Region of Murcia embraces Manifesta 8
The Region of Murcia embraces Manifesta 8 – more than 30.000 visits in the first week
Manifesta8, the European Biennial of Contemporary Art, takes place in the Region of Murcia (Spain) in dialogue with northern Africa, from October 9, 2010 until January 9, 2011
Image: Opening of Manifesta 8 at the former post office in Murcia, venue of Manifesta 8.
© Ilya Rabinovich
http://www.manifesta8.es/ http://www.manifesta.org
+34 868 950 750
contact@manifesta8.es
On October 9, 2010, Manifesta8, the European Biennial of Contemporary Art with its special focus on stimulating the dialogue with northern Africa, opened in the Region of Murcia in south-eastern Spain. Manifesta 8 showcases art from all disciplines featuring multi-media installation, film, performance, dance and music, and makes use of both traditional and unconventional art channels in co-operation with such media outlets as newspapers, radio, television and the Internet.
The event was officially opened by Ramón Luis Valcárcel Siso (President of the Region of Murcia), Pedro Alberto Cruz Sánchez (Minister of Culture and Tourism for the Region of Murcia), Miguel Ángel Cámara (Mayor of Murcia), Pilar Barreiro (Mayor of Cartagena) and Hedwig Fijen (President Manifesta 8/Director Manifesta Foundation).
In the first week Manifesta 8 has counted the record number of more than 30.000 visits by local audience, artists, curators, art professionals from around the globe and over 500 international journalists (source: Regional Ministry of Culture and Tourism of the Region of Murcia). Emerging from the experiences gained through former Manifesta Biennials, Manifesta 8 focuses on the concept of collective curating and has been developed by three curatorial teams coming from the most diverse areas of Europe including Scandinavia, the U.K., Central Europe and the Mediterranean as well as the Middle East and the U.S. The curatorial team of Manifesta 8 is composed of ACAF – Alexandria Contemporary Arts Forum (Bassam El Baroni, Jeremy Beaudry), CPS – Chamber of Public Secrets (Khaled Ramadan, Alfredo Cramerotti) and tranzit.org (Vít Havránek, Zbyněk Baladrán, Dóra Hegyi, Boris Ondreička, Georg Schöllhammer).
More than 85% of the exhibited works have been newly commissioned and produced by Manifesta 8, often supported by the most important international cultural bodies, art institutions, museums, art galleries and ministries of culture.
Manifesta Foundation places special focus on sustainability by building networks and creating goodwill in its host regions. “Manifesta 8 is not a social activists group, but many works in the biennial have been conceived in collaboration with unions, political parties, special interest groups, blind associations, the lottery, schools, and other educational services,” says Manifesta Director Hedwig Fijen. “By working with craftsmen, technicians and local professionals, Manifesta creates a greater know-how in the entire region, which remains longer after Manifesta has moved on.”
This is part of Manifesta’s spirit of collaboration, incorporating the use of otherwise discarded examples of local history, namely five previously abandoned buildings – Pavilions 1 and 2 at the former Artillery Barracks and the former Central Post Office in Murcia, the declassified San Anton Prison and the once popular El Parque Restaurant on the highest hill overlooking Cartagena. This is one of the sustainable effects of Manifesta in each of its successive editions. Manifesta leaves behind buildings which were under-utilized in the past, for future use for cultural and social events.
On Sunday, October 10, 2010 the Symposium “Bringing you the answers before you know the question: four positions regarding the idea of a pan-African roaming biennial” took place in Murcia as part of the “Incubator for a pan-African roaming Biennial” initiated in the framework of Manifesta 8. The Incubator is a one-year-long project formed in response to a proposal by two of Manifesta’s curators, Bassam El Baroni and Jeremy Beaudry of Alexandria Contemporary Arts Forum (ACAF), and relates to the motto “in dialogue with northern Africa”. It consists of the symposium during the opening weekend of Manifesta 8, the development of a website, a workshop in April 2011, and the production of a publication in September 2011.
On the same Sunday, October 10, 2010, Toronto-based professor of psychology, John M. Kennedy lectured at MUBAM, Museo de Bellas Artes de Murcia, one of the venues of Manifesta 8, to a large audience on the phenomenon of the blind painter Eşref Armağan whose contribution to the exhibition was curated by Chamber of Public Secrets.
