[Reader-list] Apoyo_Support

[Ah_Ek Ferrera_Balanquet]

Sorry for crossposting

Dear friends, hope this letter will reach as many people as possible and we 
can offer our support to the curators of Manifiesta 6 who are this moment 
are in need of our understanding

Warm Wishes and paz to all.

Raul


For Immediate Release

June 6, 2006


A letter from Mai Abu ElDahab, Anton Vidokle and Florian Waldvogel, former 
curators of Manifesta 6


Dear Colleagues, Dear Friends,

Manifesta 6 was planned to take the form of a temporary art school, the 
Manifesta 6 School, comprised of three departments revolving around diverse 
cultural issues and debates, and each proposing a different structural model 
for art education. The proposed Manifesta 6 School is a postgraduate, 
trans-disciplinary program for approximately 90 participants from many parts 
of the world lasting about 12-weeks: (see full list of Manifesta 6 
participants below). Inspired by such historical examples as Black Mountain 
College and the Bauhaus, the School would be a meeting ground for cultural 
producers in the region and beyond, and a platform for discussion and 
production.

In keeping with the past goals of Manifesta to open dialogue between West 
Europe’s artists and audiences and their Eastern European peers, Manifesta 6 
intended to “play a modest role in developing new forms of cultural 
partnerships, not only within the new Europe, but particularly between 
Europe and its immediate neighbouring regions.” Such cultural partnerships 
in the context of Nicosia, a city located on the furthermost edge of 
European Community and divided into Greek and Turkish Cypriot sectors, 
specifically implies engagement and presence in both communities inhabiting 
this city.

Unfortunately, on June 1st, we received a letter from the Mayor of Nicosia, 
Cyprus, effectively terminating our contracts to organize Manifesta 6, the 
European Biennial of Contemporary Art in Nicosia. On June 2nd, Nicosia for 
Art Ltd. (the non-profit organization set up and owned by the Municipality 
of Nicosia to run the project) made a public announcement and circulated it 
internationally defining a variety of alleged breaches of contract by the 
curators, which led the city to cancel the project.

The alleged breaches of contract being referred to relate in large part to 
what Nicosia for Art Ltd. states as “Recently and contrary to the original 
concept of the Manifesta 6 program the curatorial team insisted on the 
establishment and operation of an essential part of the Manifesta 6 School 
in the occupied part of Nicosia”, a break of confidentiality and an 
unwillingness on the part of the curators to mediate the situation to reach 
an amicable compromise to allow for the project to be realized.

With regards to the primary issue around the location of a part of the 
school in the north, the contractual agreement made with the local 
authorities clearly defined Manifesta 6 as a bi-communal project, therefore, 
we believed ourselves to be working within the parameters outlined and 
agreed upon at the outset of the project. Accordingly, we developed the 
project in the spirit of this bi-communality, and throughout the process, 
the Greek Cypriot authorities not only agreed, but also encouraged this 
approach to working in both areas of the city and made numerous official 
public statements confirming their support.

The Manifesta 6 School was envisioned as an important cultural project to 
take place in a city whose political climate has been changing dramatically. 
Needless to say, we continued to work to safeguard this position while 
obviously making every effort to reach a compromise with Nicosia for Art 
Ltd. to ensure our concept is realized. Moreover, we continuously advocated 
for a transparency within the process to maintain responsible and 
accountable conditions for our collaborators and ourselves.

Unfortunately, throughout the course of the last six months, we were 
increasingly hindered by a lack of administrative support to realize the 
project, which simply climaxed with the termination of our contracts as the 
final gesture reflecting Nicosia for Art’s unwillingness to resolve any 
disagreements. Although we can conjecture and analyze the problematics of 
the situation, we feel that our foremost priority now is to attempt to find 
a way to ensure that the commitments and hard work of all of those involved 
whether administratively or from the artistic side is not lost, and is 
treated with the utmost respect and support.

This cancellation of the Manifesta 6 School does a great disservice to the 
cultural community of Cyprus. Numerous artists, writers and academics who 
live on both sides of the island have sent us letters of support, protesting 
arbitrary action by local authorities that deprives the cultural community 
of an invaluable opportunity to meet and engage with their peers from around 
the world, noting that “given the limited resources available at the local 
level, the mobilization of such interest and expertise for Nicosia is 
unprecedented and extremely special.”

