Manifesta 14 Prishtina 2022
Prishtina, Kosovo
July 22 – October 30, 2022

On the 21st of July, Manifesta is delighted to announce that the 14th edition of the European Nomadic Biennial is open in Prishtina, Kosovo. From the 22nd of July to the 30th of October, Manifesta 14 Prishtina presents a 100-day interdisciplinary programme of artistic & urban interventions, performances, events and workshops.

Manifesta 14 responds to Prishtina’s call and the global need to reclaim and reimagine public spaces. An Urban Vision and biennial interventions by CRA-Carlo Ratti Associati as well as a series of Citizen Consultations and in-depth research by Manifesta 14’s Education team have inspired a multi-layered artistic and urbanistic programme. Under the title it matters what worlds world worlds: how to tell stories otherwise, the artistic programme was developed by Creative Mediator Catherine Nichols with the Manifesta 14 team and in close collaboration with local collectives, artists, scholars, architects and activists.

Key statistics
Manifesta 14 Prishtina has a radically local programme: of the 103 participants, which includes 25 collectives, 39% have Kosovar origins, the highest ever number of local participants in any edition of Manifesta. A further 26% of the participants are from the Western Balkans, meaning that 65% of the total participants herald from the region. Further, 56% of the individual participants are female, and 3% are non-binary.

Venues of Manifesta 14 Prishtina
Spread across 25 public and semi-public venues in Prishtina, from the Ottoman-era Great Hammam to the Yugoslav-era Palace of Youth and Sports, the biennial programme is best navigated through the Manifesta 14 Parcours. This Parcours prompts visitors to witness the ongoing urban development of this young, social and dynamic capital city. Through its engagement with a diverse set of venues – each with its own unique history, Manifesta 14 Prishtina calls attention to the need and use of public space within urban landscapes.

Major urban interventions include the Green Corridor, which connects two sides of the city with a plant-lined sustainable mobility path and opens access to the eco urban learning laboratory developed by raumlaborberlin for Manifesta 14 Prishtina in the former Brick Factory. For the first time in Manifesta’s three-decade history, Manifesta 14 has established a permanent interdisciplinary cultural institution, the Centre for Narrative Practice, situated on the grounds of the former Hivzi Sulejmani Library. This is the result of a significant change in Manifesta’s institutional approach, concentrating on making a long-term impact on the local infrastructure and cultural ecosystem in the Host City.

With this edition, the European Nomadic Biennial has also formed a regional network and programme of events through the Manifesta 14 Prishtina – Western Balkans Project, connecting and extending the Prishtina programme with those of cultural partners hailing from across the region.

Four pillars
Manifesta 14’s programme is based around four pillars: 1) the Centre for Narrative Practice with its Oaza Education space, 2) the former Brick Factory, 3) the Grand Hotel Prishtina and its seven-floor thematic exhibition and 4) the parcours of 25 venues with artistic and urban interventions spread across the city of Prishtina. These are woven into tightly composed parcours, which thread together all the interdisciplinary elements of Manifesta 14 Prishtina into one cohesive programme, allowing visitors to interact with the stories of the places in which the artistic interventions are presented. Revolving around these four pillars, the programme works to transform the biennial model into a participatory and collaborative catalyst for social change. See annexe two for more details on each of these four pillars.

Kosovo and its relationship to Europe
The artistic and urban interventions of Manifesta 14 Prishtina, including the thematic exhibition titled The Grand Scheme of Things, ask the visitor to consider the political impetus of storytelling. In a biennial full of stories, what does it mean for the young people and artistic community of a country to live with travel restrictions to the Schengen area? The lack of visa liberalisation means that Kosovo‘s cultural and artistic communities face the most basic obstructions, restricting their capacity to conduct and maintain constructive dialogues with the rest of Europe – let alone the rest of the world.

As the European Nomadic Biennial, through its urban and artistic interventions across Prishtina, Manifesta addresses Kosovo’s relationship with Europe. Via the synergy of international and local participants in the biennial programme, Manifesta 14 Prishtina hopes to not only put the spotlight on the underrepresented talents within the region but to open up new networks for Kosovo’s artistic and cultural communities. Stimulating intercultural dialogues has been core to all Manifesta editions; for Manifesta 14 Prishtina, we strive to develop and sustain cultural discussions and social debates – to open up the rest of Europe and the world to Kosovo, and for the world to see all that Kosovo has to offer. Manifesta 14 Prishtina is free and opens for100 days until the 30th of October 2022.

more. www.manifesta14.org