Manifesta is the European Nomadic Biennial that changes location every two years. Founded in the early 1990s, Manifesta rethinks the relation between culture and society, investigating and catalysing positive social change through contemporary culture in response to and in close dialogue with the social sphere of the host cities and their communities. Manifesta as a recurring event has transformed itself more into a multi-layered and inclusive instrument of civic experimentation, by commissioning urban studies of its host cities and by creating new democratic projects such as Le Tour de Tous les Possibles that took place in Marseille.
For its thirteenth edition, in 2020, Manifesta took place for the first time in Marseille, France. Manifesta 13 Marseille was divided into three different, yet connected, programmes that have been created two years before the biennial : the central programme Traits d’union.s, the Education and Mediation programme Le Tiers Programme, and the collateral projects and events Les Parallèles du Sud (with more than 80 projects in the Région Sud).
Manifesta was founded by the Dutch art historian, Hedwig Fijen. Each new edition is fundraised individually and managed by a mix of permanent international team members and local specialists. Manifesta is working from its offices in Amsterdam and Marseille.
Previous Editions: Rotterdam (1996), Luxembourg (1998), Ljubljana (2000), Frankfurt (2002), San Sebastian (2004), Nicosia (2006 – cancelled), Trentino-South Tyrol (2008), Murcia in dialogue with northern Africa (2010), Limburg (2012), St. Petersburg (2014), Zurich (2016) and Palermo (2018). The past edition was held in Marseille (2020). The next editions will be held in Pristina (2022) and Barcelona (2024).
