MANIFESTA 6, the European Biennale of Contemporary Art, may not, after all, take place in Nicosia this year, as there is a major disagreement between the biennale’s curatorial team and the non-profit local organisation, Nicosia for Art, created by Nicosia Municipality for the sole purpose of overseeing the project.
Representatives of the two bodies, who should be working together at co-ordinating the event, are to meet today in an attempt to solve the dispute. The discussion will include such points as the location of the art school which constitutes the major part of the project, the current state of the project, curators’ working conditions, lack of communication between the curatorial team and local co-ordinator, and the state of the biennale’s finances.
“The curators are upset for various reasons,” one of the people close to the project told the Cyprus Mail.
“For example, they have planned that the art school will take place on both sides of the Green Line and thought that the local authorities had agreed with it. But for the last several months they have been receiving less and less positive reaction towards this initiative.
“They have been told it would be illegal for them to spend any of Manifesta’s money on the other side. But it is only part of the problem. There are also other disagreements about the way the project is run and the general lack of proper communication and co-operation between the curators and the Nicosia for Art team.
“I have heard that they are more or less not talking to each other. And as far as the project is concerned, nothing is happening.
“I think there is a possibility they [the curators] will resign.”
Manifesta, considered by many to be, along with the Venice Biennale and Documenta in Kassel, one of the most important contemporary art events in Europe, is to take place in the capital of Cyprus between September and December this year. The event is said to have a geopolitical context and orientation, and always chooses as its locations places with special meaning and interest in socio-political terms.
The budget of this year’s event is supposed to reach 1.8 million euros in total, out of which one million euros have been secured from the Cypriot Ministry of Education and Culture, the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Tourism (through the Cyprus Tourism Organisation), and the Nicosia Municipality.
The Manifesta 6 curatorial team includes German Florian Waldvogel, Egyptian Mai Abu ElDahab and Russian-born artist based in New York Anton Vidokle. The management team of Nicosia for Art is composed of director of the Nicosia Municipal Art Centre head Yiannis Toumazis as general co-ordinator and financial manager Nicolas Efstathiou.
