Glen Calleja (b. 1978)
Glen Calleja is a Maltese artist mainly interested in poetry and the book as object.
His artistic work often involves alternative book structures, found content and performative elements.
Glen is co-founder of Studio Solipsis, a cultural venue operating since 2017 where events, workshops, gatherings and exhibitions are held. Studio Solipsis is also home to Calleja’s bookbinding business, Kotba Calleja, to Giola Cassar’s photography studio and to two voluntary organisations Fondazzjoni HELA and Inizjamed.
Glen has led and participated in a number of interdisciplinary artistic projects. As a writer, Calleja writes mainly in Maltese but has also published poetry, essays and short stories in English. In his writing and artistic work, Calleja often explores issues relating to the passage from boyhood to manhood and the politics and perceptions of masculinity. Since 2013, he has also been researching, through poetry, the impact of cancer on patients, survivors and their families.
In his poetry, he regularly recycles from earlier writings, re-proposing them in new forms, exhibiting a clear interest in emerging literary formats. On occasion, Calleja also integrates ‘found texts’ in his work.
His poetry books include eki t’eki (2002), IR-RAĠEL (2010, 2012) and kull flgħaxija kif mal-għabex tnin u tmut saħħet il-jum (2014) and ‘Iswed Assolut’ a series of poetic variations dealing with moral spectatorship vis-a-vis migration.
In 2018, together with co-author Marco Cremona, Calleja received the national book award for the ‘Biographical and historiographic research’ category with the book Sal-Quċċata tal-Everest (Merlin).
In the past few years, Calleja led and/or participated in the following projects
2018–2020
20…
2017–2018
2018
2017
Scriptorium
2017–2018
2015–2017
2017
2016
2014
Ex-VOTO
Chances of Punishment
2011–present
2012–2013
Milkshake
2013
Biljett Miftuħ
DIXX
Internati u Deportati
2012
2006, 2012
Imqareb Kliem (Il-Jien u Lil Hinn Minnu ta’ Dun Karm)
2010–2011
2010
Sakemm Tnejn Mhux Wisq
2009
The Depot of Living Things
Publications
2020
Nifs li kważi kissirni
2019
Tessie
2017
Sal-quċċata tal-Everest
Stejjer mid-djar tagħna
2010, 2012, 2017
IR-RAĠEL
2016
Iswed Assolut
Never Arrive
2014
kull flgħaxija kif mal-għabex tnin u tmut saħħet il-jum
Ex-Voto
2013
VV (Viva L-Vitorja)
2011
TKEĊNIR: kitchen work
2010
eeeeeee!
2009
Kieku l-Ikel Jitkellem, (ed. Adrian Grima)
2002
eki t’eki
Other Online References
Installations explore Malta’s coastal landscape and literature, Times of Malta (2018)
“Blue Void”: il mare come arte, poesia e coscienza ecologica, dal 9 al 15 agosto, Corriere di Malta (2018)
Battling the clichés, Malta Today (2014)
Biljett Miftuħ (2013)
E is for Enchanting Experimentation, Times of Malta (2011)
Traditional and Digital Storytelling, Times of Malta (2011)