Manifesta will approach local conflicts to make a call to action

In the heart of La Ricarda, a historically mistreated natural space, emerges Casa Gomis, a rationalist gem unknown to the local public. Inside, every time a plane lands at the nearby El Prat Airport, the ground shakes. It was then that the group of international journalists invited by the contemporary art biennial Manifesta to explain its upcoming edition in metropolitan Barcelona understood why they had chosen that space as the venue for the event.

"It is a symbol of balancing conflicts. It is an architectural work built during Franco's dictatorship by free-thinkers and was visited by artists such as Miró and Tàpies. Right now it is in the middle of a conflict because the airport has to be expanded and that will mean it will have to be demolished," explains its director, Hedwig Fijen. "We don't have an opinion but we want to raise this dilemma: What is more important, your life or the tourist's? Do we let them have all the water or do we give it to agriculture?" she argues.

This nomadic European biennial has arrived in Barcelona and 11 neighboring cities with the desire to provide new points of view, knowing that it is easier to point out the wounds and contradictions of a society from the distance of not belonging to that place. "It is a project that allows you to look at your own home with a different face. I always say that Manifesta observes the world through the eyes of a certain city. Therefore, it is not just a festival about art, it also allows for different stories and voices to be raised, often easier to see as an outsider," its director emphasizes. Of course, getting involved with the cities they work with: "We don't come here and absorb everything, we also want to give something in return."

There's no need to leave La Ricarda to see it. Manifesta 2024 will focus on climate change, among other topics, and will do so through artistic proposals, considering the rising temperatures and drought that are so present at a local level. "It's a call to action. What can you do? Plant a tree? Consume less water? And what can your mother do? And then, you'll see what artists do around these issues and maybe their creations will inspire you to see climate change in a different way," Fijen remarks. But it will also delve into the stories of those marginalized by society in the metropolis, with research on Black perspectives carried out by researcher Safura Adam.

As it could not be otherwise, the contemporary art event will also approach one of the local hallmarks, seeking new stories about the Civil War and the subsequent Francoist dictatorship. "We live among fragments of the past that we don't know, cities are built on lives and experiences that have disappeared, history is made of memory ruptures. The idea is to build an exhibition, which will also be an archive, with documents, images and voices, that allows us to broaden our knowledge of the past to reflect on the present and open up the future," says Germán Labrador, the Princeton professor who will be in charge of assembling what he calls "school of pasts."

The largest edition in history

All in all, the fifteenth edition of Manifesta will be the largest ever organized in its history, considering that a total of 11 cities will be involved, with the Catalan capital accompanied by L'Hospitalet, Cornellà, El Prat, Badalona, Santa Coloma de Gramenet, Sant Adrià de Besòs, Granollers, Mataró, Sabadell, Terrassa and Sant Cugat del Vallès. It is the first time that the biennial works in a decentralized manner and it does so at the proposal of the Barcelona City Council, which wanted to extend the scope beyond its borders knowing that most of its museums and cultural centers are located in the city center. "This is always an experiment," summarizes its director, who does not rule out exporting this "more democratic" model in future editions.

Manifesta considers exporting the expanded model of the Barcelona edition to future venues

One million visitors are expected, the vast majority local, representing 70% of the total in previous editions. Tickets to visit the different venues and their interventions will cost 15 euros. Before passing through Barcelona, Manifesta's venues have been Rotterdam (1996), Luxembourg (1998), Ljubljana (2000), Frankfurt (2002), San Sebastián (2004), South Tyrol (2008), Murcia (2010), Genk (2012), Saint Petersburg (2014), Zurich (2016), Palermo (2018), Marseille (2020) and Pristina (2022).