A painting dedicated to Jean Paul Sofia and this mother, Isabelle Bonnici, has won one of the awards at the maltabiennale.art. The artwork, , by the Italian artist Teresa Antignani, won the prize for the best work in the main pavilion at the inaugural maltabiennale.
art last night at a ceremony held at Verdala Palace. The winner was selected by an international jury of experts. Bonnici was Antignani's guest at the ceremony, and Antignani said she invited her because “I did not win.
Her courage won.” Antignani is an artist, researcher and activist whose work often uses the female body as a conduit to explore environmental abuses and the hypocrisy of the power dynamics that surround the environmental struggle against energy giants. The oil on canvas painting depicts a contemporary version of the deposition surrounded by the rubble of a construction site, with cranes instead of crosses in the background, while in the forefront, a weeping mother holds onto the body of her deceased child.
Antignani first became aware of Jean Paul Sofia when she was visiting Malta for the first time in November and saw his banner in front of parliament. She said, “His name and that image struck me deeply. I started to study and look for as much information as possible about his story.
I found out about Isabelle Bonnici and her fight for justice. I was strongly impressed by Isabelle's words in parliament,” Bonnici and Antignani first met at the Grandmaster’s Palace this May to show Bonnici .