Manifesta 8 – the roaming European Biennial of Contemporary Art is organized by the Manifesta Foundation (Amsterdam) together with the Region of Murcia. Access to all venues and education activities is free. More information on the ongoing education program can be found at: http://www.manifesta8.es/medular and booking via mediacion@manifesta8.es. The Manifesta 8 catalogue in English is available for purchase at http://www.silvanaeditoriale.it.
On the occasion of the opening of Manifesta 8, the next destination of the roaming Manifesta biennial was announced. In 2012 Manifesta 9 will be hosted by the region of Limburg, Belgium.
Manifesta 8, la Bienal europea de arte contemporáneo comienza el 9 de octubre de 2010.
Español
Manifesta 8, la Bienal europea de arte contemporáneo, tendrá lugar en la Región de Murcia (España) en diálogo con el norte de África, desde el 9 de octubre de 2010 hasta el 9 de enero de 2011.
Inauguración para prensa y profesionales: 7 y 8 de octubre.
Inauguración oficial: 9 de octubre.
http://www.manifesta8.es / http://www.manifesta.org
Durante 100 días, Manifesta 8 tendrá lugar en las ciudades de Murcia y Cartagena en edificios históricos, museos, espacios no convencionales y varios canales de medios de comunicación. Manifesta 8 está dirigido por tres colectivos curatoriales independientes, cada uno de los cuales desarrollará un proyecto propio como contribución curatorial. Los colectivos son ACAF (Alexandria Contemporary Arts Forum), CPS (Chamber of Public Secrets) y tranzit.org .
ACAF – Alexandria Contemporary Arts Forum, se plantea una pregunta: ¿Cómo puede cualquier proyecto artístico tocar auténticamente la sofisticada y azarosa maraña de la complejidad de la vida? Como respuesta proponen OVERSCORE (Tachadura), un proyecto polifacético que mantiene su coherencia por la lógica de una interfaz creada especialmente para ello y llamada The Theory of Applied Enigmatics (La teoría de la enigmática aplicada).
Comisario: Bassam El Baroni / Comisario asociado: Jeremy Beaudry / Asistente de comisariado: Yolanda Riquelme García.
Artistas: The Action Mill / Gonzalo Ballester / Lene Berg / Michael Paul Britto / Pablo Bronstein / Ergin Çavuşoğlu / Common Culture / Céline Condorelli / Willie Doherty / Juan Downey / Sherif El-Azma / Alfonso Escudero / Simon Fujiwara / Ryan Gander / Melanie Gilligan / Nav Haq / Ann Veronica Janssens / Jeleton / Mahmoud Khaled / Hassan Khan / Irene Lucas & Christoph Euler / Suhail Malik / nOffice / Ana Martínez / Rosell Meseguer / Metahaven / Nástio Mosquito / Charles Mudede / Kenny Muhammad & Adam Carrigan / Lorraine O’Grady / Olivia Plender / Wanda Raimundi-Ortíz / Jasper Rigole / Red 76 / Alexandre Singh / Jean-Marc Superville Sovak / Take to the Sea / Mariusz Tarkawian.
CPS – Chamber of Public Secrets. A través del uso crítico de la producción de medios de comunicación, realización de documentales, investigación artística y periodismo estético, el proyecto curatorial de CPS, ¿THE REST IS HISTORY? (¿El resto es historia?, ocupa y se cuestiona las estructuras que definen la realidad hoy en día, así como de su historia.
Equipo curatorial: Khaled Ramadan & Alfredo Cramerotti / Asistente de comisariado: Rian Lozano de la Pola.
Artistas: AGM / Mounira Al Solh / Abed Anouti / Eşref Armağan / The ARTS ASSEMBLY / Michael Baers / Ghassan Ben Jeddou / Brumaria / Filipa César / Danilo Correale / Anders Eiebakke / Aida Eltorie (con Fateen Abdel Wahab, Dalia Neis, Sergio Leone, Bassem Yousri, Naiza Khan, Pauline M’Barek, Jan Ijäs, Aissa H. Deebi, Ghamkin Saleh, Madeline Djerejian, Yto Barrada) / Marcelo Expósito & Verónica Iglesia / Thierry Geoffroy-Colonel / Laurent Grasso / Khaled Hafez / Ralf Homann / Erlea Maneros Zabala / n.e.w.s.: Renée Ridgway & Rick van Amersfoort / Ángel Nevarez & Valerie Tevere / Fay Nicolson (en colaboración con Rasheed Araeen, Mark Ashurst, Katerina Gregos, John M. Kennedy , Huda Smitshuijzen, Alex Vesudevan) / Nada Prlja / Ariel Reichman / María Ruido / David Rych / Nikolaus Schletterer / Michael Takeo Magruder / Stefanos Tsivopoulos / Wooloo (en colaboración con Gema Alava, Helidon Gjergji, Pedro Guirao, Clarinda Mac Low, Matthias Neumann) / Raed Yassin.
