FB: You first encountered the cave as a child, what impact did it have on you at the time?
Trevor Borg: The cave, locally known as Ghar Dalam meaning ‘Cave of Darkness’, emerged as a hauntingly beautiful yet mysterious place, brimming with fascinating stories, some real, some not. The valley where the cave is located is also called ‘Valley of Darkness’, although for the majority of the year it is awash in Mediterranean sunshine. The valley is full of ancient relics dating back to the Pleistocene up to Bronze Age, Roman, Knights of St John, and World War II periods. The cave became a fertile ground for my imagination – it fueled fantastical and imaginary speculation in my mind which were far more historically ancient than is the case. My work at the Venice Biennale loosely draws on this real/imaginary history evoked by this wonderful cave but along the way I leave the cave behind and continue to wander in all directions. My narrative is not about the cave but remotely linked to it.

FB: How do you feel your work relates to ideas of displacement?
TB: ‘Displacement’ and ‘deterritorialisation’ are core aspects in my work and such movement can be discerned in the various levels that constitute the installation. ‘Displacement’ is evoked in the re-contextualisation of objects. The vast collection that constitutes Cave of Darkness is being shown under a new light and in a contemporary context that is the Venice Art Biennale. The phantom-like whiteness that glosses the objects allows for new readings to emerge – like a blank slate the work is meant to be re-written. The audience is encouraged to fabricate new histories and to explore imaginary narratives based on fake and genuine facts. The work speaks of post-truth and meanings lost and found in translation.

The work concerns mostly displacement on a conceptual level and how meanings might change when context is reconfigured. The meaning of an object might also change when it is placed alongside other un/related objects.

Smythson Mara Croc-Embossed Bureau £1,525

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