Photography lecturer and artist Therese Debono has been awarded The Maltese Falcon Award for Best Artwork at the Malta Biennale 2026 for her project Blank.

The award was presented during a ceremony held at the Oratory of St John’s Co-Cathedral in Valletta, following the decision of an independent international jury of visual arts experts.

The prize was jointly awarded to Debono and artist Concetta Modica, recognising two works featured in the Biennale’s international exhibition programme.

Debono’s project Blank explores the visible traces of urban transformation within the Maltese landscape. Through photography, the work focuses on exposed party walls that emerge when buildings are demolished or replaced by taller developments. Often overlooked in everyday surroundings, these walls act as markers of absence, revealing the physical outlines of structures that once occupied the site.

As part of the Malta Biennale exhibition programme, Blank was presented as a large-scale photographic installation at the Ġgantija Temples in Gozo, creating a striking dialogue between contemporary urban change and one of the world’s oldest prehistoric sites.

 Reflecting on the project, Debono said that “blank walls appear silent and neutral, yet they carry a quiet violence. They mark absence and reveal the traces of what has been removed.”

Therese Debono is a photographer, researcher and lecturer at the Malta College of Arts, Science and Technology (MCAST), where she teaches photography while maintaining an active artistic practice exploring the relationship between landscape, memory and the built environment.