Frank Portelli (1922-2004) : ‘sic itur ad astra non est ad astra mollis e terris via’

Abstract

This essay concentrates on Frank Portelli’s oeuvre and its relationship to the Gozitan-Maltese art scene. It is important to anchor aspects of the essay to the overarching thematic concerns of the conference in question. In other words, islander-identity. This is the reason why the original title for the conference talk was ‘Insularity and Puberty’. Having lived in Milan, Kiev, Moscow, Paris, and London for more than two thirds of my life, I encountered the debate on insularity in various forms and became epiphanically aware that, with the exception of certain spaces, all the world, and not only the Maltese Islands, is quite insular. I concluded that only particular hubs and not whole countries form the cosmopolitan ‘minestrone’. Outside of these hubs, one is confronted by the same insularity and provincialism that one finds in Malta. This can only be experienced through one’s consistent physical presence within the actual tangible cosmopolitan space. No virtual correspondence courses or three-day sojourns can suffice. Cosmopolitanism cannot be understood from afar, neither virtually. One must experience Paris’s La Défense, or London’s City. Such hegemony imposes upon us the belief that the particular hub emblemises the entire nation around which it dominates fiercefully, economically, politically and militarily. However, Paris is not France, neither is London Great Britain, nor is Moscow Russia, or New York the States. [Excerpt]