Mark Mangion

Blackout

05.03.2009 - 18.03.2009

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Black Out is a series of films and sculpture by Maltese artist, Mark Mangion, which pay homage to the dangerous and often tragic exodus of African migrants to the western world. Using a spatial, physical format of real-time documentary, these tedious films focus on situations based upon integration as a space for discussion and storytelling.

 

In The Departure (2008), a group of 4 Africans head out to see, skippered by a Maltese man on a tiny but stylish sailing boat. Through the group act of sailing and the negotiation of the sea and wind, this potentially illicit act creates a proximity to frightening historic events relating to the journey turning this space into a place of meditation and discussion often becoming humorous as well as tragic.

 

In The Night before the Ricky Hatton v. Floyd Mayweather fight (2008), the focus is on the same four men this time attempting to cook a meal in the stormy wilderness together with four other European immigrants. A scene of boyish behaviour is contrasted by a will to understand the other through simple yet meaningful functions of storytelling, drinking and eating.