Binta Diaw, Lola Lasurt, Félix Blume, Carlos Bunga will participate in Manifesta 15

The biennial Manifesta 15, which will be held from September 8 to November 24, will offer a program at sixteen venues spread over twelve cities in the metropolitan region. Of the 43 participants, 29 will present newly created works made especially for Manifesta 15.

Manifesta, the biennial European nomad, will take place in the metropolitan region: Badalona, Cornellà de Llobregat, El Prat del Llobregat, l'Hospitalet de Llobregat, Granollers, Mataró, Sabadell, Sant Adrià de Besòs, Sant Cugat del Vallés, Santa Coloma de Gramenet and Terrace. The program of Manifesta 15, which will last 78 days, is developed around three thematic clusters in the metropolitan region: the Besòs nodes, the Llobregat delta and the Collserola mountain range. The former Gustavo Gili publishing house will host, between other proposals, the exhibition Black Archives: fragments of an anti-colonialist metropolis or a project that delves into the legacy of radical educational movements in Catalonia.

The venues or spaces where it will be held are Casa Gomis in El Prat de Llobregat; Can Trinxet, from Hospitalet de Llobregat; The Caldereria, from Cornellà de Llobregat; the Monastery of Sant Cugat and Cal Quiteria, in Sant Cugat del Vallès; the Vapor Buxeda Vell, from Sabadell; La Seu Ògara, in Terrassa; Umbert Rock Fábrica de les Arts, Plaça de la Porxada, the Museum of Natural Sciences of Granollers and Can Jonch – Center for Culture for Peace in Granollers; The Three Chimneys, of Sant Adrià del Besòs; CIBA, from Santa Coloma de Gramenet; Badalona's Coco Beach, and Mataró Contemporary Art.

"One of the most interesting things is to enter spaces that have been closed to the public", pointed out the artist, educator and education coordinator of Manifesta 15, Jordi Ferreiro. He also highlighted that a challenge of the biennial is to see how art enters these new spaces.

Local and regional cultural individuals and organizations have been invited to be part of Manifesta 15 as participants. Claudia Pagès, JokkooCollective, La Casa dels Futurs, Lola Lasurt, Matias Daporta, Metropolis, Nora Ancarola, Rosa Tharrats & Gabriel Ventura, Tornen les Esquelles and Transductores had already been announced. But this Thursday the creative mediator, Filipa Oliveira, emphasized Binta Diaw, Lola Lasurt, Félix Blume, Carlos Bunga and the group Tornen les esquelles. Other names are those of Eva Fàbregas, Mike Nelson, Ugo Schiavi, Anaïs Florin or Lorenzo Sandoval. Likewise, of the 43 participants, 55% are local or established in the region.

Oliveira explained that the group of participants have "the challenge of exploring, speculating and imagining thematic approaches that encompass this edition such as the ecosocial transition or how to imagine new futures amidst the ruins of the industrial age".

The creative mediator emphasized that at Manifesta 15 they are inspired by artists, activists, ecologists, scientists and thinkers who have paved the way. "This collective of voices are the visions of our society". He has said that they want to raise questions rather than theories for a resilient future and a space for justice. He also said that they want to do an exercise in critical and empathic observation.

Archives at the Gustavo Gili

Manifesta 15 Barcelona Metropolitana works on a wide range of research projects that delve deeper into the historical memories, genealogies, stories and shared educational practices of the region. The archives, housed at Gustavo Gili, Manifesta's headquarters during the period of the biennial, are significant, the organizers have explained, at a "mental, material, spiritual and historical level, based on unheard voices and the activation by various groups in society".

In this context, author and Princeton professor German Labrador will analyze the impact of the Spanish Civil War and Franco's rule on cultural and social development from the war itself to the post-Franco stage of the 1970s.

Researcher, curator and founder of Radio Africa, Tania Safura Adam will review collective memory through an exhibition of 'black archives', a podcast and materials from the Anticolonial Library. "The project starts from the reflection of the coloniality and postcoloniality of the metropolis", pointed out Safura.

Likewise, Manifesta 15's Education department presents research on Catalan educational renewal movements, highlighting the impact of education and pedagogy on social transformation. The project, which delves into the legacy of radical educational movements in Catalonia, builds a critical genealogy from 1924 and has been carried out with the collaboration of the collectives Anaïs Florin, Massa Salvatge, Paisanaje and Diversorium.

As already announced, the team is made up of the creative mediator of Manifesta 15, the Portuguese curator Filipa Oliveira; eleven artistic representatives from the eleven metropolitan cities; Ariadna Amat Garcia (Badalona); Penélope Cañizares Bellido (Cornellà de Llobregat); Cristina Castells Tort (El Prat de Llobregat); Raquel Morcillo García (Granollers); Mireia Mascarell Llosa (L'Hospitalet de Llobregat); Gisel Noè (Mataró); Óscar Abril Ascaso (Sabadell); David Linares Ramos (Sant Adrià de Besòs); Joan González Cano (Santa Coloma de Gramenet); Andreu Dengra Carayol (Sant Cugat del Vallès); Imma Vilches García (Terrassa) and the director of Manifesta, HedwigFijen.