Читать книгу Manifesta 13 Marseille - Группа авторов - Страница 8

founding director of Manifesta

Whilst writing this text, in the midst of the 2020 pandemic, I can almost hear the windows of the world closing. Everywhere governments have decided to close borders and communities have been isolated in their homes for more than two months now. These unprecedented times, facing emergencies that threaten the world as we know it now, have urged us to rethink and remodel our lives, economies, dreams and realities, including the very concept and methodology of something we call the biennial.

It’s been five years now since the multicultural and diverse City of Marseille made a bid to host Manifesta 13 in Marseille in 2020, as a follow-up to the successful European Cultural Capital in 2013. As part of the pre-biennial research, Manifesta has commissioned for the second time an urban study: this time by Rotterdam based MVRDV, Winy Maas and the Why Factory, supported by Kristina Knauf, Javier Arpa Fernández, Adrien Ravon and Claudia Mainardi.

The study, called Le Grand Puzzle, was presented in Marseille in February 2019 and it was followed not by an architectural intervention (as initially planned), but by 22 workshops with local citizens called Tour de Tous les Possible. This was made possible by Marseille-based Tarik Ghezali and Joke Quintens, to whom we owe immense gratitude for their contribution, expertise, time and commitment.

I would like to express my sincere gratitude to all our supporters from the City of Marseille, the Marseille museums, the cultural institutions, the participants, our staff members, our colleagues and sponsors who for the last four years have given us a sense of belonging, supported our collective actions and helped create a Manifesta 13 community.

I would also like to thank architect Winy Maas and his colleagues from MVRDV and The Why Factory, who accepted my invitation to work in a truly inter-disciplinary manner. They created a holistic new perspective for both the City of Marseille now and in the future, as well as a new basis for artistic and social practices related to the spaces MVRDV included in their research. They also fostered a more transparent context for Manifesta 13 in a spirit of cohabitation and coexistence.

Special thanks to Anne-Marie d’Estienne d’Orves, Deputy of the Mayor of Marseille for Culture, Living Arts, Museums, Public Libraries and Art Schools, Marie-Hélène Feraud-Grégori, Councillor of the City of Marseille for the Opera, the Odeon and Contemporary Art, and Sébastien Cavalier, Director for Cultural Affairs of the City of Marseille, who highly supported the candidacy of Marseille for Manifesta 13.

My deep gratitude goes to the members of the Board of the Association Manifesta 13: Jean de Loisy (Vice President), Marc Bollet, Hendrikje Crebolder, Hendrik Driessen, Hélène Guenin and Peter Paul Kainrath, who supported us in this complex road towards the gradual launch and opening of Manifesta 13 in the late summer and autumn of 2020.

Without the relentless support and determination of Emilia van Lynden, Head of Communication and Publications and Agata Bar, Publications Coordinator, this book would not have been realised. I would also like to thank my colleagues who contributed to the development of this Manifesta 13 publication: Paul Domela, Marieke van Hal, Yana Klichuk, Aleth Mandula, Joana Monbaron, Mathilde Rubinstein, Béatrice Simonet, Tatiana Tarragó and Francesca Verga.

My warm thanks go to our German publisher Hatje Cantz for all their patience and trust.