Against the dramatic backdrop of Caravaggio’s iconic Beheading of St John inside the oratory of St John’s Co-Cathedral, a group of participants of the Malta Biennale 2026 were named winners of The Maltese Falcon, the biennial event’s official award.
Two categories were announced over the weekend – Best Artwork Award and Best Pavilion Award – while the third People’s Choice award will be announced towards the end of the biennale in May.
The Best Artwork Award was bestowed to two winners: Concetta Modica and Therese Debono. Concetta Modica’s work in Fragments of the sky of Malta: The journey of a tomato sepal to become a star, focuses on the present and its paradoxes, conceived through sculpture, remnants and the concept of the modern epic.
Photographer Therese Debono’s Blank project installed at the Ggantija Temples in Gozo examines white-washed, exposed party walls through a long-term photographic project that highlights erased, altered and rebuilt spaces in Malta, revealing hidden outlines of former homes and the lives once contained within them.
The Best Pavilion Award was presented to the Polish team for Redefining. Polish Ghanaian Textile Narratives, curated by Natalia Bradbury and featuring the work of Eliza Proszczuk, Ernestina Mansa Doku and Marta Nadolle.
The pavilion presents a large-scale textile installation created through collaboration between Polish and Ghanaian artists – a project that revisits a little‑known history of solidarity between Poland and Ghana. Guided by the philosophy of Ubuntu – “I am because we are” – the installation celebrates interdependence, empathy, and shared humanity, themes rooted in that of the biennale.
The award winners were selected by an independent, international panel of judges featuring freelance curator and art critic Gerardo Mosquera, visual artist Monica Narula, and curator and lecturer Irene Biolchini.
The Malta Biennale 2026 was officially inaugurated last week and is now open to the public until 29th May.
Photography: Malta Biennale 2026
