14-02-2003
Presentation in Arco'03

Towards Manifesta 5 in Donostia-San Sebastian

Manifesta, the European Biennial of Contemporary Art was a response to the dramatic changes in Europe's political and cultural landscape after the fall of the Berlin Wall. It addressed the imbalance in the representation of artistic- and curatorial practices in Western, Central and East European countries. Creating a dialogue between East and West, North and South enabled Manifesta to present critical issues in a more flexible and collective way, stimulating collaboration and research between curators, artists and the audiences. This process slowly eroded pre-Cold War borders within the field of the art.

Manifesta consciously adopted a nomadic structure, by relocating itself in a different European Host city every two years (Rotterdam, 1996; Luxembourg 1998; Ljubljana 2000; Frankfurt 2002, Donostia San Sebastian 2004). It also established a firm spirit of collaboration, in determining that the Manifesta curators should work together as a team. Manifesta expects curators to work in complex internal and external situations. Curators are requested to integrate artistic practices and to relate them to an existing social-political context. They are expected to commit themselves wholeheartedly to the principles of collaboration and co-operation, without falling into the trap of facile consensus.
Establishing Manifesta on a more permanent basis has meant that people have begun to have much higher expectations of it.

Manifesta and her curatorial teams seek active involvement in the contemporary art world, through creating opportunities for young artists, curators and writers who are not yet fully established. Manifesta also pays attention to art theory emanating from those areas of Europe, which have customary failed to attract the attention they deserve. Manifesta believes that art is of its time and that new working practises and new forms of artistic responses will develop from an engagement with the wider issues of the day. At the same time, though, we must seek to ensure that Manifesta continues to inhabit a clearly defined 'in between' space, not only in the geographical sense, but also institutionally, politically, artistically and commercially.

Thus we find ourselves here at ARCO 2003, at the start of the Manifesta 5 Biennium in quite an open and fluid situation, in which it seems only right that we should re-examine some of our basic assumptions and ask questions such as Manifesta's willingness to change its working strategies and create more crossovers between different fields and projects within and outside Manifesta, or the allowance to relate Manifesta to wider social-cultural and public platforms?

The International Foundation Manifesta (IFM) is, in this respect, very delighted with the appointment of Donostia-San Sebastian in the Basque Country of Spain as the next Manifesta 5 Host City for the period of 2002-2004. The City was selected in the summer of 2002 to host Manifesta 5, on account of its dynamic socio-political situation and its growing cultural and institutional infrastructure.

The recent appointment of the Manifesta 5 curatorial team consisting of Massimiliano Gioni (Milan), Marta Kuzma (London, Kiev) and Paula Toppila (Helsinki) is received with great enthousiasm. On a final note, to the IFM's regret Paula Toppila, from Helsinki, Finland, one of the curators originally appointed to collaborate on the Manifesta 5 project in 2004 has taken the decision to resign before starting on the project, for entirely happy reasons, which could not have been predicted at the time of her appointment in November 2002.

The Board of the International Foundation Manifesta (IFM) has invited Massimiliano Gioni and Marta Kuzma to continue as a team of two curators who will take the project to completion in 2004.
The Board of the IFM wishes to record their appreciation of the willingness of these two curators to assume this additional responsibility.

Regarding the future, new strategies are needed to stimulate critical reflection and debate about the positioning of the current art practices and the curators within the structural model provided by Manifesta and to institute any changes in working practice that may be required.
Manifesta curators should endeavour to create a radical distinction between Manifesta and other biennials and similar events. Manifesta itself should offer new perspectives and models, which can mediate flexibly between different levels of artistic communication and presentation. It should also work hard, at all times, to develop close working relations with local partners.

The International Manifesta Foundation's Network Programme may offer an alternative way forward, on a number of fronts. During the next three years, through a series of programmes facilitated by the Foundation and produced in conjunction with outside partners, we hope to be able to redefine the context for Manifesta's work, to create additional platforms for co-operation with others, on many different levels and to develop solid relationships with a broader audience. The archive could act as an important instrument of mediation, enabling us both to enlist the active participation of others and to play a part in determining the nature of that participation.

One of the possible challenges the International Foundation Manifesta is facing is how to convert our growing information resources into a site-related platform for the biennial Manifesta exhibition, which can serve, both as a repository of knowledge and as a direct stimulus to the efforts of curators and a wider group of professionals. In this way, the fully networked archive may serve, not only to make information more widely available, but also to invite the active participation of curators/mediators and audiences alike. This approach will, in turn, bring about a change in our working methods and contribute to keeping the biennial alive in a more freely negotiated European space.

The International Foundation Manifesta is since 1994 the initiator and supporter of the Manifesta, European Biennial of Contemporary Art and the Foundational New Network Programme.