- / Professions of the Giants
- / Mellita
- / Goddess Making
- / Saturday is Alright to Fight for Your Rights
Rafram Chaddad invited us to share in a food event similar to the ones that would take place in Tunis in the fifties. A tribute to a disappearing world of shared aesthetics, trust and openness.
The ties between Maltese and neighboring Tunisia were once strong, especially before Europe defined itself as a hermetic space. The Mediterranean islands, with the exception of Tunisia, joined Europe and the socio-political map changed, but in Djerba and Kerknah, the Tunisian islands, there is still a place called Mellita. Rafram Chaddad was born in Djerba, delivered by a Maltese midwife. Butchers still sell horse meat in Tunisia, a reminder of the Maltese community, and Tunisians feel at home in Malta, with its Semitic language, sister to the Tunisian dialect.
From Mellita in Djerba to Malta, where the heat used to drive people outside to set up a table and share food, even with those who couldn’t afford it, people would take whatever food they had from their pantry, drink and spend the long summer nights together.
Friends, communities and neighbours were invited to bring food and drink to share and talk. From Tunisia, Rafram brought food that has roots and similarity in Maltese life, Tunisian capers and olives met again with Maltese cheese, tomatoes, olive oil and a talk with the breeze of the sea that connects us.
ARTIST: Rafram Chaddad