an MA in Psychology, she combines the roles of performer, activist, and projects facilitator and coordinator in a practice shaped by professional expertise and lived experience. She has been engaged in the migration field for several years, working for the European Union Agency for Asylum and various NGOs in Malta. Her work within local NGOs includes contributing to Refugee Week Malta as both coordinator and artist, co-creating performances addressing migration, displacement, and social justice, as well as collaborating with Dance Beyond Borders, among others, on “Silent Voices,” a performance addressing sexual exploitation and violence against women.

Her artistic practice is grounded in physical theatre and alternative performance methodologies. She is affiliated with the Jerzy Grotowski Institute and a graduate of the Gardzienice Centre for Theatre Practices, where she trained in rigorous, body-awareness-based acting and singing methodologies. Her work explores post-Grotowski performance approaches in dialogue with psychotherapeutic thinking, with a focus on trauma-informed practices and the body as a site of memory and transformation.

She is particularly interested in using art as a tool for responding to contemporary societal challenges, integrating performative practices with therapeutic and community-based approaches.

More recently, she produced the 24-hour improvised performance “Sustain” at Valletta Underground, exploring theatre-making within a shelter context; participated in “DISPLACEMENT,” the opening performance for Malta Biennale of Art 2024, addressing climate-induced migration and water-related environmental change; and appeared in Peter Sant’s film “Zafzifa,” reflecting on everyday life, labour, and questions of belonging and the right to happiness within Malta’s diverse, multi-layered society.