Hannah McGivern reports in The Art Newspaper, Dec. 16, 2014:
Manifesta is planning to return to Italy for its twelfth edition in 2018, ten years on from Manifesta 7’s stint in the South Tyrol. The director of Europe’s roving biennial, Hedwig Fijen, told The Art Newspaper that it is in the “last stage of laying the foundations for a collaboration with the city of Palermo in Sicily for Manifesta 12,” confirming numerous reports in the Italian media.
Once the agreement with Palermo is finalised, hopefully “before the end of this year”, Manifesta wants to “start working on training and setting up a sustainable organisation for 2018,” Fijen said.
The Sicilian capital was mooted as a potential destination in June, when Fijen led a research trip there with the board members Gijs van Tuyl and Paul Domela. The bid was launched by the city’s former culture assessor Francesco Giambrone, who also co-ordinated Palermo’s candidacy for the European Capital of Culture 2019 competition (won by Matera).
An unfinished late Gothic church (Santa Maria dello Spasimo), a former Liberty furniture factory (Cantieri Culturali alla Zisa) and a park created as a private royal hunting reserve (Parco della Favorita) are the more unconventional choices among the proposed venues. The preliminary list of six also features three museums: the Galleria d’Arte Moderna, the Museo regionale d’arte contemporanea and the newly-opened “Ecomuseum” dedicated to Palermo’s relationship with the sea.
Fijen said that Palermo’s “social, cultural and political heritage” and recent urban development would be a focus of Manifesta’s curatorial research. It will aim to look at “how artistic practices and interventions can play a role in improving the social cohesion of this remarkable city,” she said.
Il Giornale dell’Arte reports that the city authority is due to name a president for a foundation, FM12 Palermo, that will manage the event. It has already invested €514,000 and is expected to contribute a further €3.4m over the next three years.
The last edition of Manifesta controversially took place in St Petersburg, Russia, despite calls to boycott the event because of the country’s anti-gay legislation. The 11th edition of the biennial will be hosted by Zurich in 2016.