Connect: Artistic Research Platforms in the Mediterranean
May 20-21, 2022 MANIFESTIAMO
Villa Romano, Florence
Symposium: 20 May, 19:30
Public Working Group: 21 May, 10:00
The Mediterranean region is a transcontinental space where many languages are spoken. Those who live in the countries around the Mediterranean feel connected to the entire region because of the climate (and its catastrophic development), the vegetation, shared histories and customs. Politically, the Mediterranean is a zone of diverse demarcations, crises and conflicts – not least between the European and the Arab and African states against the background of imperial and colonial occupations. Culturally, there are selective collaborations that reject the sea as a medium of distance, but often fail due to a lack of institutional and transnational support.
Since (digital) archives for the appropriation and rewriting of history have become virulent in artistic practice, new levels of exchange and collaboration between the different shore zones have become possible. They offer starting points to re-explore and revitalize a destroyed, negated or forgotten history of the cultural space.
By inviting six artistic research projects, MANIFESTIAMO was further encouraging networking and promoting a rhizomatic exchange of knowledge and future joint strategies.
Participating groups:
Qalqalah قلقلة , Platform Harakat, Dar Yusuf Nasri Jacir for Art and Research, Kayfa ta, THE ΤΕΛΟΣ SOCIETY | TTS, Le 18/QANAT , The Broken Archive
MANIFESTIAMO was a collective format including installations, workshops, round tables, films and talks by more than 70 artists and researchers addressing issues of artistic practice and its current conditions over the course of three months. It was an open format that—following the Scuola Popolare in the summers of 2020 and 2021—shunned hierarchies and strategies of dominance, proposed institutional work as a collaborative process.