Zurich, Switzerland’s largest city, is to host the 11th edition of Manifesta, the European biennial of contemporary art, which takes place in 2016.
The roving biennial, which since it launched in Rotterdam in 1996 has gone to eight different cities/areas in Europe – including Luxembourg, Frankfurt, San Sebastian and Murcia – will next take place next in St Petersburg, Russia, in 2014. It will be hosted there by the State Hermitage Museum.
Zurich was chosen for 2016 in part due to its long history of artistic and intellectual liberalism and its historic role as an incubator for revolutionary political and artistic movements.
In its announcement, the Manifesta board states: ‘[Zurich’s] rich and rapidly evolving urban setting will give Manifesta 11 the opportunity to explore critical global issues relating to the processes of urbanization, urban space and society, while reassessing the role art can play in these.
‘Based on the concept of the ‘synthesis of the heterogeneous’, the Zurich bid provided a nuanced vision of the critical potential of Manifesta as a “collective experiment” for Zurich.’
Manifesta Director Hedwig Fijen said: “The Manifesta board appreciated the openness expressed in the Zurich bid and the willingness to invite Manifesta to take a critical position. With full awareness that initiating a Manifesta Biennial involves unpredictable outcomes, Zurich embraces the critical discourse, including the opportunities and risks that it entails. That is why we are thrilled to be going to Zurich for Manifesta 11.”
Peter Haerle, Director of Cultural Affairs for the City of Zurich, said: “The decision of the Manifesta Committee is a great chance and motivation for the Zurich cultural scene. The critical look from the outside, that this competent and innovative biennale will cast at Zurich, will give all of society valuable insights and impulses.”
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