Fourteenth Manifesta to be held in Kosovo: major European art biennial to be held in Pristina in 2022

Manifesta14, the 2022 edition of Manifesta, the historic traveling European art exhibition, will be held in Kosovo: Pristina will be the city that will host the biennial exhibition that started in 1996 from Rotterdam and was held in 2018 in Palermo (the second time for Italy after the 2008 edition in Trentino Alto-Adige) and will see the next edition, the thirteenth, in 2020 in Marseille. The historic capital of Kosovo seemed to the organizers to be the ideal place to look at the past and think about the current challenges Europe is facing, from a unique and diverse perspective. The city of Pristina, a rapidly evolving center at the crossroads of Eastern and Western Europe, will allow Manifesta 14, organizers say, “to explore how contemporary culture and social practices can help highlight the identity of a country that is as composite as it is polymorphic.”

Indeed, since its founding, Manifesta has been about investigating how culture in Europe is transformed: every two years, the major exhibition changes venue and carries out its research on Europe by looking at it through the lens of the new host city. The Supervisory Board and Manifesta director Hedwig Fijen thus selected the city of Pristina in Kosovo because of the geographical and geopolitical importance of the Balkans in relation to Europe’s recent history and its future. The current capital of Europe’s youngest sovereign state, throughout its history Pristina has undergone major transformations due in part to recent neoliberal policies of privatization of public spaces. Manifesta aims to be an opportunity for the citizens of Kosovo to reclaim their public space and rewrite the future of their city, an open-minded metropolis in the heart of the Balkans.

Pristina was selected by the Manifesta Foundation Board to host the 14th edition of the Biennale based on the official bid submitted by the City of Pristina: the board received bids from various European cities and undertook extensive research on each bid. The selection of the host city three years in advance of the Biennale’s opening is part of a strategy to ensure greater involvement with the host region.

At a press conference in Pristina this morning, Manifesta biennial director Hedwig Fijen, Pristina Mayor Shpend Ahmeti, Pristina City Councilor for Culture Blerta Bosholli, and Minister of Culture, Youth and Sports of the Republic of Kosovo Kujtim Gashi thus made Pristina official as the host city for Manifesta 14.

“Our city,” says Mayor Ahmeti, “is proud and honored to host Manifesta in 2022. In a place where 50 percent of its population is under the age of 25, where Ottoman architecture is happily mixed with postwar neoliberal architecture, there is much to discuss and much to do; and there is certainly a lot of public space to reappropriate. Manifesta is what we need not only to bring forward for an honest discussion about the future of the city, but also because events like Manifesta are symbolic of the rebirth of the host cities, as well as of art and architecture in the Western Balkans. Manifesta gave the most important answer to our offer: the Balkans are Europe and must be able to contribute to the European debate.”

“At the historical moment when this proposal comes to us,” Director Fijen points out, “Kosovo seems to be going through its own silent revolution in terms of mobility. Increased exchange (trade and otherwise) between the new region and its neighboring countries revitalizes historical relations but also creates surprising connections. This freedom of movement within the region has given Kosovars a new way of thinking about themselves, how they organize their lives, and how they experience themselves in relation to the region and the world at large. Moreover, Kosovo is not just within its sovereign territory, but manifests itself in a vibrant diaspora around the world. The cultural, legal and political paralysis of the 1990s resulted in a loss of sense of public space and a lack of recognition for what is common. I hope Manifesta can provide Pristina with the means to rebuild, redefine and reclaim a radicalized and diverse public space, which still seems to be seen as a culturally subversive act, and which can manifest itself in an even stronger demand for change.” The date is therefore set on the Balkans in 2022.

Fourteenth Manifesta to be held in Kosovo: major European art biennial to be held in Pristina in 2022

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