2025
Residency Dates
10 September - 9 October
Residency Location
Il-Majjistral Park, Mellieha (all events will start from here unless specified otherwise)
Residency Launch
16 September 2025 | 6:30pm - 9:00pm
Residency Closing
9 October 2025 | 6:30pm - 9:00pm
RSVP Here
Events
Every Tuesday to Thursday | 6:00pm to 8:30pm
Every Saturday | 9:30am to 11:30am
Programme & registration below
Beyond What Drifts Us Apart
a MagiC Carpets project
Beyond What Drifts Us Apart (BWDUA) is a multi-year interdisciplinary research and residency-based project developed by Elyse Tonna that explores the less dominant narratives embedded within the environments surrounding Malta’s historic (300-year-old+) coastal towers. As the colonial legacies that built them fade, these structures now stand within fragile and shifting ecologies, where human interventions and non-human communities continue to shape each other.
Guided by ecological thinking and a decolonial mindset, BWDUA reconsiders inherited legacies of these landscapes, focusing on the interplay between the visible and invisible, the natural and de-/constructed. It addresses concepts related to extractive capitalism, contested land use, identity and environmental degradation, asking how past infrastructures underpin today’s ecological instability. Post-anthropocentric perspectives frame the project’s approach, prioritising climate justice, bio-cultural diversity and the dismantling of human-centred perspectives in favour of coexistence.
The 2025 edition of BWDUA will centre on Għajn Tuffieħa Tower (Riviera Tower), a 17th-century coastal defence structure under the custodianship of Din l-Art Ħelwa within a Natura 2000 protected area managed by Majjistral Nature and History Park. Due to safety concerns, access to the tower is restricted, shifting the focus towards activating surrounding protected landscapes and overlooked ecologies.
Curated by
Elyse Tonna
Artists
Giulia Iacolutti, Martina Farrugia, Indiġikċina in collaboration with Noah Fabri
Programme of Events
Week 1
Residency Launch - 16 September 2025 | 6:30-9:00pm
Open Studio - 17 September 2025 | 6:00-8:00pm
Open Studio - 18 September 2025 | 6:00-8:00pm
Open Studio - 20 September 2025 | 9:30-11:30pm
Week 2
Sonic Artifacts: Collective Sound Walk, led by Martina Farrugia - Tuesday 23 September 2025 | 6:00-8:00pm - Register here
Guided and embodied walk about foraging and ownership, led by Nicole Borg (Indigikcina) with Noah Fabri - Wednesday 24 September 2025 | 6:00-8:00pm - Register here
What would happen if the tower fell? A workshop on building a collective photograph, led by Giulia Iacolutti in collaboration with Rakel Vella - Thursday 25 September 2025 | 6:00-8:00pm - Register here
Open Studio - 27 September 2025 | 9:30-11:30pm
Week 3
Tactile and Visual Tracing, led by Martina Farrugia - Tuesday 30th September | 6:00-8:00pm - Register here
Open Studio - Wednesday 1 October 2025 | 6:00-8:00pm
Investigative salt-dough workshop, led by Nicole Borg (Indigikcina) with Noah Fabri, Thursday 2 October 2025 | 6:00-8:00pm - Register here
Open Studio - 4 September 2025 | 9:30-11:30pm
Week 4
Open Studio - Tuesday 7 October 2025 | 6:00-8:00pm
Open Studio - Wednesday 8 October 2025 | 6:00-8:00pm
Residency Closing - Thursday 9 October | 6:30-9:30pm - RSVP
Residency Launch
Beyond What Drifts Us Apart is part of the MagiC Carpets Platform, co-funded by the European Union’s Creative Europe program. The MagiC Carpets Platform brings together 21 European cultural organisations, coordinated by Kaunas Biennial in Lithuania, offering opportunities for emerging artists to explore little-known areas and to create - together with local communities - new works that bring to light regional particularities and traditions.
Credits
Emerging Curator: Elyse Tonna
Lead Partner: Kaunas Biennale
Co-funded by: European Union’s Creative Europe programme,
Collaborators in Malta & Gozo: Il-Park Tal-Majjistral, Din l-Art Ħelwa and the volunteers
