On 30 November 2023, Prof. Giuseppe Schembri Bonaci launched the second and third volumes of his publication ‘Josef Kalleya & Dante: A child’s tormented soul in paradise’, at The Storm Petrel Foundation. The first volume was launched two years ago, with the trilogy focusing on the Maltese artist Josef Kalleya’s engagement with Dante’s masterpiece La Divina Commedia. Kalleya’s dialogue with Dante gave rise to over a thousand drawings executed throughout the artist’s life. Each installment focuses on Kalleya’s tormented visual dialogue with Dante’s Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso, as he voyages though the realms of the afterlife.
The launch event included various commemorative speeches and presentations, including by Italian Ambassador H.E. Fabrizio Romano, Bernie Mizzi, Chair of The Storm Petrel Foundation, Prof. Joseph Pace Asciak, Professor of Italian, Serena Alessi Director, Istituto Italiano di Cultura and by Prof. Schembri Bonaci himself.
APS Bank CEO Marcel Cassar spoke at the launch, commenting: “Our corporate social responsibility agenda is not about giving financial sponsorships in return for publicity, but in believing in the good of a project and wanting to see it through. This is a project with a crossover appeal that should intrigue readers fascinated by the world of the Italian genius and others interested in art, especially Maltese 20th century modernism, of which Kalleya was one of the fathers.”
