This year's edition, which took place in Marseille, has logically been marred by the restrictions of the pandemic, and in 2022 it will be held in Pristina (Kosovo). The Barcelona bid was presented jointly with ten other cities in the metropolitan area: L'Hospitalet, Badalona, Sabadell, Terrassa, Mataró, Sant Cugat, Cornellà, El Prat de Llobregat, Granollers and Santa Coloma de Gramenet. The event will therefore be decentralized and will fill the entire metropolitan area with its contents, in a commendable effort to build an influential region not only in the economic but also in the cultural sphere. A bid that was in close competition with that of Essen (Germany), which will finally host the event in 2026.
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Manifesta is the European Nomadic Biennial, and emerged in the 90s, in a Europe still shaken by the fall of the Berlin Wall. Its intention, beyond being a showcase for the art market like Kassel or Venice, has always been to establish itself as a platform for dialogue between art and society, seeking the participation of cultural and artistic communities to reflect in a specific context, which varies in each edition.
Previous editions of this event have taken place in Rotterdam (1996), Luxembourg (1998), Ljubljana (2000), Frankfurt (2002), San Sebastián (2004), Nicosia (2006, although organizational problems forced its cancellation), Trentino-Alto Adige (2008), Murcia in dialogue with North Africa (2010), Limburg (2012), Saint Petersburg (2014), Zurich (2016) and Palermo (2018).
Manifesta explicitly seeks to reach territories outside the dominant centers of European artistic production, seeking fresh approaches and the possibility of creating new cultural territories. It does so by opening the doors to alternative ways of working, both in the practice of content curation and in mediation and education. A much more social and experimental approach than conventional art fairs, constrained by the needs of a market increasingly polarized in a few cities around the globe.
A two-year program
Each edition of Manifesta includes a program of activities that lasts for almost two years, and which includes studies, publications, meetings, discussions and seminars, which finally culminate in a quarter of events located in the chosen venues. The objective is to bring intellectual and artistic debates closer to the territory and idiosyncrasy of each venue.
The temporal horizon of the celebration of Manifesta 2024 will give the Barcelona artistic ecosystem the opportunity to establish synergies between administrations, facilities, artists and associative fabric. Although the budget of the event is relatively modest (about six million euros, contributed by the different administrations and by private collaborators), Manifesta's vocation is to encourage participation, and although it is managed through a permanent team of international specialists, it is very clear that ideas must arise from the base and the territory, and not from the organizational leadership.
Although it is early to delve into the specific contents, which will begin to be debated in the coming months, the general objectives are already set. Valentín Roma, director of Virreina Centre de la Imatge, will be one of the institutional representatives in charge of starting to work, in collaboration with political representatives, curators, and local artists, to shape what for now is still a promise to be built.
The general objectives of Manifesta 2024 are already set, although it is still early to delve into the specific contents"Manifesta is distinguished by being an artistic event with a very clear political commitment, and also by providing an opportunity to debate different approaches not marked by only institutional or commercial interests. I believe it is a great opportunity for Barcelona and the cities in its surroundings, and a very clear commitment to give a voice to the entire metropolitan region in the artistic field. Many local artists will be able to showcase their work with means they are not accustomed to, and on a platform of international reach," explains Roma. "There are four years of intense work ahead for the event to be able to accommodate external inputs and also give a voice to a very rich artistic fabric, like the one we have. Barcelona and its surroundings have great potential to fill an event like this with interesting content, and the challenge begins now. After a disastrous year in many aspects like 2020, Manifesta is a reason for joy for the artistic ecosystem of our city and its surroundings, and I am sure it can yield extraordinary fruits," he adds.
Although relatively modest compared to the Venice Biennale or Documenta Kassel, Manifesta aims to connect the territory of each venue with the European environment and beyond. Artists, curators, and professionals from more than 40 countries participate in each edition, which always aims to extend the European space to neighboring territories such as North Africa, the Eastern Mediterranean, and parts of Asia, as well as to foster the perspectives of minority cultures within Europe.
