Manifesta

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Manifesta is a biennial visual art event that began as a Dutch initiative to create a pan-European platform for the contemporary visual arts. Unlike most biennials, Manifesta is held in a different location each time it is held, and the concept of an itinerant event first took shape in Rotterdam in 1996, in consultation with a specially appointed International Advisory Board (the forerunner of the present International Foundation), and the support of various national governmental arts organisations and ministries of culture in Europe.

Manifesta developed into a fast growing network for young professionals in Europe and one of the most innovative biennial exhibition programme to be held anywhere. This is due, in no small measure, to its pan-European ambitions and its uniquely nomadic nature. Both the network and the exhibition, with its related activities, are equally important components of this itinerant event. Manifesta offers a platform for emerging artists, on the basis of a networking organisation, which is able to respond flexibly to new artistic, technological and cultural developments. The most obvious aspects of Manifesta’s inbuilt flexibility is the fact that a new, pan-European theme or concept is developed on each occasion by a team of outside curators, working in close consultation with representatives of all kind of cultural, social, academic institutions in the host city. In other words, each new edition aims to establish a close dialogue between a specific cultural and artistic situation and the broader context of European visual contemporary art.

Manifesta 1 was held in Rotterdam, The Netherlands in 1996 in 16 different museums and 36 public spaces. A team of five curators, from Barcelona, Budapest, London, Moscow, and Paris/Zurich, selected 72 artists from 30 different European countries and five from elsewhere. Since then it has been held in Luxembourg (1998), Ljubljana (2000), Frankfurt (2002) and San Sebastian (Spain) in 2004. The event was due to be held in the ethnically-divided city of Nicosia, Cyprus, in 2006 but was cancelled at the last moment after the Manifesta organisers fell foul of the complexities of the political divisions on the island.

Although it claims to be a radical art event, Manifesta has been accused of being too close to big business and large American foundations in the way it chases sponsorship.