AiR2026 sharing / Tara Dalli
August 21 @ 5:00 pm - 6:00 pm
with Artist in Residence Tara Dalli
Please RSVP to this event to let us know you will be attending
During her residency, Tara Dalli has been developing a new site-specific solo work for the Malta Pavilion BEJN / IN BETWEEN at the Gwangju Biennale 2026. Drawing from the Pavilion’s theme of In Between and the Biennale’s title: You Must Change Your Life, the work explores identity, womanhood, contradiction and transformation.
Rooted in Tara’s experience as a Maltese woman, dancer, and former gymnast, the research considers what it means to exist between states of being: femininity and masculinity, strength and vulnerability, discipline and freedom, permanence and transformation. Maltese religious iconography, particularly representations of the Virgin Mary and female saints, sits alongside the physical disciplines of gymnastics and dance, questioning how ideals of beauty, purity, devotion and achievement are carried within the body. Repetition becomes a key choreographic tool, drawing connections between poetry, prayer, ritual and physical training. Movement accumulates, shifts and breaks down over time, becoming a mechanism for transformation.
Costume also plays a central role in the work. Created in collaboration with costume designer Zoe Camilleri, traditional Maltese crocheted lace and doilies are reworked into a full-body garment, evoking veiling, religious imagery and domestic craft traditions. This is placed in tension with an oversized masculine suit, allowing identities to shift through the acts of dressing, undressing and transformation.
Photograph by Ines Bahr