We are currently in the process of considering and planning how to proceed, 
while rejecting any form of censorship that obstructs the dissemination of 
ideas and impedes artistic production.

We very much appreciate the support we have been getting in the course of 
the past few days and very much hope we are able to turn these unfortunate 
events into a productive outcome. The International Foundation Manifesta 
will be sending out a press release shortly outlining the plans to come.

Thank you once again.

Sincerely,

Mai Abu ElDahab, Anton Vidokle, Florian Waldvogel


For further information, please write to International Foundation Manifesta 
at secretariat at manifesta.org

Invited participants of Manifesta 6 School

Department 1
Curator - Mai Abu ElDahab, Assistant Curator - Mohamed Yousri
Participants: Eyal Weizman, Variant Magazine, Francesco Bernardelli, Philip 
(a workshop by Heman Chong and Leif Magne Tangen), Pages Magazine, Jonas 
Ohlsson, Jan Verwoert, Yael Davids, Mark Aerial Waller, Brian Kuan Wood, 
Demetris Talliotis, Constantinos Talliotis, Christina Lambrou, Constance 
Gonoud, Sarah Oppenheimer, Andrew Peter Steen, Gidoen Boie, Motaz Atalla, 
Maha Maamoun, Dena Kasraian, Babak Rostamian, Andre Sousa, Gul Kozacioglu, 
Will Holder, Valentinas Klimasauskas, Ricardo Alzati, dotdotdot

Department 2
Curator - Anton Vidokle, Assistant Curator - Kaja Pawelek
Participants: Boris Groys, Martha Rosler, Walid Raad, Jalal Toufic, Tirdad 
Zolghadr, Liam Gillick, Anri Sala, Mete Hatay, Tobias Rehberger, Yiannis 
Papadakis, Christian Jankowski, Neurotransmitter, Pierre Huyghe, Akram 
Zaatari, Chrostodoulos Panayiotou, Ali Cherri, Alexandra Weirstall, Amber 
Onar, Antonios Bogadakis, Mike Bouchet, Carlos Motta, Carolina Caydeco, 
Driton Hajredini, Emily Mast & Carly Busta, Ethan Breckenridge, Fia 
Backstrom, Gabriel Lester, Haris Pellapaisiotis, Hila Peleg, Hubert 
Czerepok, Jakup Ferri, Jonah Freeman, Jose Leon Cerrilo, Julieta Aranda, 
Katina Saoulli, Katsura Kuniera, Koken Ergun, Liz Linden, Mandla Reuter, 
Munir Al Azawi, Pelin Uran, Polonca Lovsin, Regina Basha, Santiago Cucullu, 
Serap Kanay, Setareh Shahbazi, Shahab Fotouhi, Nico Dockx

Department 3
Curator - Florian Waldvogel, Assistant Curator - Benjamin Seibel
Participants: Julie Ault, Martin Beck, Silke Wagner, Japanther, Sebastian 
Lütgert, Thomas Edlinger, Sister Corita Kent, Fritz Ostermeyer, Dona Carmen, 
Jeronimo Voss, Gui Bonsiepe, Thomas Vizent, Nikolaus Hirsch, Moshe 
Zuckermann, Stefan Lehnert, Kisa, Alfred Schobert, Duncan McCowan, Katherine 
Hare, Melita Couta, Maria Efstathiou, Margarita Paraskevaidou, Anna 
Photiadou, Christopher Malapitan, Jens Strandberg, Bärbel Hartje, Gabriele 
Gaspari, Alexander Schikowski, Begum Erciyas, Can Sarvan Boranbay, Samuel 
Dowd, Andria Meletiou, Windianto Utomo, Claudia Di Lecce, Gaja Fugazza, 
Squid, Magnus Liistamo, Ralph Kistler, Robin Bhattachanya, Societe Realiste, 
Sussannah Mira, Craig Smith, Patrica Reed, Lasse Emlund Lorentzen, Lyn 
Lowenstein, Craig Leonard, Anthony Schrag, Inga Zimprich, Chicks on Speed, 
Petros Moris



Raul Moarquech Ferrera-Balanquet,MFA
Artist/Writer/Scholar/Curator
ektenel at hotmail.com