tranzit.org . Si preguntamos sobre las convenciones de la exposición colectiva, CONSTITUTION FOR TEMPORARY DISPLAY (Constitución para una exposición temporal) de tranzit.org es el resultado de un pensamiento colectivo sobre el potencial para un espacio auto constituido, modelado por las condiciones estéticas, sociales y políticas; un espacio donde artistas y comisarios abren su trabajo a la reflexión, imaginación y reelaboración.
Equipo curatorial: Vít Havránek, Zbyněk Baladrán, Dóra Hegyi, Boris Ondreička, Georg Schöllhammer / Asistente de comisariado: Anna Pahissa Deulofeu.
Artistas: Basma Alsharif / Babi Badalov / Neïl Beloufa / Erick Beltrán / Igor & Ivan Buharov / Banu Cennetoğlu & Shiri Zinn / Boris Charmatz / Loulou Cherinet / Heman Chong / Kajsa Dahlberg / Cristina David / Stephan Dillemuth / Carla Filipe / Pedro G. Romero-Archivo F.X. / Alexandra Galkina / Karl Holmqvist / Sung Hwan Kim / Adela Jušić / Mathieu Kleyebe Abonnenc & Sarah Maldoror / Darius Mikšys / The Otolith Group / Bouchra Ouizguen / Emily Roysdon / Ruti Sela / Catarina Simão / Tomáš Vaněk / Martin Vongrej / Tris Vonna-Michell / Tanja Widmann.
Educación: Manifesta 8 presta especial atención a las actividades educativas. Se ha creado un programa especial de mediación en arte para investigar y reflexionar junto con nuestros visitantes sobre las obras y los conceptos que se presentan en Manifesta 8. Durante las horas de apertura se realizaran visitas guiadas en español, inglés, árabe, francés, alemán e italiano, al igual que un abanico de proyectos especiales, material educativo y actividades para escuelas y estudiantes de arte. http://www.manifesta8.es/medular .
Simposio: El domingo 10 de Octubre de 10:00 a 14:00, tendrá lugar el simposio Dando respuestas antes de conocer las preguntas: cuatro posiciones sobre la idea de una bienal pan – africana itinerante en el Centro Párraga de Murcia.
Para más información sobre el programa de inauguración:
Página web: http://www.manifesta8.es / http://www.manifesta.org
Teléfono: +34 868 950 750
Email: contact@manifesta8.es / accreditation@manifesta8.es
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English
Manifesta 8, the European Biennial of Contemporary Art, takes place in the Region of Murcia (Spain) in dialogue with northern Africa, from October 9, 2010 until January 9, 2011.
Preview days: October 7 and 8 in Murcia and Cartagena
Official opening day: October 9 in Murcia and Cartagena
www.manifesta8.es / www.manifesta.org
Running for a period of 100 days, Manifesta 8 will be taking place in the cities of Murcia and Cartagena in historical buildings, museums, unconventional spaces and several media channels. Manifesta 8 is curated by three independent curatorial collectives, each of them developing a project as an autonomous curatorial contribution. The collectives are ACAF – Alexandria Contemporary Arts Forum, CPS – Chamber of Public Secrets and tranzit.org.
ACAF – Alexandria Contemporary Arts Forum, raise the question ‘How can any art project genuinely touch on the sophisticated and haphazard web of life’s complexity?’ In response, they propose OVERSCORE, a multifaceted project held together by the logic of a specially devised, theoretical interface called The Theory of Applied Enigmatics.
