PHOTOSTORY: MANIFESTA 13 MARSEILLE

Manifesta – the European Nomadic Biennial was opened 28 August in Marseille, after a postponement from June. For the first time in its history, Manifesta 13 Marseille is more than just one major programme of visual arts exhibitions for an international audience of specialists. It now brings together three equally important programmes amongst which two are locally anchored. Traits d’union.s is a programme conceived by an Artistic Team composed of international curators, Le Tiers Programme (the Third Programme) features a programme built by members of Manifesta 13 Marseille’s education and mediation department, and Les Parallèles du Sud is a multidisciplinary programme of exhibitions and events produced by regional stakeholders in collaboration with international partners.

‘Marseille’s power lies in the encounters between different cultures, networks and people, from Sub-Saharan Africa and Northern Africa to Europe’s Greek and Roman culture to the Americas and beyond. Taking into consideration that Marseille is a mosaic of all these influences, and after years of research, critical reflection and intensive discourse, I am proud of the outcome of the multilayered process that resulted in Le Tiers Programme conceived by our Education and Mediation team. Through Le Tiers Programme, Manifesta 13 offers the opportunity to investigate Europe’s contemporary changing DNA through the specific lens of the city of Marseille, its citizens and its genealogies and hopefully develop inspirational and constructive proposals for a more inclusive, diverse and socially engaged future resulting in a new form of solidarity’. – says Hedwig Fijen, director of Manifesta.