¿The Rest is History?

Curatorial concept

Through operating as a roving Biennial Manifesta must each time address and negotiate a different context with specific geographical, historical, aesthetical and political structures.  In this way, its curators are offered the opportunity, and the challenge, to engage with local, global and networked communities using a variety of platforms and methodologies.

In the vision of CPS, Manifesta 8 is a series of ‘transmissions’ that critically use artistic, relational and media(ted) strategies to explore ideas of what Spain / Europe is today and focus on its boundaries and relationship with Northern Africa encouraging a questioning perspective from viewers.  Within this context, CPS searches out and engenders dialogues, placing them in the public realm through the practices of media production, documentary, artistic research and aesthetic journalism.

CPS’s approach to curation encompasses (mass) media platforms such as television, internet, radio and newspapers, alongside other exhibition formats. Broadcast airtime, online streaming, printed matter, human relations and physical venues are all ‘channels’ in which we present different types of constructions. These media(ted) channels are an extremely interesting place to situate a series of projects for Manifesta 8. By challenging artists and contributors to explore new terrains beyond their usual practice, we question what is the media’s relationship to the construction of a local reality, how does it relate to ideas of truth, fact and history, and what are its possibilities for engaging with new audiences? And why do we need to expand the existing boundaries of art by introducing the notion of media?

In short, in/with Manifesta 8, CPS will work not only to expand media into art but also art into media.