Curator: Bassam El Baroni / Associate Curator: Jeremy Beaudry / Curatorial assistant: Yolanda Riquelme García
Artists: The Action Mill / Gonzalo Ballester / Lene Berg / Michael Paul Britto / Pablo Bronstein / Ergin Çavuşoğlu / Common Culture / Céline Condorelli / Willie Doherty / Juan Downey / Sherif El Azma / Alfonso Escudero / Simon Fujiwara / Ryan Gander / Melanie Gilligan / Nav Haq / Ann Veronica Janssens / Jeleton / Mahmoud Khaled / Hassan Khan / Irene Lucas & Christoph Euler / Suhail Malik / nOffice / Ana Martínez / Rosell Meseguer / Metahaven / Nástio Mosquito / Charles Mudede / Kenny Muhammad & Adam Carrigan / Lorraine O’Grady / Olivia Plender / Wanda Raimundi-Ortíz / Jasper Rigole / Red76 / Alexandre Singh / Jean-Marc Superville Sovak / Take to the Sea / Mariusz Tarkawian.
CPS – Chamber of Public Secrets. Through the critical use of media production, documentary-making, artistic research and aesthetic journalism, CPS’s curatorial project ¿THE REST IS HISTORY? occupies and questions the structures that define reality today, as well as its history.
Curators: Khaled Ramadan & Alfredo Cramerotti / Curatorial assistant: Rian Lozano de la Pola
Artists: AGM / Mounira Al Solh / Abed Anouti / Eşref Armağan / The ARTS ASSEMBLY / Michael Baers / Ghassan Ben Jeddou / Brumaria / Filipa César / Danilo Correale / Anders Eiebakke / Aida Eltorie (featuring films by Fateen Abdel Wahab, Dalia Neis, Sergio Leone, Bassem Yousri, Naiza Khan, Pauline M’Barek, Jan Ijäs, Aissa H. Deebi, Ghamkin Saleh, Madeline Djerejian, Yto Barrada) / Marcelo Expósito & Verónica Iglesia / Thierry Geoffroy-Colonel / Laurent Grasso / Khaled Hafez / Ralf Homann / Erlea Maneros Zabala / n.e.w.s.: Renée Ridgway & Rick van Amersfoort / Ángel Nevarez & Valerie Tevere / Fay Nicolson (in collaboration with Rasheed Araeen, Mark Ashurst, Katerina Gregos, John M. Kennedy , Huda Smitshuijzen, Alex Vesudevan) / Nada Prlja / Ariel Reichman / María Ruido / David Rych / Nikolaus Schletterer / Michael Takeo Magruder / Stefanos Tsivopoulos / Wooloo (in collaboration with Gema Alava, Helidon Gjergji, Pedro Guirao, Clarinda Mac Low, Matthias Neumann) / Raed Yassin.
Tranzit.org. Querying conventions of the “group show”, tranzit.org‘s CONSTITUTION FOR TEMPORARY DISPLAY is the result of a collective thinking about the potential for a self-constituting space, shaped by aesthetic, social and political conditions; a space where artists and curators open up their work to reflection, imagination and re-elaboration.
Curatorial team: Vít Havránek, Zbyněk Baladrán, Dóra Hegyi, Boris Ondreička, Georg Schöllhammer / Curatorial assistant: Anna Pahissa Deulofeu
Artists: Basma Alsharif / Babi Badalov / Neïl Beloufa / Erick Beltrán / Igor & Ivan Buharov / Banu Cennetoğlu & Shiri Zinn / Boris Charmatz / Loulou Cherinet / Heman Chong / Kajsa Dahlberg / Cristina David / Stephan Dillemuth / Carla Filipe / Pedro G. Romero-Archivo F.X. / Alexandra Galkina / Karl Holmqvist / Sung Hwan Kim / Adela Jušić / Mathieu Kleyebe Abonnenc & Sarah Maldoror / Darius Mikšys / The Otolith Group / Bouchra Ouizguen / Emily Roysdon / Ruti Sela / Catarina Simão / Tomáš Vaněk / Martin Vongrej / Tris Vonna-Michell / Tanja Widmann.
Education: In Manifesta 8, particular attention is dedicated to educational activities. An art mediation program has been set up to research and reflect together with the visitors on the artworks and concepts presented at Manifesta 8. Guided tours in Spanish, English, Arabic, French, German and Italian are available during opening hours, as well as a range of special projects, education material and activities for school classes and art students. www.manifesta8.es/medular.
Symposium: On Sunday 10th of October, from 10.00 to 14.00, the symposium Bringing you the answers before we know the question: four positions regarding the idea of a pan-African roaming biennial will take place in the Centro Parraga, Murcia.
For more information on the preview/opening program:
Website: www.manifesta8.es / www.manifesta.org
Phone: +34 868 950 750
Email: contact@manifesta8.es / accreditation@manifesta8.es
Curatorview [Alfredo Cramerotti] 
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