A long road ahead
After the joy of the designation, whose candidacy was prepared jointly by the participating municipalities, there is now a long road ahead to fill with content an opportunity to put Barcelona in the spotlight of the contemporary art world. It is true that critical voices have emerged, warning of the risks of facing such an event without a well-defined objective.
After all, Manifesta is a franchise organized by a private Dutch foundation that offers its services and approach to the different host cities. In previous cases, such as when it was held in Murcia or San Sebastián, the results were not always as desired from the point of view of the local artistic community, either due to a lack of experience of the politicians making decisions on the project, or due to organizational failures.
It is true that critical voices have emerged, warning of the risks of facing such an event without a well-defined objectiveThe challenge for Barcelona, a city with a more powerful and structured artistic ecosystem than previous Spanish venues, can and must seize the opportunity to make its own character compatible with the contributions of the organization, originally promoted by a group of Dutch art curators, among whom there was also a Spaniard.
Platform for dialogue between art and society
Manifesta, the European Nomadic Biennial, born in the 1990s in an atmosphere of political, economic, and social changes that occurred after the end of the Cold War, has become a platform for dialogue between art and society, inviting both the cultural and artistic communities to generate new creative experiences by influencing the context in which it is held.
According to Hedwig Fijen, director of Manifesta: "The aim is to involve citizens, entities, and groups in the task of rethinking our world through artistic creativity and social commitment. In six months, we will begin to work in the city to generate projects that will have the challenge of placing art and social struggles in the context of a future of fighting inequality and social commitment."
A promising candidacy, which for the moment has managed to unite city councils of five different political colors with a common goal. An exciting project with a horizon in a post-COVID world in which art will have to play a reflective role linked to education, urban planning, and an idea of Europe always under construction.
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The great events of European art
The particularity of Manifesta is precisely its itinerant nature and its syncretic and alternative vocation if we compare it with the other great European artistic events, which are stably linked to specific cities. The first is the Venice Biennale, which has the longest tradition on the continent. Organized by a foundation financed by the Italian state, its first edition dates back to 1894, and since then it has only missed its appointment in four editions (1916, 1948, 1942 and 1946), due to the halt caused by the World Wars.
Under the umbrella of the Biennale, both the Venice International Art Exhibition (every two years) and other exhibitions, focused on music, cinema (the Venice International Film Festival, annual), theater (The Venice Theater Festival, annual), architecture (The Architecture Biennale, held every odd year) and the Venice International Dance Festival (annual) are included. As befits a centenary institution, it maintains a fairly traditional format: participants are grouped into national pavilions following the pattern of nineteenth-century international fairs.
The Venice Biennale is organized by a foundation financed by the Italian state and its first edition dates back to 1894The Documenta in Kassel, the other great event of European contemporary art, has less tradition although it has earned a place on the podium of the great art events worldwide. It was born in 1955 as an unexpected event in the art world, at the hands of Arnold Bode, painter and professor at the Kassel academy. The first edition recapitulated on the avant-gardes of the early twentieth century, basically all the currents that Nazism had considered "degenerate art": Fauvism, Expressionism, Cubism, Futurism, metaphysical painting... The Museum Fridericianum remains the central building of the event, which every five years brings together experts from around the world to analyze the state of the artistic avant-garde. In each edition, a director (individual or collective) is appointed who adds their concepts and ideas to the event, turning it into an essential forum where the directions of contemporary art at a global level are discussed.
Other fairs such as Art Basel, originally from Basel but which has also developed franchises in cities such as Miami or Hong Kong, are based more on the gallery system, around which the event revolves. Manifesta, on the contrary, is not permanently linked to any city, but rather bets on nomadism as a pivot for reflecting on art on a European scale. Barcelona will soon begin to prepare to build an edition that aims to be exceptional.
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