Manifesta 11, by Vlad Dobrițan

    
  Manifesta is the biennial of contemporary art that seeks to investigate and reflect on emerging developments in contemporary art made and set within a European context since 1990. Since its first edition(1996, Rotterdam), Manifesta sought to keep itself from the dominant artistic centres of Europe, instead seeking emerging centres for the mapping of a new cultural topography.

The 11th Manifesta will be held in Zurich, a town that has a very long history of artistic and intellectual liberalism. Today, Zurich is one of the most economically and technologically advanced cities in the world and with the rich and rapidly evolving urban setting will provide Manifesta 11 with a socially, politically and artistically significant trajectory for the coming years.

The Chief Curator will be the German artist Christian Jankowski, who’s best known for his artistic actions and media artworks in which he makes use of film, video and photography, but also painting and installation. His work consists of performative interactions between himself and non-art professionals (the world of contemporary art and the world outside the art). This procedure lends his work its populist appeal. Jankowski’s work can be seen both as a reflection, deconstruction, and a critique of a society based on spectacle. In his view, art has turned into a show, and as a result has undermined its critical potential.

Taking the Chief Curator’s view into account, combined with the host city – Zurich, known for its artistic and intellectual liberalism--  we might say that Manifesta 11 involves unpredictable outcomes and risks, and as usual – will embrace the criticism.

Manifesta 11 will open on  June11, and with the preparations near the end, we can only wait for the biennial to open its gates to see, if not in person, at least images from one of the Europe’s most important art exhibition.