Manifesta 12: Palermo, Eden of the avant-garde
"Let's assume together that the Earth is a small garden" . This statement was made by the landscaper and philosopher Gilles Clément in his book the planetary garden (1999), starting from the idea that we live in a kind of Eden whose guardians we humans are, and that therefore we must take care of its diversity and sustainability.
The book - like others by its author - has influenced a whole generation of scholars and designers , and is now one of the great sources of inspiration for the **12th edition of Manifesta**, the European art biennial that will begin this June in the **city of Palermo, in Sicily**.
Mushroom Forcella
Manifesta is a somewhat sui generis artistic event. To begin with, if one of the objectives of this type of initiative is to put a city -the host city, of course- on the map and position it as a destination for lovers of art and culture , the fact that in this case the venue changes every year paints a completely different picture.
Throughout its eleven editions, it has been held in places as diverse as Rotterdam (the inaugural edition, in 1996), Ljubljana, Saint Petersburg or Zurich . It has also passed through Spain twice, in 2004 ( Saint Sebastian ) and 2010 ( Murcia ) .
Because Manifesta defines itself as a nomadic event . And of course it could not be accused of a lack of consistency with this principle if we stick to the choice of Palermo as the host city this year.
The island of Sicily, of which it is the capital, has been throughout its very complex history place of passage for all kinds of peoples who transited the Mediterranean, and dominated by Phoenicians, Greeks, Carthaginians, Romans, Byzantines, Arabs, Normans, Spanish, Austrians or French , and of almost all of them there are material traces that make up an overwhelming wealth of heritage, but which also has some adverse aspects.
Interior of the Palazzo Constantino in Palermo
Its impressive constructions Arab-Norman, its Byzantine mosaics or its Baroque churches are among the hits of any music fan history of art , but partly because of such a slab, Sicilians are rarely related to the avant-garde or contemporary artistic manifestations.
And it must be said that at least Palermo does have some interesting centers of artistic modernity that we invite you to discover, such as the Francesco Pantaleone and Rizzuto private art galleries, the GAM (focused on 20th-century artists) or the Riso Museum (with more current) .
The organizers of Manifesta have had the good sense to take advantage of the magnificent architectural heritage of the city to choose the different venues that will host this edition, but at the same time they have avoided the obvious of tourist sites, thus highlighting many locations that will be a discovery even for many people from Palermo.
Mushroom forcella in Palermo
Most of the fifteen planned venues have already been revealed, which includes not only the superb Botanical Garden of the city , typical scientific project of the Enlightenment that today symbolizes that idea of the diversity of the world ecosystem; and the Garibaldi Theater, from the 19th century, which after a long period of decline was recovered for new functions; the baroque church of saints Euno and Julian ; or the spectacular palazzi Butera, Ajutamicristo and Costantino , but also the peculiar Piazza Magione (which currently looks more like a vacant lot than a real square); the urban sprawl of the **ZEN (Zona Espansione Nord) ** or the Rationalist building of the House of Mutilation.
Palermo, capital of contemporary art in 2018
Among the selection of artists who have also already communicated, and who will take part in these and other spaces, the very Gilles Clement (which, together with the French urban planning studio Coloco, will develop a program of meetings and workshops on space and nature), the Brazilian resident in London Maria Thereza Alves, the nigerian Jelili Atiku , the Irish John Gerrard , the Italians Marinella Senatore and Giorgio Vasta or the Belgian collective Rotor.
In addition, fifteen projects by other artists and galleries will be shown in the parallel section 5x5x5. Most of the interventions revolve around the ideas of the diversity, coexistence and respect for the environment that inspire the general concept of this year.
Chaotic streets of Palermo
Another aspect that makes the Manifesta special is that what is usually called in exhibitions of this type “curators” or “curatorial team” here it happens to be called, more kindly, “creative mediators”.
This year there are four people who make up this team: the Italian Ippolito Pestellini Leparelli , the Switzerland Mirjam Varanidis, the dutch Bregtje van der Haak and the spanish Andrew Jack, that the artists have selected and coordinated the interventions in the different spaces.
Botanical Garden of Palermo
Manifesta 12 will not start until June 16 , but until then, the biennial team – a large human group as international and multidisciplinary as it seems to be everything here – is working intensely on outlining the last details and, ultimately, preparing the ground.
In fact, a previous section called Aspecting Manifest , which includes, among other things, an educational program run by yana kilchuk , responsible for the Education group, one of the largest at the biennial. "When we arrived we found a city that despite its small size was very disintegrated, with little contact between the different neighborhoods, and peculiar socioeconomic conditions," summarizes Kilchuk.
That is why they decided to undertake initiatives such as the launch of a bus intervened by the Spanish ENORME Studio that will travel through the different neighborhoods of the city to, as a mobile educational platform, bring the proposal closer to those peripheral nuclei.
Chaotic streets of Palermo
The mayor of Palermo himself, Leoluca Orlando , trusts in the power of art, and specifically of this Manifesta, to serve as a glue for the city. Known above all for his fight against the mafia and its efforts to integrate immigrants who arrived in successive waves -He considers them a form of wealth rather than a problem-, he affirms that Palermo is made up of many diverse pieces , like any work of art, and that Manifesta will be the framework that will serve to unite them. Definitely, we do want to get into that garden.
* Manifesta 12 will be held in Palermo (Italy), from June 16 to November 4, 2018.
Palermo will be filled with art in June