Since Manifesta's inception in the early 1990s it's mission has been to examine the cultural topography of Europe. Every two years it finds a new city or region in which to temporarily embed itself. In the past Manifesta has typically selected peripheral or contested regions as Hosts.

By News Editor 23 May 2013

The board of Manifesta announced their selection of the City of Zurich, Switzerland as Host City of Manifesta 11 in 2016.

Zurich’s dynamic and complex urban environment will provide a socially, politically and artistically significant trajectory for Manifesta in the coming years.

Zurich has a very long history of artistic and intellectual liberalism. It was historically an incubator for revolutionary political and artistic movements. During periods of historical upheaval in Europe, Zurich offered asylum to intellectuals from around the world. Today’s Zurich is one of the most economically and technologically advanced cities in the world. This 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.

Manifesta 10 in 2014 will see the Biennial hosted by a historical institution for the first time, the State Hermitage Museum, in the City of St. Petersburg, Russian Federation. After the white cube setting of Manifesta 10 in 2014, the Zurich Bid presented an interesting counterpoint. 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.

Since Manifesta’s inception in the early 1990s it’s mission has been to examine the cultural topography of Europe. Every two years it finds a new city or region in which to temporarily embed itself. In the past Manifesta has typically selected peripheral or contested regions as Hosts.