Matthew Attard

The Maltese pavilion at the 60th International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia presents I Will Follow The Ship a solo project by Maltese artist Matthew Attard (b. 1987). Curated by Maltese curator Elyse Tonna (b. 1990) and Italo-American curator Sara Dolfi Agostini (b. 1983), it is commissioned by Arts Council Malta. It explores the intersection of digital technology and contemporary drawing. Attard’s ongoing exploration of drawing with an eye-tracking device and with digital technology challenges conventional notions of artistic practice.

I Will Follow The Ship, located within the Artiglierie at the Arsenale, immerses visitors in a multi-layered digital installation that overlaps physical and virtual environments. It draws inspiration from historical ex-voto ship graffiti; humble drawings depicting ancient tales of faith and survival across the Mediterranean. The ship graffiti, maritime ex-votos some of which are found on the facades of wayside chapels in the Maltese Islands, are metaphors for hope and tangible drawings of faith and resilience. They are believed to have been created by seafarers seeking solace and protection from the dangerous seas.

Led by the youngest team to ever represent Malta at the Venice Biennale, it further aims to provoke questions on humanity engagement with artificial intelligence and digital realms. Attard's innovative use of a digital eye-tracking device for drawing therefore establishes a dialogue between these graffiti etched in stone and contemporary digital art forms. It is presented as a series of walls – both tangible and equally technological – creating multiple parallels and provoking reflections on authorship and on our ongoing blind faith in the use of technology and data. Rather than relying on common-day contemporary software to generate new imagery, the project dissects various processes employed by digital technology, through a meticulous unfolding of the eye-tracking process.

By examining historical imagery as a way of drawing with the eye movement data of the eye-tracking, Attard prompts reflections on authorship and our contemporary reliance on digital technology creating parallels questioning our future and our unwavering trust in digital technology. It invites discourse on artistic agency, image-making and offers a critical exploration of contemporary challenges and possibilities.

Matthew Attard (b. 1987, Malta). His practice investigates images as social and cultural constructs. Matthew is strongly interested in situating his practice within the realm of contemporary drawing through a multimedia approach that highlights drawing’s versatile, performative, and time-based nature. His interest in understanding the gaze as a form of drawing - its perceptual, physiological and cultural dimensions – were the focus of his practice-based PhD research at the Edinburgh College of Art, University of Edinburgh, funded by the Malta Arts Scholarship scheme.

Raised in Malta, in 2009 he moved to Venice and collaborated with the Peggy Guggenheim Collection and the USA Pavilion at the Biennale Arte 2009 and 2011. Later, he came back to Malta where in 2018 he obtained his Masters by Research Degree from the Digital Arts Department of the University of Malta. He first exhibited his work in a double solo show organised in 2014 at Galleria Michela Rizzo in Venice. Since then, he has exhibited in Venice, Rome, Valletta, Genoa, London, Beijing and Los Angeles among other cities. Also, in 2017 he was selected for the 3rd edition of the Le Latitudini dell’Arte Biennale, at the Palazzo Ducale, Genoa, while in 2018 he was awarded the Under 30 Euromobil Prize at ArteFiera, Bologna.

He was selected three times to show in the context of ‘Ten Artists to Watch’ at LACDA (Los Angeles Centre for Digital Arts) and in 2019 he was invited to participate in Artissima Telephone at the OGR spaces in Turin. Recently, he was shortlisted for the Lumen Prize 2021. Rajt ma rajtx... naf li rajt is one of Matthew’s major solo shows, curated by Elyse Tonna at Valletta Contemporary in 2021. In 2022 he was commissioned the work Here’s How I Did Not See What You Wanted Me To See as part of the Open digital residency at Blitz, Valletta, curated by Sara Dolfi Agostini. His most recent solo show, Ship of Fools, took place in March 2023 at Galleria Michela Rizzo, Venice.

Commissioner: Arts Council Malta

Curators: Sara Dolfi Agostini and Elyse Tonna