The European biennial of contemporary art Manifesto 16 will open its doors on June 21, 2026 in the Ruhr basin, Germany. This new edition of the nomadic biennial will unfold its main activity in the cities of Duisburg, Essen, Bochum and Gelsenkirchen, which belong to one of the most densely populated urban and industrial regions in Europe.
Catalan participation is one of the highlights of this edition. In addition to the central role of the architect and urban planner Joseph Bohigasas curator and member of the artistic team —with the curatorial proposal This is not a church—, Manifesta 16 has four more projects linked to the professional context of Catalan culture, under the artistic programming For Whom the Bell Tolls?: Cabo San Roquecon LOUDER FAIL; Curro Claretcon This is not a church pew; Lawrence Barber y Montserrat Palacioscon How Long in Clapper’s Shadow Falls; y Penique productionscon Möglich Unvorhersehbar (Possibly unpredictable).
This presence, which has the support of the Ramon Llull Institute, consolidates Manifesta’s relationship with Catalan culture, which was already especially visible in the previous edition, Manifesta 15, held in the metropolitan area of Barcelona, which programmed more than thirty Catalan artists.
With more than 5.3 million inhabitants, the Ruhr basin stands out for its long tradition in the conversion of industrial spaces into prestigious cultural facilities. In this context, Manifesta 16 bets on a new focus of intervention: the calls Pantoffelnkirchen or neighborhood churches, formerly central spaces of community life and now, often, in disuse. In total, twelve of these buildings—mostly built during the post-war period and with brutalist aesthetics—will host the artistic program. The proposal arises from an investigation led by Joseph Bohigas which proposes to reinterpret these churches not as simple relics, but as incubators of social and cultural renewal in a moment marked by digitization and polarization.
This year’s edition will have 107 participants from 31 countries and can be visited until October 4.
Cabo San Roque they are Laia Torrents Carulla and Roger Aixut Sampietro, resident artists of the Lluís Coromina Foundation since 2015. Their work is developed around sound and its performative capabilities. His interventions question the exhibition space and formats; they also question the viewer when enabling this physical, temporal and conceptual space; sound and visual Their academic training (music, industrial engineering and architecture) leads them to use technology in all their works. In recent years they have exhibited their works in: CaixaForum + (2023), Center de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona (2023), Cité de l’Architecture (Paris, 2021), Center Georges Pompidou (Paris, 2020-2021) and Center for Contemporary Arts of Glasgow (2019).
about LOUDER FAILwhich will be installed in Sant Ludgerus (Bochum), explain: “The stadium is activated when no basket is scored or no goal is scored, when there is no win. In this playing field and lack of competition, the rules and the field are broken and modified by altering its elements, which function as the epicenter that brings together the various conceptual issues of the exhibition. Deformed goals, destandardized baskets and a stage that is also a podium, where the public before the show becomes a subject of competition. They surround themselves with a children’s hymn with fragments of ultra songs that defend their colors to the death“.
Curro Claret, This is not a church pew
Curro Claret studied at Elisava Facultad de Diseño e Ingeniería and at Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design. Since the end of the 1990s he has worked as an independent designer of furniture, objects, artefacts and interiors, focusing his practice on critically rethinking the ways of living, making and (re)using existing resources. His practice shows a particular interest in involving groups that, for different reasons, are marginalized, invisible and with few opportunities for participation, exploring forms of empowerment. Their work with these groups is carried out interchangeably with sectoral organizations such as Arrels Fundació, Tot Raval, Impulsem and We Are Water Foundation; cultural institutions such as the Centro de Arte 2 de Mayo and La Cuisine Center d’Art et de Design in Nègrepelisse; companies such as BD Barcelona, Camper and Ziclacities; and academic centers, mainly Elisava Faculty of Design and Engineering.
about This is not a church pewwhich will take place in Sant Ludgerous (Bochum) and St. Josef (Gelsenkirchen) explains: “The proposal wants to focus on exploring how the use of furniture can contribute to generating various opportunities for encounters. Through a process of dialogue and participation of people linked to the neighborhood, it is planned to design and build a collection of elements that deliberately invite people to meet and interact. The main focus is to transform disused church pews and, occasionally, other wooden elements also from churches. This shows the utilization of material and structural resources from that which has lost its original function, giving it a new use and a new life in a context that can respond to more urgent needs”.
Llorenç Barber and Montserrat Palacios, How Long a Clapper’s Shadow Falls
Bells, everyday objects and voices are the tools with which Lawrence Barber y Montserrat Palacios they explore new musical forms based on the resonances of the environment, giving rise to unique and deeply original proposals.
Llorenç Barber is a composer, instrumentalist and musical activist. He was the creator of the musical action group Actum in Valencia (1973), the Mundane Music Workshop (1978), the Flatus Vocis Trio (1987) and the cycles Ensems (1979), Paralelo Madrid (1992) and Nits d’Aielo i Art (1998). His unique and unorthodox creative scope encompasses improvisation, minimalism, multifocal music, phonetic poetry and, in particular, urban bell concerts, which he has organized in more than 150 cities around the world.
Montserrat Palacios was born in México, DF In 2000 she started studying difónico singing with Llorenç Barber and Thomas Clements. From 1999 to the present she collaborates with Barber in the ethnomusicological study and the artistic realization of his city concerts with bells, mobile bands and fireworks (aerial percussion), also interested in sound art and the intersection with the visual, plastic and intermediate arts. He currently practices improvisation, vocal performance and the extended voicefocusing his work on the use of objects (glasses, teapots, sewing machines, threads, etc.) in relation to the voice.
about How Long in Clapper’s Shadow Fallswhich can be heard in St. Josef (Gelsenkirchen) state: “The sounds of the bells are close, concrete, always varied and often insistent. They encourage the fiesta, the open air, the street, the collective culmination of the kermesse —”organized with beneficent ends”—, something like a desacralized church mass, now branched out, expanded, a sound that walks and unfolds at every bend or slope. This turns multifocality into a serpentine, endless sound fabric – a voracious and gigantic coming and going that bequeaths to all. A proposal without limits, which acquires new lives beyond each bridge and each stream. Bell music is, rather, mega-music. His listening is always original“.
Penique productions, con Möglich Unvorhersehbar (Possibly unpredictable)
Penique productions was founded in Barcelona in 2007 by Sergi Arbusà as a project focused on ephemeral installation. Since 2008, Penique also operates from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Each project begins by identifying a unique place to build a personalized piece: the inflatable. The “balloon”, made of a light plastic, grows and expands as the air becomes the support structure and forces the inflatable to grow, consuming everything in its path. The space is transformed with a new light, a new texture and a new monochrome color. The viewer is transported through the sensory experience to an environment that is both familiar and new.
about Möglich Unvorhersehbar (Possibly unpredictable)which will take place in St. Josef (Gelsenkirchen), explain: “The work consists of a large white inflatable that occupies the central nave of the church, dialoguing with the architecture of the space. Inside, you can experience the performative character of the piece, which unifies the space in texture and color, while, outside, the sculptural version of the work reveals its inflatable nature through the protrusions that form between the columns. The central idea is to transform the church into a space for the use and enjoyment of the local population; a space open to the public, open to be inhabited in the way that everyone understands that it should be inhabited and used. A work that deactivates the church and is generously offered to the local public to make it their own, use it and enjoy it”.
