Refuge and Reconstruction
Refuge and Reconstruction is a photographic exhibition by Martin Bertrand exploring what happens after arrival: the waiting, learning, relationships and everyday processes through which people seeking protection begin to rebuild their lives in Malta.
Situated at the centre of the Mediterranean, Malta brings together many of the tensions surrounding migration in contemporary Europe. While arrivals by sea have declined significantly in recent years, questions of asylum, accommodation, integration and belonging remain part of the lived reality of the island.
Bertrand’s project initially set out to document how Malta was responding to migration in the Mediterranean: meeting people being received, observing the structures surrounding them and tracing the human consequences of European migration policies. As the work developed, however, its focus gradually shifted. The question was no longer simply one of reception or waiting, but of what comes afterwards.
Working alongside organisations including the Migrants Commission and its Welcoming Centre in Balzan, SkateUni and Spark15, Bertrand encountered different spaces and experiences of rebuilding life in Malta. His work also explores the contrasting reality of the state-run centres at Ħal Far: geographically isolated spaces where architecture, roads, fences and the surrounding landscape themselves become part of the experience of waiting and exclusion.
The exhibition unfolds as a journey through these different spaces. Moving beyond familiar representations of Mediterranean migration centred on boats, borders and moments of emergency, Refuge and Reconstruction turns its attention towards what follows: relationships being formed, languages and ways of life being learned, periods of uncertainty endured, and initiatives through which people gradually regain agency over their lives.
In doing so, the exhibition invites a wider question: what does it mean not simply to receive someone, but to make belonging possible?
Visiting the Exhibition
27 September – 25 October 2026
Archbishop’s Palace, Valletta
Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday
9:00–12:00
Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday
9:00–12:00 and 16:00–20:00
Entrance is free.
Presented by the Embassy of France in Malta and the Migrants Commission, in collaboration with the Archbishop’s Delegate for Culture and MELA.
