Inaugura l'8 settembre, e durerà fino al 24 novembre 2024, Manifesta, la Biennale Nomade Europea, questa 15 edizione si svolge a Barcellona e nella più ampia regione metropolitana.
Con un'area di oltre 3.000 km², Manifesta 15 Barcelona Metropolitana mira a portare nuove prospettive a Barcellona e alle sue regioni circostanti. Attraverso interventi artistici in importanti luoghi storici e siti industriali mai aperti al pubblico prima.
Manifesta 15 cerca di decentralizzare l'infrastruttura culturale di Barcellona e delle sue città circostanti. La biennale è dedicata a promuovere un cambiamento sociale positivo attraverso l'arte, l'urbanistica, il design, l'architettura e il coinvolgimento delle comunità locali.
Ci sarà un ricco programma di 12 settimane con progetti, interventi, eventi e conferenze in 12 città, con oltre 90 partecipanti locali e internazionali.
Manifesta 15 Barcelona Metropolitana opens on the 8th of September and runs through to the 24th of November, 2024. With the largest geographical scope in the history of the European Nomadic Biennial, this decentralised edition responds to the invitation that the biennial received from Barcelona, together with 11 cities in the metropolitan region, in their Bid. The Bid called for an edition that contributes to re-envisioning the roles of the areas outside of Barcelona’s historic core and explores how the relations between the metropolitan region’s built and natural environments could be improved. With the Bid in mind, Manifesta 15 is an ambitious experiment in how artistic interventions can energise eco-social transformation. The edition inquires not only into the urban, environmental and political challenges that the metropolitan region must confront, but also how these challenges reflect those that affect other metropolises across Europe.
The heart of
Manifesta 15 is the former Gustavo Gili publishing house, located in
Barcelona’s L’Eixample neighbourhood. During Manifesta 15, the Modernist
complex hosts, amongst others, three newly commissioned archival
presentations, which form the historical foundation of this edition. The
presentations are titled Fora per fer escola: Radical practices
from Catalan pedagogies, Escola de Passats: Barcelona and the radical
political imagination and Arxius Negres: Fragments of an anticolonial metropolis,
and are organised by the Manifesta 15 Education and Mediation
Department, Germán Labrador Méndez and Tania Safura Adam. From the
Gustavo Gili, Manifesta 15 spirals out across the metropolitan region.
The edition is organised in three clusters, which are thematic and
geographic: Balancing Conflicts (Llobregat Delta), Cure and Care (Collserola massif towards Vallès) and Imagining Futures
(Besòs River and its surroundings). In these clusters, whose designs
are deeply informed by local realities, over 90 participants present
multidisciplinary work that expands our understanding of how we relate
to one another and the natural resources in our midst. Each cluster is
rooted in a leading venue, which symbolically reflects the thematic and
is the site of a large group presentation, and extends to other
extraordinary venues in the vicinity.
Continuing the European
Nomadic Biennial’s transformation into a multilayered and inclusive
instrument of civic and cultural engagement on the occasion of its 30th
anniversary, Manifesta 15 has several distinguishing characteristics.
The first is an overarching commitment to archival research.
Barcelona and the metropolitan region have gone through numerous
evolutions; as time has passed, various historical movements and
methodologies have been overlooked, under appreciated or repressed.
Manifesta 15 has inquired into the legacies of a selection of past
events and initiatives – not only by consulting existing archives, but
also by partnering with specialists to generate new archives. In
addition to the presentations at the Gustavo Gili, the Three Chimneys
hosts a project that maps the social and industrial history of Sant
Adrià de Besòs.
Throughout, Manifesta 15 closely attends to more-than-human perspectives,
including those of Barcelona and the metropolitan region’s rivers,
mountains and sea, as well as of the species that reside – often in
adverse circumstances – in these environments. In the process, this
edition draws attention to how humankind can learn from nature’s
resilience while reckoning with how nature’s limits can be better
respected – at present and in perpetuity.
Manifesta 15 increases
synergies between communities in the metropolitan region that have
historically been isolated from one another for myriad structural
reasons. The biennial’s doing so flows out of a belief that, by looking
beyond themselves, societies can forge new pathways of connection.
Visitors to Manifesta 15 will play a fundamental role in this process as
well. Given the edition’s scope, no two visits will be the same. As
visitors criss-cross the region, they will become agents of change in
the decentralisation process, helping to map the region anew. To this
end, from one week to the next over its 12-week duration, the focus of
Manifesta 15 will shift, with the spotlight falling on each
participating city. During these Focus Weeks, the contributions of the
biennial’s Artistic Representatives – cultural leaders from each city –
will be on full view. The representatives situate the biennial in their
cities by organising Manifesta 15+, a programme of performances and
happenings that celebrate cultural excellence in the metropolitan
region. Please refer to Annexe 3 for additional information about the Focus Weeks and Manifesta 15+.
The European Nomadic Biennial evolves in dialogue with its host communities. For Manifesta 15, the biennial’s modus operandi
has been profoundly influenced by the Catalan tradition of cultural
egalitarianism. Manifesta 15’s physical decentralisation across the
metropolitan region is linked with a democratisation of decision-making,
as indicated by the creation of the Artistic Representative position
for this edition as well as the spread of responsibilities between the
Director, the Creative Mediators, the Manifesta 15 team, the organisers
of the archival presentations and the audience – to mention a few
essential members of the biennial coalition. To the greatest extent in
the biennial’s history, this edition favours diffusion over
concentration and empowers collective expression. The results of this
vast effort will be critically evaluated during a Manifesta 15 Open
Forum that will take place at the end of the edition. The forum will
have a reflexive format that corresponds to the topics raised over the
course of the edition, and is expected to culminate in the declaration
of a Call to Action for sustaining the edition’s legacy based on the
many and varied interests of metropolitan residents.
Manifesta 15
Barcelona Metropolitana contains multitudes, helping to solidify
alternative networks inservice of eco-social transformation – here, now
and beyond.
