About Magna Żmien
About Magna Żmien
Our History
Magna Żmien began its work in 2017 as part of Valletta’s title of European Capital of Culture 2018. Since then, we have digitised a significant and valuable selection of analogue recordings from home collections in Malta and produced a series of events and exhibitions using this material.
In December 2019 we were awarded Arts Council Malta’s Investment in Cultural Organisations, which has provided us with vital support to continue our work through to 2022. In 2019 we were proud to be awarded Arts Council Malta’s Il-Premju għall-Arti award for Innovation in recognition of our work.
In May 2022, we were included in the Register of Cultural Heritage Non-Governmental Organisations, a platform established by the Superintendence of Cultural Heritage to recognise our foundation’s commitment to promote cultural heritage, conservation, restoration, management, presentation and study of cultural property in Malta.
Our Studio
Magna Żmien operate a digitisation studio that can handle a range of legacy analogue audio-visual formats that were common among home consumers throughout the twentieth century. We digitise our collections using the best equipment we can feasibly source and apply good practice technical standards, following international standards set by IASA and Library of Congress, where possible.
As we work with formats that are often fragile and have a limited life span we are careful to obtain the best transfers that we can, mindful that future re-transfers may not be possible. Our small team of engineers include artists and researchers who have experience with the formats and content that they work with.
Magna Żmien are recipients of Arts Council Malta’s Investment in Cultural Organisations award, 2020-2022 and 2023-2025.
Magna Żmien received Arts Council Malta’s Premju għall-Arti award for Innovation, 2019.
Magna Żmien Foundation
Andrew Alamango
Researcher and musician Andrew Alamango has a profound interest in local and Mediterranean musical heritage, cultural lore, instruments and musical repertoire. With an MA in Archival Sciences, he specialises in archival collections and audio recordings related to the socio-political history of Mediterranean cultures and is interested in their dissemination, application and reinterpretation in the context of music and theatre. Andrew has a special interest in making audio collections of historical interest accessible to diverse audiences through publications, performances, public talks and workshops.
Andrew Pace
Dr Andrew Pace is an archivist and ethnomusicologist, born in London and now living in Malta. He has a PhD in ethnomusicology and has spent ten years researching music and cultural traditions in Maltese communities across Australia, Canada and the US. He has been employed on archival research and community engagement projects by the British Library, IASA, UNESCO and works with the Heritage Malta Digitisation Department. Andrew manages Magna Żmien’s digitisation studio, delivers workshops and lectures about the organisation’s archive.
Margerita Pulè
Margerita Pulè is an artist, curator and cultural manager, with a Master’s Degree in Fine Arts. Her practice and research are concerned with the contradictions of politics and social realities. She is founder-director of Unfinished Art Space, an independent and nomadic space showing contemporary art in Malta, and is currently the editor of Artpaper, Malta’s quarterly art publication. Recent curatorial projects include group show Strangers in a Strange Land (2020), Hackable Animals (2019), Alex Urso’s Grand Hotel Europa Part III (2019) and Daily Bread (2019).
Our Aims
a) To collect memories about Malta, the Maltese and the Maltese diaspora that are held on legacy analogue and digital audio-visual media formats (including sound, moving images, still images, and other material ephemera) by digitising and migrating this content for long term preservation and open access.
b) To record supporting information about this content through documentation and further research.
c) To produce artistic and academic interpretations of this content in collaboration with memory stakeholders and creative arts practitioners in Malta and abroad.
d) To provide advice, consultation and educational programmes in audio-visual preservation practices to individuals and organisations.
Our Activities
a) Collecting Malta-related audio-visual ephemeral material, migrating the content from obsolete carriers to more stable and accessible formats, and preserving this content to international archival standards for long term public access.
b) Documenting communities in Malta and its diaspora by undertaking primary research via interviews, oral histories and other methods.
c) Conducting academic and artistic research upon Malta-related intangible cultural heritage and disseminating our findings by producing installations, exhibitions, performances, and print and digital publications that creatively reuse and reinterpret this material in publicly engaging contexts, in collaboration with creative practitioners and researchers in Malta and abroad.
d) Educating individuals and organisations in audio-visual archiving and creative project development through formal and informal training programmes and partnerships.
e) Developing working relationships with cultural heritage institutions in Malta and abroad.
f) Fundraising, and thereby financing, aiding, supporting and developing selected projects that fall within the Foundation’s remit.
Magna Żmien are committed to implementing and further developing a Gender Equality Plan within our organisation, in accordance with the European Union’s guidelines.