The art festival will feature over 130 artists and run across Malta and Gozo from March until May

Times of Malta, February 5th, 2026| Emma Borg | (visited February 5th 2026)

This year’s Malta Biennale will feature 130 artists from around the world, including inmates from Malta’s correctional facility, marking a historic first for the festival.

Around 10 inmates will be participating in a pavilion titled Floating Fragments, which will be housed at the Old Armoury in Vittoriosa. The participating inmates come from several different nationalities. The pavilion is curated by Prof. Rolf Laven, an academic based in Vienna.

“This is the first time in history that a biennale has inmates as artists,” the president of the Malta Biennale and chairman of Heritage Malta, Mario Cutajar, said.

He added the project would extend beyond the exhibition space itself.

“They will not be exhibiting just in the armoury but also exhibiting their research within the prison itself. So, there will be events happening on both ends and parallel with each other,” Cutajar said.

The initiative follows a growing international interest in engaging prisons within major cultural events. During the 2024 Venice Biennale, the Giudecca women’s prison was used for the Vatican Pavilion and featured inmates as tour guides. The artist behind that project was the well-known Italian sculptor Maurizio Cattelan.

Speaking during Thursday’s press conference, Cutajar announced that Cattelan will also be among the artists featured in this year’s Malta Biennale. […]

Cutajar also said the anonymous feminist art collective Guerrilla Girls will be attending the biennale.

The Malta Biennale will have its official opening on March 10 and will open to the public on March 14. It will run until May 29. […]

Events will be spread across 11 Heritage Malta venues, with a particular focus on Valletta and Vittoriosa in Malta, as well as Xagħra and Victoria in Gozo. […]