Curated by independent Italian curator Sofia Baldi Pighi and titled Insulaphilia, the Malta Biennale, the first event of its kind to be held on the tiny Mediterranean archipelago, will take place March 11–May 31, 2024. The newly restored Grandmaster’s Palace in the capital city of Valletta will serve as the main exhibition venue, with eleven other historic sites scattered across the islands of Malta and Gozo hosting exhibitions. Austria, China, France, Germany, Italy, Malta, Palestine, Poland, Serbia, Spain, Turkey, and Ukraine have all committed to pavilions.

72 artists will participate in the main exhibition of the Biennale, a number of them young and emerging, others internationally established. The show centers around issues related to the Mediterranean more broadly, Its concept refers to an obsession with islands and serves as a prompt for artists to reflect on Malta’s unique position at the crossroads of major surrounding regions and their histories. The main exhibition will be divided into four sections, each stemming from the themes laid out in Insulaphilia: regional issues, facets of decolonization, the political dimensions of the Mediterranean, and various forms of resistance.